The Secret History

Rating:
Summary: What happened in the Woods?
Review: "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt was more of an exercise in excellent English than a terrific story. Tartt has many interesting theories and philosophies to share, however, there was a lot to be desired on a platonic level, when the book came to an abrupt and unfulfilling end.

The characters in "The Secret History" were not your run-of-the-mill college students. I appreciated that these "children of privilege" were not of superior intellect or attending the most prestigious of institutions, but were still smart, unique, and interesting in their own way. Much of their intrigue is a credit to Donn Tartt's writing abilities. Unfortunately, Bunny, Henry, Charles, Francis, Camilla, and even Richard spent so much time analyzing one another's intimate details, that the story's true plot became something less than a mitigating circumstance. "The Secret History" is written in a similar style as "American Psycho," but it is more academic and less violent. Both Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis (of American Psycho), in their novels, write about sophisticated and self-centered individuals who only enjoy the finer points of life. "The Secret History" is suspenseful, comical, and believable but still begs the question; what really happened in the woods?

Rating:
Summary: My Personal Favorite
Review: I actually found this novel laying on the side of the road at summer camp about seven years ago and started reading it on a whim. It must have been fate because i believe this to be the finest novel i've read, and i read a lot. Everything about it is brilliant, especially the eerie calm that seeems to surround everything-from the characters, to the campus-even the college party scenes seem strangely calm and distant-proving further that the group really is seperate from the rest of the college community. i love the plot, i love the weird, quirky, of-another-era characters, i love the prose. i reccomend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging Performance of Tartt Reading Her Novel
Review: This review refers to the unabridged audio as read by the author, Donna Tartt. This is quite a charming and effective performance. Tartt reads in a pretty, Southern-accented voice that sounds a little like Holly Hunter. Although she's not a professional actress, she does a good job in capturing the different voices of Bunny, Henry, Julian, and the other characters. And of course, her insights into the text as its creator, combined with her dramatic skills, make for compelling hours of entertainment. The book itself is a tale of murder and madness, like a dark mirror image of "Brideshead Revisited." Only instead of the hero being tempted towards holiness, he's lured into unsuspected evil. (Tartt's moral vision is similar to Waugh's but she sneaks up on you from the opposite direction.) The narrator, Richard Papen, eventually speaks of "the essential rottenness of the world" as he sinks into despair after his participation in murder. But he is the most unreliable of narrators. Tartt is smart enough to show us alternatives he could have taken instead of evil (like friendship with the superficially annoying but essentially good-hearted Judy Poovey.) This audio performance will enhance your enjoyment of this fine, scary novel. I look forward to Tartt doing something similar with "The Little Friend."