The Little Friend
Ratings69
Average rating3.4
Omg. I legit do not know how to even begin to write a review. I just finished this book and I'm honestly fuming so it's probably not going to be nice or thoughtful or good. The Little Friend is marketed as a mystery novel, the summary describes it as a mystery of a young boy found hanging in his yard and years later his 12 year old sister goes on a mission to find his killer. That's how the book begins. About 20 pages in, it suddenly veers off to the left to talk about race? Class? Snakes? Nothing at all? And SPOILER ALERT, there is NO closure at the end. The writing is descriptive (read: boring) and I feel like I wasted a week of my life trying to get to the end to find out what happened. Really not sure where the author was trying to go or what message she was trying to send with this book. To be frank, it seems like she wanted to write the story of her own childhood, realized that it was utterly pointless and no one would want to read it unless she made up a subplot. So she slapped a murdered brother on and then just wrote her childhood story.
Summed up: there's a beginning, but no middle, and especially no end. Don't waste your time.
I loved the richness of this story, from our main characters unique personality and adventures, to the long family saga we become familiar with. The POV of a young person accentuates every part of this book, kids are at the mercy of adults, there is a powerlessness and a refuge found in imagination and invention and our main character embodies this. I don't remember reading a book that so carefully and exhaustively renders the inner workings of a kids mind. We see her in full dimensions, we know what drives her, her curiosity for the wide world, we see her try to understand things that kids can't really understand, it's stunning character work. Tartt also weaves into this the relations between white society and black housekeepers in Mississippi, it was powerful and sad esp through the eyes of a kid.
I find myself still thinking about this book even though I finished it weeks ago. I'm shocked how many readers found it boring and slow. Tartt had me fully immersed in this world and I thoroughly enjoyed following along on Harriett's day to day adventures.
While I could only manage a quarter of the book on my first try, on my second I got through it and I'm happy I gave it a second chance!
To understand how I feel about this book, one only has to read this review. “[...] because I was bored BUT I WAS JUST SO GOD DAMN INTERESTED.” Exactly my experience!
Despite not having the largest question answered, Tartt's prose pulled me into the inner workings of this southern-gothic narrative. The switching of perspectives provided such a rotund, complete picture that, as the story carried on, I didn't quite mind as much as before that my question wasn't being answered, and that more were being put in its place. Isn't that such the way as life, where it is disorganised and dissatisfying? Believing one thing, and perhaps that is not the truth at all, but you never know it? The lack of closure is disturbing, and I think a lot of people will be turned off by the fact that it doesn't answer “The Question,” but it's still a thrilling tale that made me give a damn about the characters and their fates.
so fascinating! a beautifully written portrait of a time/place/self, deeply personal, engaging characters. definitely the dark horse of her books. to be read at a meandering pace.
