The Little Friend

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: One of the best books I have ever read. If you want a quick easy read, or another "Secret History" (also excellent but completely different) this is not the book for you. It is not a murder mystery and not every plot detail is neatly tied up at the end. But if the idea of Southern Gothic usually makes you roll your eyes, yet you can comprehend Faulkner at least on some level, then you should appreciate this rich, complex, and yes, lengthy book.

Rating:
Summary: Worthy of attention, but readers beware
Review: The Little Friend is the type of book that could get nominated for the National Book Award and yet will not please many of the readers who enjoyed The Secret History. Tartt is a gifted writer, breathing life into an engaging twelve-year-old protagonist who sets out to solve a murder in the midst of two different families in the South. Local media (e.g. the San Francisco Chronicle) has been dying to give away the ending and finally did last week, probably with the blessing of Tartt herself, in town for an interview. But the ending is beside the point, as is the plot for the most part.
This book is driven by its characters, their language and rich inner lives hidden from the adults in the household, and their often outrageous actions - children hauling guns and poisonous snakes around town, outwitting a family of drug dealers. Harriet is a bit of Huck Finn and Scout Finch in a modern world, but in a much heavier epic which I found too tedious to enjoy completely despite many exquisite passages.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not The Secret History
Review: Title of the review says it all. Sophomore jinx. Worth the wait, a good book, but not nearly as good as the first.