I sort of want to scream when I read lukewarm reviews of this book. Admittedly, people may get the wrong idea when they read the back jacket, or the first few pages, and anticipate some sort of murder mystery thrill. The death of Harriet's brother is merely background for her character. The skill with which Tartt explores the inner workings and thought processes of a virtually abandoned 12 year old girl whose older brother's murder has never been solved cannot be praised highly enough.
Tartt seem I sort of want to scream when I read lukewarm reviews of this book. Tartt seems to have magically leaped over that crevasse that seperates us from our youth, and from understanding the mysterious social workings of 12 year olds. I found this book, though lengthy, to be absolutely riveting. View all 18 comments. Oct 20, Madeline rated it did not like it Shelves: Having read Tartt's previous book, The Secret History , and loved it so much I did everything except start a cult based on the characters, I expected to feel the same way about this.
Know why this book gets only one star? Let me just reiterate that: Excuse me while I bash my head against the wall for a minute. Disregarding that highly irritating nitpick that is guaranteed to keep me awake at night, The Little Friend is actually a very good story. Fascinating, terrifying, complex at times a little too complex, I must admit - the extensive cast of characters was hard to keep track of at times , morbidly engrossing, and with an ending that refuses to tell you anything.
I want to know who killed Robin. Not only that, I think she reveals who the killer is through a hundred little clues and details hidden throughout the book, and we as the readers are supposed to prove our worth by locating these clues, putting them all together, and solving the mystery. I failed your test. How about if I bring you chocolate? View all 80 comments. Oh, Harriet, you poor dear. Twelve and a half, homely and unpopular. The girl with the antique-sounding name and possessor of an "old soul. In vain, the aunts tried to teach her to be polite. That's why I used that example.
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I don't know anybody that likes it. And if I tell her I like it, she's just going to keep on giving it to me. Harriet was just a babe, plopped down in a wind-up swing, when her 9-year-old brother was murdered in the family's yard during a Mother's Day celebration. Now, her older sister mostly sleeps and cries. Her mother is mostly sedated. She is raising herself with the help of a stern grandmother, a gaggle of great-aunts and the housekeeper. Having nothing in common with girls her age, she hangs out with a passel of boys; enough boys so that they can play the apostles to her Jesus in a reenactment of the Last Supper.
This was one of my favorite parts of the book! Her biggest goals for the summer? Avoid going to church camp and win the library summer reading contest. Who could not LOVE this girl? Oh, and she's decided to solve the murder of her brother, committed so many years ago. This bit of Nancy Drewism will land her smack dab in a nest of vipers literally , and deep into the dangerous world of a family of meth-dealing ne'er-do-wells.
I can see why it's not for everyone. The pacing is slow and languid, much like the Mississippi summer setting of the book. Things take their own sweet time unfolding. Many of the characters are not likable. And, yeah, there are unanswered questions. I kept reading because I was in love with Harriet. As one character describes her, Harriet was not sweet or whimsical by any stretch of the imagination.
Harriet was a trip. And that she was With distaste, Harriet reflected upon how life had beaten down the adults she knew, every single grown up. Something strangled them as they grew older, made them doubt their own powers - laziness? Their grip slackened; they stopped fighting and resigned themselves to what happened. She was young still, and the chains had not grown tight around her ankles.
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
Whatever was to be done she would do it. She would strike now--while she still could, before her nerve broke and her spirit failed her--with nothing to sustain her but her own gigantic solitude. She is gonna grow up to be one heckuva woman! View all 17 comments. May 17, Annet rated it really liked it Shelves: This is what you call a 'slow read'. It is impossible to race thru these pages. That is why I had two prior unsuccessful attempts to read this book. An impatient mood is not a good mindset to read this one.
You just have to have quiet time on your hands to read this one.
So I'm taking my time with this one and it's rewarding. The descriptions Donna Tartt uses are long and sometimes it Part one: The descriptions Donna Tartt uses are long and sometimes it takes pages and nothing really happens. But, as another reviewer said, boy, does Donna Tartt know how to write, eventhough nothing much really happens. How she describes persons, surroundings, history, landscape.
It's something you have to take in slowly, taking in all the words in slowly. So I read this book when the weather is good, outside in the garden, like this weekend. It doesn't really work to read this book before going to sleep, I just don't take in the words as I should. I have come to accept that the storyline is slow.
I'm around page today, halfway thru, so I expect it will take some more time to finish this one. I finished The Little Friend!
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Summer has gone and winter is here Part of the reason being that I got this one as a very heavy hardcover, so while travelling, I just don't take it with me. And while travelling, I read the most. And at some point, I just concluded I needed this book besides my bed, to read a couple of pages every day, slow and taking in all the detail. I can imagine that some people feel betrayed becauwe of the beginning intriguing plot and then how this book progresses, but I have to say I really don't care.
I loved this book, the style, the characters, the story, the southern atmosphere. Sure I would have secretely liked to see a clear ending and a solution to the mystery, but at some point I saw it coming that this one was gonna be different. When I finally got through the first say one fourth one third of the book I started immensely enjoying this book. Donna Tartt is a great, talented writer. How great is it to get into the mind of a child growing up fast and describe it in such amazing detail!
I gave Secret History five, because I think that story on the whole was just a bit better than this one. Already looking forward to the next book of Donna Tartt. And I really have to reread the Secret History. Take your time with this one and enjoy it! View all 20 comments. Donna Tartt's second novel I am working my way backwards from The Goldfinch. While I am still puzzled as to who is the "little friend" referred to in the title Hely? I loved her curiosity, her brilliance, and her spunk - she is not one to be double-crossed.
The evocation of Alexandria, Mississippi reminded me greatly of my child Donna Tartt's second novel I am working my way backwards from The Goldfinch. The evocation of Alexandria, Mississippi reminded me greatly of my childhood in Florida. Tartt's mastery of language and description is impressive. The dream sequence of Harriet during The Blackbird chapter was mesmerizing transitioning from Scott's failed expedition to the South Pole to an Harry Houdini escape applauded by penguins amd highly memorable.
The dialogs particularly among Harriet's aunts are also highly realistic as are her onomatopoeia such as during The Pool Hall: The balls spun apart. Odum walked to the opposite side and studied the table for several momentd. Then he popped his neck quickly, by swinging it to one side, and leaned down to make his shot. Another descriptive passage later impressed me: Rose beds blazed magenta and carmine and Tropicana orange in the fading light.
Later during The Red Gloves when they are up on the overpass, it was like they were "Shipwrecked on a desert planet Back on the horizon, the sparse lights of an alien settlement: Harriet was a big reader and frequently there are references such as "shipwrecked" above to kids books like Treasure Island that added to the realism of Harriet and Hely's perspectives. There were also lots of bird images - particularly blackbirds - and knowing her next book is The Goldfinch, one would guess that Tartt is an avid bird lover. Another theme which appears at the very end no spoilers I promise is being trapped underwater.
For example, "She dreamed of black swamp water with ice in it, and country paths she had to run down again and again with a splinter in her foot from being barefoot of swimming upward through dark lakes, knocking her head against a sheet of metal that sealed her underwater, away from the surface air" P. And again the theme of persistent memory: Danny still didn't know what Coriander was, or Mace, but he could still see the brown letters jingling along the mustard-yellow cotton mace, nutmeg, coriander, clove and the very names were a poem There were dozens of moments where I remembered Vacation Bible School and Christian summer camp because they were so thoughtfully evoked.
While not a perfect book, The Little Friend is a great one where even the bad guy, Danny, is revealed in all his imperfect humanity and all the characters are relatively three dimensional. I am planning to read The Secret History when the American Library of Paris gets it back in stock and then will impatiently wait Tartt's next book.
She is truly and exceptionally gifted storyteller and I derive immense pleasure from her writing. View all 9 comments. Rick Vicens the little friend is Danny R. Nov 24, Aug 24, Violet wells rated it liked it. Donna Tartt always gives me more information than I need. Two people will be talking and you get a description of all the furniture in the room, a description of what's on TV, a description of what's going on outside the window, sometimes a memory, sometimes a dream before the dialogue is resumed.
Thus it can take pages for two characters to exchange four lines of dialogue. In this novel she also gives me too many characters. In particular Donna Tartt always gives me more information than I need. In particular the effect a mysterious murder has on the family of the dead boy.
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Her home life in a forsaken claustrophobic deep southern town was often brilliantly evoked. Tartt is also a master at creating suspense. When she introduces into the narrative a born again preacher with crates of poisonous snakes the impulse is to get those pages turning quicker to reach the scene when the snakes are let loose, as we know they will be. But in this novel the denouements of the created suspense often fell a bit flat for me, sometimes straying into cartoonish melodrama.
In fact the best parts of this novel were those depicting the inescapable claustrophobia and loneliness of life in an environment that has been forsaken. The high octane cinematic set pieces by comparison felt forced, superimposed. Ultimately there was a sense for me that the frame of this novel was too large for its canvas. View all 26 comments. A Southern tale set in small town Mississippi shows the wreckage left behind after a beloved son, grandson, and brother, Robin, is murdered in his own front yard.
Evoking a little of Scout Finch, and a little of Flavia de Luce child sleuth from Alan Bradley 's books , Harriet Cleve Dufresnes decides to solve her big brother's unresolved death. Despite her innocence and youth, Harriet is deadly serious and doesn't mess around. This isn't a 'cute' story despite its childish heroine. There's so much A Southern tale set in small town Mississippi shows the wreckage left behind after a beloved son, grandson, and brother, Robin, is murdered in his own front yard.
There's so much I adore about this book. Like her other two books, this one is lengthy, but is blessed with the same incredible storytelling I've come to expect from Tartt. She delves into the mindset of a twelve year old girl so well, illuminating lingering racial and class prejudices, and the brokenness of her family. Harriet's life reaches a turning point; she is forced to grow up during this pivotal summer.
Despite the length, I flew through it. I couldn't help myself!! I was all in. The characters are fascinating and rich. The mystery is spellbinding. And, of course, the snakes. They were far scarier than the white trash meth heads. I was gasping aloud during many scenes.
How do people in Mississippi walk around? I think I'd need to be sedated in order to go out of doors. A few things were more than a little odd - the cover with the creepy old doll head - WHY? I noted the reference to one of the auntie's dolls, but it was such a minuscule detail, it doesn't make sense to adorn the cover of such a fantastically rich novel with that. Again, I saw the reference, made by Dixon Dufresnes at the very end, but it just seemed off. I wonder if Ms. Tartt had any say in either of these decisions.
The only thing I'm unhappy with at the end of this engrossing coming-of-age story, is that I've run out of books to read by Donna Tartt. And I don't want to wait until for the next one! I gave this book three stars only because of the author's ability to use mood, setting, and descriptive in an incredibly amazing way. However, this book was the biggest cocktease ever. Chekhov once said that if a gun is laying on the table in the first scene it had better be fired by the last. I firmly believe this, but Ms.
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Tartt seems not to. It just seems that if you begin a book with a nine-year-old boy hanging dead from a tree, and the entire plot is driven from this, something shou I gave this book three stars only because of the author's ability to use mood, setting, and descriptive in an incredibly amazing way. It just seems that if you begin a book with a nine-year-old boy hanging dead from a tree, and the entire plot is driven from this, something should happen in the pages of sometimes incredibly indulgent exposition.
Yes, she was describing class distinction and how families can be destroyed and decay, bladdy blah. I'd recommend reading A Member of the Wedding if you want to see that instead. But if you start a suspense novel and then morph it into a long-winded descriptive about redneck meth-heads mixed in with a coming of age story in the deep south Pick a plot, please!
Another thing I have a personal pet peeve of is Black Mammy Characters. You know, at one time in history This is the 21st Century however, and despite the fact that people actually think the tv show Weeds is funny, it wouldn't hurt to at least try to explore the revolutionary idea that black people are human and have a vocabulary that is not limited to speaking like Jim from Huckleberry Finn.
Now, I realize that the character of Ida didn't at all times rely on sad cliches That whole part about her not really giving a shit about the kids was probably pretty accurate.
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But seriously, Hattie McDaniel died a long time ago and I'm really not sure they'll be able to find a Black Mammy stock actor to play Ida in the made-for-tv movie on a side note, I think that Jenna Malone is too old for Harriet, but the mental casting the author did was really dead-on. Really, the bottom line is that the world needs another faux Southern Gothic quasi-racial drama like a hole in the head.
The world doesn't need anymore Mammies Just eat some damned pancakes, enjoy your racial superiority, and quit writing cliche Mammies This book could have been great, but instead it was incredibly mediocre. I still don't think she's a bad writer, she's actually quite talented and has a real knack for creating mood View all 6 comments. Dec 15, Juli Pennock rated it it was amazing Shelves: Review to come, I'm still a bit flabbergasted Killed the life out of me. Just gorgeous, I loved it. Powerful, deep and dark, fascinating, poetic, and just overall beautifully written.
Harriet is a firecracker, a pistol, a "trip. My childhood was nothing Review to come, I'm still a bit flabbergasted My childhood was nothing like Harriet's maybe a little in that I spent a lot of time alone and got to where I preferred it that way , but I can remember feeling the way she feels, that anger and boredom and terror. My heart ached for her throughout the whole book. Allison, Charlotte, and Libby are intriguing in their weakness, their otherworldliness. This is gothic, epic, real deep-down Suddenly Last Summer stuff, and it earns its flowers.
Yeesh, and the danger! I was so nervous the majority of the time. I was enjoying myself, drawn into the story, refusing to stop reading while simultaneously NOT wanting to read anymore, lest something else bad happened. It was beautifully done and deep and dark and gorgeous. I need a thesaurus, whatever. View all 4 comments. Well, that was a huge disappointment.
I had heard this was generally the least loved of Donna Tartt's novels, but I went into it expecting to like it a bit more than most because I adore her work. But no, sadly this was a big letdown. Overall this book just left me very confused. How did she go from such an atmospheric, well-written novel as The Secret History to this? And then to come up with the masterpiece, The Goldfinch?
I just don't get how she is the same author of this book. The writing Well, that was a huge disappointment. The writing isn't bad, it's just not nearly to the caliber of her other novels. And you know those people, maybe friends or co-workers, who tell these long-winded stories and when they finish speaking, you're left going, " The whole time I was waiting for the story to arrive at some point where I could go, "OH!!
Sadly, it did not. A 1 star seems a bit harsh, because I suppose within the pages there were some moments that kept me reading and interested. Though by the end I was SO over it, I just wanted to be done and know what happens. But even that didn't satisfy my enough to make it better.
I'm really bummed because now I've read all 3 of her novels that are published, and I probably have to wait like 9 more years for another one. And this one didn't live up to the excellence of her other books. Ah well, at least I have The Goldfinch to appreciate. This is such a great novel. I read it a few years ago, I think it was in , I don't really remember now, but I know it was before I separated from Fabio since during the separation process I only read books by Chris Bojalian and books that Lauren mailed me.
She didn't mail me The Little Friend, but I'm sure it is she who recommended it. Just last night, I was talking with my friend Jenna about this book which I convinced her to read, and which she is reading now and we were cracking up over This is such a great novel. Just last night, I was talking with my friend Jenna about this book which I convinced her to read, and which she is reading now and we were cracking up over the part where Harriet gives her Sunday School teacher the drawing of the black spot.
This is one of the most intriguing books in the history of writing. It should have won prizes, maybe it did. It's complicated but not overwhelming in its detail. It's clever without being overwrought. It's dark without making one want to be buried alive rather than finish a chapter. And it's Southern without being charming.
Which is something to which I can relate. Jan 06, Phrynne rated it liked it Shelves: I listened to this book on audio and would like to comment first that the narrator was excellent and gave a huge boost to the atmosphere of the Mississippi setting. And the book had tremendous atmosphere. Donna Tartt has proven that she can set a scene with the best of them. She can also write a great character and Harriet in particular is superb. In fact another book focussing on her as a teenager or an adult would be great! My problem stemmed from my interest in Harriet and her family. I was fas I listened to this book on audio and would like to comment first that the narrator was excellent and gave a huge boost to the atmosphere of the Mississippi setting.
I was fascinated by them all. Once the story switched to the Ratcliff family I lost interest and became irritated when page after page was spent on irrelevant side issues to do with their unpleasant lives.
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This was a long book and it took me a long time to listen to it. I liked it enough to finish it and the character of Harriet will stay with me. However it will not go down on my list of favourite books: View all 5 comments. Review aka, a personal steam valve: I just don't know what Donna Tartt did to open the floodgates to venom for her last 2 novels: The Goldfinch, preceded by The Little Friend.
I say this not to gripe about your subjective opinion that you found The Little Friend boring, you detested the subject matter, or you simply dislike Donna Tartt's writing style or personality. I am also not cl Prelim. I am also not claiming you are somehow misguided by animus if you gave it one or two stars "just because I thought it stunk. I'll finish by offering my answers to criticism that the novel's subject matter or dialogue is unrealistic. Tartt is a couple of years older than I am, but we both grew up in small town Mississippi for both of us, a majority of our formative years were spent in s MS.
I assure you that I know the characters in this novel, in a manner of speaking. Though I've never met Ms. Tartt, I've known these character traits, and feelings, and dialect and thought processes or lack thereof , in both the young and the old. I am also very familiar with the setting, generally; yes, Mississippi has many water towers and, btw, fire towers. I needed to vent a little. I'll write a full review in the near future. The two brothers whom my office charged with her murder are poster children for what is wrong with the way Illinois punishes gun offenders.
They have been arrested a combined 24 times on charges that include possession of a stolen motor vehicle, aggravated battery and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. One of them has now committed felonies while on parole three separate times. You don't need to be a math major to understand that something is horribly wrong with this picture. Predictably, that call to action fell on deaf ears in Springfield, with many Chicago legislators whose communities are most victimized by gun violence failing to take any meaningful action.
For several years I have called on the General Assembly to ensure that these career gun offenders are held accountable for the communities that they victimize. And year after year, I have watched in outrage as these offenders continue to brashly carry firearms on our streets, indifferent to the futile sanctions that await them under our sentencing laws. Under our current statutes, a felon who is convicted of carrying a firearm in public serves less than half of the sentence imposed by a judge or jury — about 15 months.
When a violent street gang member is arrested on the streets of Chicago with a loaded gun, he or she typically serves just 12 months, also a fraction of the sentence imposed. To be very frank, these criminals know and understand our system. Gang members themselves tell our prosecutors that Illinois gun laws are "a joke.