vgriff

Why do I always picture Bunny as Kent from ​Real Genius​?

(One of the best ’80s movies ever, by the way, if you haven’t seen it go do so asap.)

​​Anyway, let’s talk about this book. I’ll start.

I think this is at least my fourth reading, and having read The Goldfinch ​since last time, I’m finding a new appreciation for Donna Tartt’s immense talent at telling a long story almost in real time, or slowly enough that it feels that way, yet it never actually feels slow or bogged down in detail and never loses my interest. I know it took her eleven years to write The Goldfinch; I wonder how long ​The Secret History ​took. I Googled it, no luck, but I did find this on the book’s Wikipedia page:​

​”​Kakutani, speaking in the New York Times, states ‘In The Secret History, Ms. Tartt manages to make…melodramatic and bizarre events (involving Dionysian rites and intimations of satanic power) seem entirely plausible.’”

​I was just reading the part where Henry is telling Richard about the killing, and I paused at one point and was like, okay, no one seems to think this whole thing is weird enough. Meaning Richard is taken aback some, but there’s no like WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, HENRY? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR EFFING MIND? reaction I think I would have had. It reminds me of this ​X-Files​ episode where they catch a giant man-flukeworm hybrid (it’s disgusting, pasty white and this big sucker mouth with lots of teeth, but a human body), and when Scully sees it she sort of raises her eyebrows and that’s it–a reaction totally not in line with the horrific thing she’s seeing. But at the same time, in the book, it’s like…yeah, okay, I could see these Greek creeps wilding out like that. Sure. Tartt makes it sound convincing.

​I’m sure I have more coherent thoughts than this, but I am not prepared with them yet. Really I just wanted to post the picture of Kent because I’ve been thinking about doing it for weeks.