The Little Friend

Rating:
Summary: A decent read...
Review: I really liked this book despite the main character Harriet. The book built up momentum slowly but by the end I couldn't read fast enough. I do suggest that anyone who wants to read Donna Tartt should start with The Little Friend and then read The Secret History. I think you're bound to be disappointed if you read TLF before TSH. And I strongly recommend The Secret History. Its excellent.

Rating:
Summary: AAAACK!
Review: Most reviewers here have hit the proverbial nail on the head regarding Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend". I only wish I'd read them before I wasted money and time on this rambling, long-winded, unresolved tome. Hire an editor, Donna baby, please!

Rating:
Summary: Neither Little, Nor Friendly
Review: After reading this novel, I now appreciate the old cliché: "Don't judge a book by its cover," because The Little Friend is neither little nor friendly. From the very beginning, the novel looks to be a promising, suspenseful murder mystery, but as the reader will soon find out, that is not even close to the truth.
For the length of the novel, the main character, Harriet, is involved in the attempt to find the murderer of her older brother, Robin, who died when she was only a young baby. Even though Harriet is only twelve years old, it is still reasonable that she would want to find the murderer in the hopes of restoring some type of order to her dysfunctional family. But this is where the plausibility of the story ends. Following this initial premise, a series of one extraordinary event after the other ensues until the final pages of the book. Any of these events in and of themselves would still maintain an element of believability, but it seems that such a string of possible but improbable events and coincidences seems highly unlikely. The author stretches the limits of the concept of "suspension of disbelief" and takes it to a whole new level. Although this novel is a work of fiction, there needs to be some elements of reality in order to maintain the readers' attention in such an outlandish tale.
In addition, her writing style is so long and laboriously clumsy, full of every miniscule detail possibly imaginable, that one could assimilate it to the death grip of a boa constrictor- once it has its prey in its grip, it slowly, patiently waits for it to exhale and gradually increases the pressure until its victim can no longer take in any of the sweet oxygen once enjoyed- eventually, as if effortlessly it kills and brings with it sweet death-the end of suffering. By the time I was done reading 624 pages of long rambling sentences like that, I wished for death. Every detail was mentioned every single time; I was explained what shrubbery was, how the Trans Am looked in the sun, and the past as well as current conditions of the water tower (just to mention a few) on so many occasions that it began to get monotonous.
As if all of this was not enough to discourage any sane purveyor of quality literature, the plot was explained with such jumps, hops, and skips that many elements did not seem relevant in the end (good editors must be hard to find). At the time, it seemed that every element could be important in the process of all the outlandish interaction of an entire town in Harriet's rambling search for Robin's murderer. I felt that almost as much attention was given to each and every support character that ever dared to stick his or her head out of the window of his or her own house as Harriet casually walked down the street, regardless to how pertinent to the main plot these characters were. This book should not have been an exercise in memory to see if the reader could recall every detail about too many characters. But for all of her attention to long, winding, intricately-woven events and character interventions, the ending was terrible. It was like a bad movie where the viewer arrives at the ending too quickly with ridiculous twists of plot in the last minute to arrive a totally unreasonable conclusion. More action occurred in the last 100 pages than in all of the first 524.
One last note to mention was the terrible handling of race and class issues. Although these are important issues to deal with, they were stereotyped so badly that the characters seemed too comical to take serious and therefore invoke any kind of sympathy for the exaggerated victims of prejudice. Instead of the maid calling the mother Charlotte, I was all the while expecting her to say: " Yeees mizz Daizy. Anthin else I's can do fo' ya."
In short, unless you want a long, drawn-out analysis of more characters than you ever wanted to meet, with no plot to sufficiently hold your interest for any extended period of time, and every painstaking detail of everything and every event that ever occurred in the small town of Alexandria, don't bother to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Little Friend
Review: If you have yet to read Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend," I have one word for you: don't! Despite the apparent rave reviews on the back cover, the reality falls far short of any expectations you may have conceived from reading the overzealous synopsis. Is Robin Dufresnes rather savagely murdered and strung up in a tree in his backyard? Yes. Does Harriet Dufresnes, twelve years later, attempt to find her brother's killer? Yes. Does Harriet really cross any race lines or burrow deep into her family history? No. After 624 pages, is Harriet any closer to uncovering the identity of the murderer than on page one? Most certainly not. Even in this day and age where a "non-ending" or irresolution of a story is accepted in literature, I still feel that by the end of "The Little Friend," Tartt has cheated us out of the ending we so patiently endured the rest of the novel for. However, it is not entirely Tartt's fault if we find ourselves unsatisfied. "The slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge obtained of lesser things." So reads the epigraph by Saint Thomas Aquinas, which Tartt uses as an excuse not to provide a satisfactory sense of closure. Don't say she didn't warn us!

But just because the ending is no good, that doesn't mean there aren't any redeeming qualities to the novel. While the stor focuses mostly on Harriet's misfortunes and strong will, the development of a number of the minor characters provides some entertaining relief from the frequently sedate storyline. The character of Hely is easy to relate to with his undying devotion to, and respect for, Harriet. Throughout the novel, Hely follows Harriet's every whim, from breaking and entering, to Grand Theft Animal, to assault with a deadly creature, to disposal of evidence. The comic relief comes most frequently at the expense of the Ratliff family, the dysfunctional redneck meth-dealing taxidermists. And, of course, it is easy to despise Mr. Dial, the used car selling, Sunday school teacher who befriends old widow parishoners from the church in order to take over their estates when they die. These less developed, yet equally important, characters are responsible for some of the most memorable aspects of the novel: drug induced quarrelling between the Ratliff brothers, Hely relieving himself on the carpet, and, of course, a confrontation between a flying King Cobra and the driver of a blue Trans-Am. Theses bits of comic relief can almost make up for some of the slower, irrelevant-seeming aspects of the story. Almost.

Overall, "The Little Friend" isn't bad...it's just not particularly good. My purpose here isn't to bash the author or the novel in any way, merely to provide my thoughts. And, personally, I feel more than a little bit cheated, having spent such a large amount of my time, only to reach the end of the novel and be left guessing about the outcome. While the open-ended story is considered "artsy" or "deep" (for lack of a better word) in a short story, I feel that it is more than unfair to the reader of a 624 page novel. The author owes it to the reader. The story itself is not a bad one, certain aspects like Danny Ratliff's concern for his brother Curtis, or Harriet's love for Ida are touching, and many others are quite entertaining, even suspenseful, but I don't feel that it is worth the trouble to mine the rough of the novel to find those few diamonds.

Rating:
Summary: The Ups and Downs of a Little Friend
Review: In an extraordinary twist of the coming-of-age story, Donna Tartt shows the many sides of a single character and of life in the South in her book, "The Little Friend." In what seems to just be an average story of mystery, readers are also taken into another world in which an individual finds out who she really is. At first glance, the novel is a long-winded portrayal of the South and how it affects the actions and thoughts of a family; delving deeper into the pages, however, I found myself wondering whether my feelings should be sympathetic or outraged due to the unfolding of incidents and events.

The novel begins slowly, but is informative in its way of setting the entire plot. The main character, Harriet Dufresnes, is about to leave her childhood at the age of twelve and while spending time with her family, finds that life was much better before her brother was murdered when she a mere infant. In the summer before becoming a teenager, she sets out on a mission to find the person to whom she can blame her brother's death on and in hopes of causing her family happiness once again. In her journey through the darker streets of Mississippi and aided only by one possible piece of evidence from a maid at her family's house, Harriet finds herself in a tornado of uncertainty, adventure, and self-searching. Her determination is great and never-ending throughout the novel; despite the fact that her only piece of evidence is a simple thought process that cannot really be proven, she still goes out into a world unknown to herself to try and avenge her brother's death.

Following the introduction of the setting and the characters, the novel turns into a mixture of fascinating events and superfluous descriptions, causing me to wonder where exactly I stand on whether or not I enjoyed Tartt's latest writing. The events Harriet goes through and all that she has to endure holds attention and makes the novel a page-turner, a book that I couldn't put down for the mere reason of wanting to know what happens next. On the other hand, Tartt's descriptions tend to be excessive in its wording, bringing to mind the question of "Is more always better?" Personally, I feel as if I could do without the unnecessary extra sentences that seemed to repeat previous thoughts and ideas, but it leaves me wondering whether the length should even be noticed in a book that chronicles a time in a young girl's life that readers can most definitely relate to.

All in all, Donna Tartt has delivered a book that reached into the soul and into the mind; she has presented a tale of innocence wrapped around the everyday evils of the world. Despite my doubts of Tartt's overuse of words, I believe this book to be a wonderful rendition of mystery, love, determination, and growing up. Tartt's writing is captivating in the sense that in spite of the many closures she brings forth in the closing pages, "The Little Friend" leaves me with the need and want for more pieces from the author and also motivates me to read other works by her. The novel left me with the question "Why is nothing easy in this world?" lingering in my mind, yet at the same time, it reminds me of the work that is involved with living and being an individual. It is a reminder that readers can relate to; and this novel is a solid indication of that without being too much of a preacher.

Rating:
Summary: I really wanted to rate this one higher...
Review: I'm sure there's a good book hiding somewhere in Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. Weighing in at over six hundred pages, I'm not quite sure how "little" this Friend actually is. What I am sure of is that I'm completely confident that there's an engaging story, whether or not it's the one described on the book jacket. However, after reading the novel, I'm honestly not sure if I could pick out an actual story from the sheer excess of meandering, pointless prose that seems to dominate the book. Where's an editor when you need one?

The general premise of the book is about a young girl named Harriet searching for the murderer of her brother, who died when she was only a baby. Whether or not she ever locates the killer becomes more or less subplot to the bigger story, a coming of age novel combined with a portrait of a small southern town. As Harriet encounters puberty, her quest for information about her brother becomes a quest for information about who she is as a person. By meeting the people around Harriet who shape her life, we see who allows her to develop which traits.

Harriet one of the most fully developed characters that I've ever read. I wish that there was something to put that character towards because she is fascinating. There's never a moment that I felt she did not behave in a true and honest manner indicative of her character. Furthermore, I found myself actually caring for this character and getting firm opinions regarding her decisions and situations. Her relationship with Hely, a young man of the same age (around twelve years old), seemed to be a very honest situation that anyone who has gone through puberty can attest to relating to.

The problem is that Tartt never seems to make up her mind regarding this story. Is it a murder mystery, as the summary would suggest? Is it a coming of age story for a young girl? Is it a descriptive narrative of a small, southern town for our consideration? Plot lines are introduced sporadically and often with little to no purpose to the greater story, whatever it maybe be. Where then would a random methamphetamine lab surface in any of the above plot lines? The novel reads like a writer's notebook of ideas, none fully connected and most sprawling in some sort of verbose stream of consciousness that takes us over six hundred pages to whimper out in a mediocre conclusion.
There are several highlights of the book, namely, the quirky and darkly entertaining Ratliff family who arrive somewhere around the middle of the story. The passages about Danny or Eugene are some of the most enjoyable in the book. It feels as if Tartt has really hit her stride in creating these characters. In a lesser work they would be one dimensional or worse, treated as comic or underdeveloped characters. Tartt really shows them the respect demanded to make the characters work with the novel.

All told, this is not a bad book. It's a beautifully described and fully developed world. Unfortunately, no matter how pretty it is, there's just nothing really going on for the majority of the time spent reading it. And that's the real shame.

Rating:
Summary: An Unconvetional Mystery With No Easy Answers
Review: Donna Tartt's The Little Friend is an unconventional mystery novel. From looking at the book jacket you could easily draw the conclusion that this book will be like so many others in the mystery genre; instead Tartt neglects the murder mystery plot for a much tougher mystery, self-realization. Tartt's 'heroine' Harriet is a complex character who had me flip-flopping thought the novel between sympathy and dislike. Harriet is flawed yet has a passion that is admirable. The novel uses heavy description to create a world that is very realistic and does not offer up any easy answers.

The Little Friend gets off to a slow start in the equally slow town of Alexandria, Mississippi. It is summertime and our heroine, Harriet Cleve Durfesnes, has decided to occupy her time by solving a twelve-year-old murder. It was twelve years ago, when she was only an infant, that her brother Robin was found hanging from a tree in the back yard. If Harriet's family was not eccentric and self-pitying enough before the murder they certain are after. The novel provides ample background on the Celves and the Dufresnes. Harriet's family is an interesting cast of characters but I found myself tiring of hearing about them, perhaps because they are so pathetic. Her mother and sister are asleep most of the novel, her father lives in another city with another woman, and then there are the Cleve sisters.

Harriet's Grandmother and three Great-Aunts are a large part of the novel and Harriet's life. Since Harriet's mother has been more or less catatonic with grief since Robin's death the old Cleve sisters have had an active role in raising Harriet. I have never read a novel where a thirteen-year-old girl spends so much time with people over 60. Tartt makes it believable through the depressing description of Harriet's home life. Her mother is totally out of touch and Allison, Harriet's sister, seems equally flighty. The old Cleve sisters are also out of touch, but in a different way. Libby, Tat, Edith, and Adelaide would like to believe that they are still a part of southern high society. Though they are depicted as educated women they have chosen to overlook the fact that the old south is, as the saying goes, gone with the wind. Libby, Tat, and Adelaide cling onto relics of their long destroyed southern mansion and lifestyle. They all worship their long deceased father who appears to me to have been, for lack of a better word, a wacko. However Edith, Harriet's grandmother, does not portray the helpless southern bell. Does this make her more likeable? Not really. She holds the power in the family and is in some ways reminiscent of Scarlet O'Hara; she is bull-headed, not particularly emotional, and the one the family turns to when trouble strikes. Despite their flaws there were moments when I could sympathize with the family. The old aunts always act lovingly to Harriet and Allison; there is almost always an open door for the girls. In the end the family is flawed yet believable. The attention Tartt pays on the life of this family, though sometimes boring, pays off. By the end it seems almost the necessary background.

As Harriet delves into her search for Robin's killer a number of other characters enter and the plot picks up, sort of. If you are waiting for the typical sleuth novel to get rolling on a series of clues you are going to be disappointed. Harriet's mission is based on a sole clue given to her by the family maid, Ida Rhew. Ida tells Harriet that the day of the murder a no-good boy named Danny Ratliff was hanging around the house. From the moment she learns of Danny's presence the day of the murder Harriet is consumed with revenging Robin's murder. While Harriet is certainly premature in her conclusion the conviction with which she goes after the 'killer' is admirable. Less admirable is the way Harriet takes Ida for granted until it is too late and her haughty attitude towards the unfortunate Lasharon.

The novel greatly improves when Danny Ratliff and the rest of the Ratliff clan enter the picture. Just when I thought I could take no more of reading about old southern ladies enter the Ratliff brothers: the ex-con turned preacher, the ex-con/ex-mental patient/ex-Vietnam Vet turned meth addict and conspiracy theorist, and (my favorite) Danny. Call me a complete sucker for the bad boy with (what I see as) a hidden heart of gold but I felt more empathy towards Danny than Harriet ever inspired in me. The novel was worth reading for his story alone. This is not to dismiss Harriet's story. While reading about Harriet's apparent blindness to the racism and class-ism of her world annoyed me she seemed to begin to realize something wasn't right. Harriet is more confused about the flaws both she and her world posses but at least she is aware they exist. I hope she does but in this novel, as in life, there are no easy answers and we can't be quit sure how it will turn out.

Rating:
Summary: The not so little, but still good friend
Review: The Little Friend is a novel that gnaws at the underpinnings of life and understanding. Speaking directly to the developments of adolescence and the symbolic stages that every person endures, this novel questions the ways in which adulthood is achieved and encountered rather than just witnessed. Not a mere mystery novel where plot constructions and suspense determine the final outcome and society as well as the reader is returned to a state of grace, Donna Tartt addresses the reality of the world as a subjective search for conclusion that often leaves us alone in the dark. Set against the backdrop of the Deep South, where tradition, family names, and social "agreements" hold life in a delicate balance between antiquity and modernity, honor and shame, acceptance and subversion, The Little Friend chronicles a young girl's most important summer as she more consciously discovers herself and the community that shapes her existence.
Harriet DuFresnes' journey of self-discovery does not begin as such, but rather as an investigation into the unsolved, untimely, and mysterious murder of her older brother, an event for which she was present as a toddler. Surrounding this historical family event exists only pieces of information because her family, perhaps the greatest local historians of Alexandria, Mississippi, withholds through convention and proper Southern etiquette the details of this harrowing event. Donna Tartt establishes an insoluble mystery, much to the chagrin of many readers expecting a logical and revealing conclusion to this investigation as if Harriet were Nancy Drew and her sidekick Hely was one of the Hardy boys, through which an even greater truth concerning Harriet and Alexandria can be revealed. The Little Friend does not therefore offer a conclusion that allows order to be returned to society, but it does grant the reader a chance to truly observe the struggle surrounding familial history and personal discovery through eloquent prose and breathtaking suspense.
Adding to the vast expanse of Southern literature, Donna Tartt paints the town of Alexandria as complex and bewildering for a young girl like Harriet, as is Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County for Quentin Compson. Creating such a town, which is clearly not as convoluted as Faulkner's but intricate nonetheless, complete with class differentiations, alternating stylistic dialogues, and social histories, Tartt demonstrates her literary prowess through magnificent style and command. The Little Friend is not meant for the mystery novel enthusiast, but rather calls to those in search of contemporary literature that engages the reader in a discussion on the trappings of familial history and misconception. Watching Harriet's world unravel throughout this novel endears her character, as well as frustrates the reader, while simultaneously developing the theme of self-discovery, which fascinated this reader and catalyzed introspection.
After reading Donna Tartt's The Little Friend, I am inspired and excited to read her earlier novel The Secret History, and although unfair comparisons have been made between these two I am sure that Tartt's stylistic prose will once again capture my imagination. On a whole this novel is highly recommended for all those seeking a story of considerable import and consistent entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: An intriguing read
Review: The reader is led to expect a murder mystery being solved, instead we find that the murder of Robin has devastated his family and Harriet, his little sister, is going to avenge his murder and thus be the hero of her family, saving it from absolute destruction. Unfortunately, she builds her case against Danny Ratcliff on unreliable evidence and thus begins the tale of revenge gone awry.
I thought this book was a wonderfully written tale. There were no easy answers in this story and certainly no heroes, just flawed humans.
I read The Secret History and liked this book just as much as the first. Tartt's prose is rich, descriptive, evocative.
I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: "The Little Friend" is one large disappointment
Review: Somewhere in the some six hundred overwritten, ponderous pages of Donna Tartt's disappointing "The Little Friend," a captivating coming-of-age novel exists. But to find it, readers must wade through page-long descriptive paragraphs, narrative detours so lengthy that one is left wondering what the central plot is and characters so predictably unidemensional they set one's teeth on edge. What makes Tartt's second novel so bad is that she is a good writer, a talented observer of the human condition and an interesting commentator on existential dilemmas. Her novel betrays her abilities.

Presumably, endearing Harriet Dufresnes intends to solve a decade-long hushed mystery as to why her older brother Robin was discovered hanging from a tree in her yard. Instead, the author leads readers into a mystery as to why they continue to read. Interesting characters wither or disappear; minor characters receive excessive examination. Stereotypes abound, and not in subtle manners. The African-American maids who hover in the households of Harriet's aunts' homes speak as if living in antebellum period instead of the 1970s; Tartt acts as if the civil rights movement never occurred in the South and that older African-Americans are comfortable with Stepin Fetchit roles. Harriet's evil antagonists are poster boys for white trash in-breeding. Their descent into drug-saturated paranoia wears thin quickly, and their mendacity assumes a surreal, cartoon-like quality.

Tartt does display talent when, during the rare occasions she permits Harriet to explore her own potential for danger and insight, the author allows the narrative to absorb the reader. However, those moments are rare. Instead, her novel predictably reverts into languid, esoteric, infatuated descriptive passages. These overwritten sections may well cause the reader to wonder if the author was paid by the word. And what words. Many times, Tartt prefers vocabulary designed to confuse rather than enlighten; in this sense, what ought be a humble, child-focused book becomes an exercise in pretentious, author-centered verbiage.

Other reviewers have lauded "The Little Friend" for its atmosphere and psychological insights. The "New York Times" even selected it as a "Notable Book;" its reviewer predicted it would become "a special kind of classic." Donna Tartt may have indeed written a classic, but not in the way she had intended. Readers seeking a young, honorable, conflicted female protagonist ought reread "To Kill a Mockingbird," and Donna Tartt should consider remembering that in many great works of fiction, "less is more."