The Secret History by Donna Tart

Description:

Truly deserving of the accolade a modern classic, Donna Tartt’s novel is a remarkable achievement—both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill (Goodreads). 

My Thoughts:

I saw this book on one of the blogs (don't ask me which one). When I saw that my local library had this book I put it on hold and when it came in I started to read it right away. I have to say that this book was not what I expected. When I was done reading I had mixed feelings about it, on one hand I liked the book but on other I did not.

Six friends, misfits, who study Classics with a eccentric professor at an elite New England college.  Donna Tart knows how to write, I have to say that it was not the actual plot that drew me in but rather it was her writing.  There was just something about it that urged me to keep reading the book.  She has a way with sentences and characters.  Even though  the plot line was not the best (in my opinion), but it was not bad either. 

I do not want to talk much about storyline because I do not want to give much away.  But there was a lot of character buildup and all the characters were very complex.  Not everything was black and white, there where a lot of shades of gray.  Some of the events really disturbed me and made it hard to look at the characters the same way again.  Richard, story narrator, even his description of the events is almost lukewarm.  I did not feel a lot of regret on their part but rather worry that they will be caught.  Six Friends who are completely isolated from the rest of the college by their own doing.  They are also eccentric and spoiled in many ways; live in their own world.  Even after they do wrong against their friend I did not feel that they were very much remorseful for what they did. 

I do have to say that I was surprised about the ending and Harry, it was not what I expected.  Harry was never one of my favourite characters, actually none of them were my favourite characters.  In one way I almost felt sorry for them because they are so messed up and in a way removed from rest of the world.  But on the other hand I did not feel sorry for them because of what they did, they were all equally guilty.  But than again I do not think author intended for us as readers to be the judge and jury.  They make their own world and rules pretty much.  In a way I wished that the story was told from multiple points of view, that way we, as readers, would have a chance to get to know rest of the characters.  Rather than just seeing them through narrators eyes. 

Overall this was a good book and it was extremely well written.  I was more impressed with authors writing abilities than with the story line.  If you have not read this book but planning to, do not get discouraged because the book does start out slowly, but it does get better.  I believe that this book deserves 4/5 SRARS just for the writing.  Plot was alright, but not the greatest.