The Secret History

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Book!
Review: This one kept me up late at night because I couldn't put it down! The characters, the plot, the dialogue was wonderful! You sympathize, fear, hate and admire each person described. Fantastic, intelligent book!

Rating:
Summary: Oh grow up!
Review: I was more than a little annoyed with this book. I have spent a lot of time on campuses and among academics and Donna Tartt confirms what I've come to believe about that environment: it's unhealthy, ingrown, and it breeds narcicissism like nobody's business. The main character is about as unsympathetic as they come, rejecting parents notwithstanding (maybe they had their reasons now that I've gotten to know him.) The characters that flutter around him are even less appealing. I wanted to reach into the pages of the book and snap my fingers in their pinched little faces. "Wake up!" I would have said. "You are not the center of the universe." I've read other books by Tartt and found them to be engaging and meaningful. This one asks the reader to bear with the characters' self-obsession for hundreds of pages. I quit about two-thirds of them.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent -
Review: First novel that I just could not put down in a long time - loved it -

Rating:
Summary: Pagan sensibilities in the modern world.
Review: I picked up this book because of the intriguing group of main characters, specifically Classics majors, as I was a Latin and ancient history major in college. I wanted to see if the writer could capture the eccentric nature of many who are drawn to study this field. In that respect, I think she succeeded. The characters are as interesting and detached from the modern world and mores, dismissive really, as many I have known.

That may sound elitist, but I believe part of the commercial appeal of the book is its offering of a voyeuristic glimpse of that elite world, as sympathetically described by that most banal, modern and hollow of all Americans: the poor Californian, Richard Pepen.

In that respect, it's similar to other works that try to capture the spirt of those times by looking at the experiences of students at elite schools. It reminded me of the movie the Dead Poets Society which, like the Professor in this book, offered members of a burned-out culture admittance to a select circle. In that circle was offered the possibility of transcendant redemption through discovery of a passionate or more real world. In that movie, it was 19th century poetry; in this book, it is the Classical world, most directly accessed by the pagan Dionysiac mysteries.

I haven't read all the reviews, but something that may have been overlooked is the spiritual component of the work. It wasn't on their first attempt that they succeeded in having a Bacchanal. It took effort and, more importantly, belief for it to happen. And, it did. But, Bacchus is an amoral god, devoid of concerns beyond the pleasures and animal nature of the flesh. They submitted themselves to a god of the ancient world, and he claimed his followers. I wish the author had spent more time on this because I found the implications of it the most interesting part of the whole work.

It is not a surprise, in this framework, that the characters went on to do what they did, nor that they suffered tragically for it. (In Greek tragedy, guilt is more often determined by action rather than intent). The characters are condemned, but also, in a way, innocent by reason of deific possession.

The second murder, of Bunny Corcoran, in this light might almost be said to be Apollonian (to sound like Camille Paglia) in comparison: calculated, based on risks to them. Interestingly, it may, in fact, be that their punishment for the wild murder in the woods is to conduct a cold-blooded killing of a friend. They suffered no guilt or remorse for the first, but were haunted by the second.

Or, it may be that there was, and should be, no guilt for the first murder, and the author's intention is the juxtaposition of the characters' emotional reactions to an "innocent" murder vs. a "guilty" one. And exactly which is which? Remind me again...

The novel plays with ancient and modern concepts of justice. It also plays with the idea of "getting away with it" while having guilt eat one's soul.

Digressions aside, I found the plot compelling enough to continue reading, though I often asked myself why since there was a general lack of character development (there is only character dissolution).

It reminded me vaguely of the Ripley books (Patricia Highsmith).

Rating:
Summary: de gustibus non est disputandum
Review: It's about the aesthetic. The irony of something we suspect is acquired, yet when affected produces regrettable effects of varying consequence. Controversy? De gustibus non est disputandum.

[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Machines Making Machines
Review: The main flaw I found in this novel is that I found the protagonist, Richard, to be unconvincing. There is something odd with the way Tartt chose to make him a man, his voice is more the voice of the author's and it doesn't quite succeed.

Novelists such as Donna Tartt, like many others, have a very common problem. Yes, they are well-educated, well-read, and intelligent, but they lack true grit. Perhaps it is a lack of life experience and because they gain much inspiration from other literature i.e. second-hand knowledge. This gives an air of falsehood to the work and never really hits on an instinctive, gut level.

This novel will appeal to those similar to Tartt and be the book "I wish I wrote" since it shows off so much education and knowledge. But this novel ultimately comes across as a potboiler, despite all its literary pretensions.

Rating:
Summary: An Odd Bunch
Review: The Secret History is an exceptional novel that takes the reader on a long and frustrating but fascinating ride. Donna Tartt puts a modern spin on what seems to be a Greek tragedy. When I first began to read this novel, I thought I was not going to like it because I could not relate to these characters that were so unlike any other characters that I am used to seeing. As I started to read further into the book, I found myself connecting more and more with the six unusual college students, Henry, Charles, Camilla, Francis, Bunny, and especially the narrator, Richard. I found myself becoming totally involved in Tartt's world of insane but realistic characters.

The novel held my attention with the constant anticipation of what was going to happen next. Who exactly are these reclusive and odd, yet intelligent people? Donna Tartt slowly and articulately unfolds her novel with a great deal of description. Her extreme detail allows the reader to become fully involved in the lives of her characters. From one intense hang over to the next, the reader experiences the constant ups and downs of the characters' days.

Through Richard's eyes, I went from being intrigued by the inner circle of students, to loving them, to hating them, and in the end, feeling sorry for them all. At first, they seemed to be living in a place that was wonderful and where nothing could possibly go wrong. But when they found themselves immersed in a dilemma they could not get out of, each effort they made to free themselves of their burden only brought them deeper into trouble. Toward the end of the novel, I found myself constantly frustrated with the way they lived their lives. Each of their lies was covered up with a bigger lie. It was hard to figure out who each character really was underneath all the deception. It was very easy to get wrapped up in all of the drama and tension between the characters. With all the drinking and drugs they did, by the time I finished the book, I wanted to check myself into the Betty Ford Clinic. Although I enjoyed the book, I felt very worn out and exhausted by the constant changes of emotion.

At the end of The Secret History, I did not at first really know what to think. I knew that for the most part I enjoyed the book but for some reasons I was a bit disturbed. I was sort of astounded by what these characters did, not only with the murders they committed but also by the way they lived their daily lives. It is very easy to be put off by someone who is selfish and bizarre but for the most part everyone is. These characters are at times hard to take because they are very realistic and human. Although many people may not go to the extremes that these characters did, no one can deny the need to satisfy his or her own self-interest, which in the end is what these characters were doing. They were looking for any way to get out of a bad situation. It is scary to think that this story may not be so far fetched.

Tartt's writing style was so captivating that for a short time I became part of this peculiar group of people. No matter how strange, annoying or mean they were I still found myself feeling compassion for them. I think it is the narrator, Richard, who makes this story work. His initial statement about his "fatal flaw" to see all things as picturesque, is what ties the whole story together. The reader experiences Richard's love and compassion for these people and cannot help but to feel the same love and compassion for them even if they are seriously flawed.

Rating:
Summary: The Secret Tragedy
Review: In the Poetics, Aristotle gives us the reason that Donna Tartt's "murder mystery," The Secret History, is so enchanting to its readers:

"And it is also natural for all to delight in works of imitation. ...though the objects themselves may be painful to see, we delight to view the most realistic representations of them in art, the forms for example of the lowest animals and of dead bodies" (1448b - lines 8-13).

The fact that Tartt reveals to her readers on the first page who is killed and who are the culprits necessitates the existence of something else as the main focal point of the story. Granted, we gradually come to find out the where and why and when of the murder and each moment is as suspenseful as the next, but Tartt's novel is unconventional in that it's main concern is not the murder itself, but the small steps that make it possible for a human being to commit it, and most importantly, the overwhelming aesthetics of it all. In this way, The Secret History is not unlike the great tragedies of old from Oedipus to The Great Gatsby.

According to Aristotle, the subject of a tragedy should neither be an overly good nor bad person; but rather "the intermediate kind of personage, a man not pre-eminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune...is brought upon him not by vice and depravity but by some error in judgment" (Poetics 1452b - line 33 -- 1453a - line 10). Tartt has followed this framework perfectly. At least in Richard's own view and description of his motivations and actions, we are meant to feel pity for his "fatal flaws" and feel as if his life could have been ours as easily as his. The catharsis we feel for his tragically flawed life is dominated by his unreliability, his limited, subjective narration. Nonetheless, whether or not Richard is depraved or not--in his situation, would any of us tell a different story? Richard's flaw is ultimately his perception of his Greek Class (his fellow murderers)--in his own words it is "[his] own fatal tendency to make interesting people good" (466).

The overarching unsolved mystery of the novel is the inscrutable subjectivity of Henry, Francis, Camilla, Charles, and especially Julian. Everything that Richard was an outsider to--the bacchanal, the secretive camaraderie, the exclusivity, the money and privilege, even the murder itself--was the object of his desire and imitation. His quite natural insecurity and his immature need for acceptance are his bane. The bane of all of them--once Richard has been assimilated into the group--is their inability to separate art from reality. To these Greek student elitists, death and ecstatic Dionysian frenzy evoke the same feeling: awe, excitement and terror. The harshness of beauty and the beauty of the grotesque compel them and drive them to unforeseeable ends. Tartt's lyrical language describing the surrealism of Richard's experience demonstrates such succumbing to beauty in trauma:

"Sometimes, when there's been an accident and reality is too sudden and strange to comprehend, the surreal will take over. Action slows to a dreamlike glide, frame by frame; the motion of a hand, a sentence spoken, fills an eternity. Little things-a cricket on a stem, the veined branches on a leaf-are magnified, brought from the background in achingly clear focus" (89).

Since we only get Richard's thoughts, we could easily be led to view the others as depraved and sick and our protagonist as the victim, but Tartt doesn't allow this. Richard's love of the others, even in his alienation from them, shows us that he sees them all as fated and tragic figures. After all, aren't we all slaves to our education in some way? Sure we draw our own conclusions and make our own decisions, but aren't these based fundamentally on all we have seen, heard, felt, talked about and experienced; subsequently, aren't all of these things external to us?

Tartt makes a great case for the tragic character of human experience, one of which Aristotle would have been proud. Is it not our imitation, ultimately, that leads to our actions? "Imitation is natural to man from childhood, one of his advantages over the lower animals beings this, that he is the most imitative creature in the world, and learns at first by imitation" (Poetics 1448b lines 5-8).

Rating:
Summary: The Characters' Secret History
Review: Donna Tartt's The Secret History succeeds in capturing the attention of its readers through the development of characters. The 'secret history' refers to the murder of a farmer by four of the main characters while performing a secret, ritualistic bacchanal that enables them to escape from their selves. However, the more intriguing 'secret history' involves the mystery and fatal flaws of each of the characters. Although this novel is fairly long, it is an easy read and leaves the reader pensive and reflective.
The study of ancient Greek and the classics consumes the group to the extent that they have lost touch with reality. Although they are very intelligent and bright in the shelter of their Greek class, they do not know how to survive in the real world. They seek to escape their emotional problems through drugs, alcohol, and sex. In fact, they use drugs or alcohol on a daily basis and most of them have had sexual encounters with each other, even the twins were incestuous. Each group member attempts to hide a part of his or her identity. The class is an amalgamation of misfits.
The main characters remain slightly aloof from the world. Their link with the ancient world and the murder alienates them from present-day society. Richard explains his friendships with the group members as:
'.this was why I felt so close to the others in the Greek class. They, too, knew this beautiful and harrowing landscape, centuries dead; they'd had the same experience of looking up from their books with fifth-century eyes and finding the world disconcertingly sluggish and alien, as if it were not their home. (Tartt 189-190).
The narrator, Richard, shares an intimate bond with these students, yet there is the disillusioning sense of never really knowing them at all, especially Henry. Richard lies to the group about his family and childhood before even entering the class. Although the group is united because of their interest in Ancient Greek, Richard feels the need to pretend to be something he is not. He is embarrassed of his unfulfilling childhood, his selfish family, and his meager lifestyle. He is only fooling himself because everyone in the group realizes Richard is poor and accepts him for who he truly is. Richard is enigmatic because the reader does not fully understand his interactions with others. He is well-liked by his close friends and others like Judy Poovey, but Tartt does not describe his contribution to the friendships and why people invite him to join them.
Henry's cold manner and intelligence are human elements in need of warmth and freedom. His reliance on Julian as a foundation in his life indicates this and when Julian abandons the group, he is the most despondent and depressed. The reader is left to imagine Henry's motivations for his suicide. Richard does not think Henry did it out of desperation or fear. He says:
The business with Julian was heavy on his mind; it had impressed him deeply. I think he felt the need to make a noble gesture, something to prove to us and to himself that it was in fact possible to put those high cold principles which Julian had taught us to use. Duty, piety, loyalty, sacrifice. I remember his reflection in the mirror as he raised the pistol to his head. His expression was one of rapt concentration, of triumph, almost, a high diver rushing to the end of the board eyes tight, joyous, waiting for the big splash. (Tartt 509-510).
Everyone in the group idealizes Julian and he is the father they wish they had. His associations with celebrities and royalty intrigue them, yet they do not truly know him. Furthermore, he is supposedly enamored with his students, yet he deserts them as soon as he discovers the truth. Towards the end, Richard views Julian in a different light. He describes him by saying:
But the twinkle in Julian's eye, as I looked at him now, was mechanical and dead. It was as if the charming theatrical curtain had dropped away and I saw him for the first time as he really was: not the benign old sage, the indulgent and protective good-parent of my dreams, but ambiguous, a moral neutral, whose beguiling trappings concealed a being watchful, capricious, and heartless. (Tartt 477).
In addition, Francis hides his sexual orientation even though it is no longer taboo as in the past. Everyone in the group is aware that he is homosexual and he has experimented sexually with Charles and Richard. Francis ends up marrying a woman he cannot stand because his grandfather threatens to cut off his money. Francis attempts suicide because he is distraught over the coerced marriage and views killing himself a better solution than earning his own money and having the freedom to live his life as he chooses.
Bunny is very arrogant and condescending. He thinks that he is above everyone else, yet mooches off of everybody. He is perceptive and realizes other people's insecurities. He does not miss an opportunity to insult and embarrass other members. He constantly comments about the twins' incestuous relationship, Francis' sexual preferences, and Richard's background. However, he is probably the most insecure of all because of his bizarre family and that is why he takes pride in other people's misery.
Charles and Camilla are probably the most underdeveloped characters. The twins put on a happy façade, but they have a strange relationship, which is sexual, unhealthy, and abusive. Charles is an alcoholic and is very possessive of his sister. Camilla is in love with Henry, but keeps their relationship a secret until the very end. As they grow older, Charles runs away with a married woman, just as he tried to escape Bunny's murder by abusing alcohol. Camilla ends up lonely and torn.
Minor characters are used to maintain a sense of rationality, a reminder of the 'normal' world outside the transcendent Greek class. Richard's acquaintance with people outside of the Greek class is what keeps him grounded. He spends a lot of time in Judy Poovey's room, which serves as a refuge for him especially after the murder. Richard is only able to scratch the surface of the Greek character of whom Henry epitomizes. At the end Richard will prove the greatest at survival because of his greater connection to the reality of modern civilization. Initially, the group is able to manipulate Richard, and it is only though indifference towards education and cogitation that Richard understands the group and resists succumbing to their demands.
The ancient Greek, which the students study, contrasts with the predictability of contemporary living. The narrator is left somewhere in between, perhaps ultimately more in the modern but with an awareness and appreciation of the ancient Greek's legacy and the legacy of the group's past.
After the six students take part in the murder of Bunny, the evil takes a toll on each of their lives, as well as, their teacher, Julian. Their lives are changed forever and their friendship tragically dissolves. Paranoia and suspicion hover over their relationships and they live in fear of betrayal.
The characters in The Secret History succeed in creating an enthralling murder mystery, an exploration of the nature of evil, and a comparison of classical and modern attitudes, ethics, and ideals.

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful, intense, homoerotic, capital L Literature
Review: I started reading this book at the beginning of a semester at college. I had to stop everything at school for a couple days to finish this book, because I knew I could not read text for my classes while this book held its evil grip on me. It falls into the intimate circle of books that have moved me: East of Eden, Atlas Shrugged, Demian, The Corrections.

What a scene it is at the home of the victim before the funeral--the killers dying inside with their secret. What a heart wrenching dissolution of five lives. Read it!