Having started this book just before Christmas, it took some time to finish—me needing to give up reading-for-pleasure for a bit when I was barely a quarter way through. But somehow, that seemed right with this tale. The Goldfinch covers a span of time. And it does so patiently, endearingly, and with a strange tenderness in this story of a young boy left, it would seem, with no one. So my time that I left the story, came back, left again, and came back again, almost made that passage of time more correct in how the plot so richly unfolded on the pages.
But that’s almost just it: in his aloneness, our protagonist Theo finds so much. The cast of characters is odd. And the circumstances seem odder. But they hold you there, caring, wanting something good, feeling at odds with a sense of “this is alright” in this quirky story of the young, unknowing art thief.
The writing is clear and emotive—-aptly descriptive in both scenery, happenings, and that which is deeper. But the story feels like more time passes than it does. Too much happens to our young man for him to truly be as young as he remains in the end.
Or maybe that really is how we see one with that old soul—insightful, complicated, and forever not quite on pace with everyone else. That said, so much happens on a deep level with Theo and this story that this will not be a book for all. But for its clear and moving writing, spanning a distraught childhood and an even more complex adolescence, the book works beautifully for this reader.