A reread, even better the second time! ( )

Volevo leggere Dio di illusioni da un sacco di tempo: il medesimo desiderio di molte persone, a quanto pare, visto che in biblioteca non era mai disponibile! Alla fine, però, sono riuscita ad accaparrarmelo e ora eccomi qui a non sapere esattamente quali siano le mie impressioni su questo romanzo.

Teoricamente, Dio di illusioni avrebbe potuto diventare uno dei miei libri preferiti. Donna Tartt è una scrittrice che sa il fatto suo e non ho davvero niente da eccepire sul suo stile. Inoltre, la sua capacità di inglobare la dualità presente nella mitologia greca in un romanzo ambientato venti o trent'anni fa è ragguardevole.

Tuttavia, non posso proprio annoverarlo tra i miei libri preferiti: anzi, probabilmente finirà tra quei romanzi letti e presto dimenticati. Infatti, tutto quello che posso dire di aver provato leggendo Dio di illusioni è un enorme senso di vuoto. Un vuoto che, in parte, credo sia anche voluto, in quanto i giovani protagonisti e il loro insegnante di greco sono persone vuote. Al di là del genio e dell'amore per la bellezza che mostrano al mondo, infatti, sono persone vili ed egoiste, in grado di compiere qualunque nefandezza per mantenere la loro patina di luminosa moralità.

Ora, ho cerebralmente apprezzato tutto questo, ma il romanzo non è mai riuscito a coinvolgermi emotivamente – e non solo perché i personaggi sono sgradevoli. Per quanto mi riguarda, il senso di vuoto ha prevalso e ha fagocitato qualunque tipo di interesse da parte mia. Arrivata a metà romanzo circa, il mio unico desiderio era finirlo e passare ad altro.

Non mi ha coinvolto nemmeno il romanzo di formazione che scorre di pari passo con la trama del giallo. Droga, sesso e rock&roll: non posso proprio dire che sia stato coinvolgente, o anche solo originale, per quanto, lo ripeto, lo stile dell'autrice sia notevole – abbastanza da invogliarmi a leggere un altro dei suoi romanzi e a darle un'altra chance. ( )

(wavering between 4 and 4.5 stars)
Whatever you would imagine from a bildungsroman, this would be the exact antithesis of it. Donna Tartt takes every trope for the introverted main character, and takes perverse pleasure in subverting all of them, with unimaginable results.
Right from the first pages, you know you're in for a wild ride. Five eclectic students studying under an even more eclectic Ancient Greek teacher welcome an introverted student in their midst. The sixth student soon discovers, to his consternation, that the earlier students' hobbies, in an attempt to re-enact an ancient Greek ritual, have taken a turn for the macabre. What follows is a whole lot of gallows humor, mixed with more than a tinge of the surreal.
This masterpiece is extremely hard to review, because the mix of emotions it evokes is mind-bending. The only thing to criticize about the work is that it adopts a very glacial pace in parts - Donna's preference to sprinkling plot in the midst of character exposition, it turns out, is not always for the best.
In spite of all its shortcomings, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book. This is not a book to be rushed through, as this is the furthest thing from a mystery novel, or a 'whodunnit'. Rather, it is meant to be savored, both for the pleasure you get while reading it (the characters are one of the best I've seen in modern fiction), and for the melancholic aftertaste it leaves you with. ( )

Count me in the minority for The Secret History. I really tried! I made it all the way past the trip to Italy and "the big reveal," but eight hours still remain, and I just can't continue. Tart is clearly a talented writer, but the protagonist, Richard, is an idiot and the whole set-up of the Greek "club" is just absurd, but not in a good way.

The author reads this audiobook herself, which is unfortunate. I wonder if she even realized that her voicing of Edmund aka "Bunny," sounds just like Bugs Bunny? Bad editing, too. The volume and pacing abruptly changes whenever they splice together two reading sessions. ( )

Still reading at p 108. Don't know if I will ever finish.So terribly slow in plot development. Too many words describing the minutaei of the characters' day to day life. And since the main characters, besides Richard the protagonist, are a group of snotty and snobby wealthy adolescents the story failed to draw me by sympathizing with them and their problems.. Among those problems are drug and alcohol abuse which again did engage me. Oh woe the poor rich kids.
While story focuses on this group of entitled youths, I felt that their character development is weak: The book through narrator Richard is a recounting of dialogue and description of events so the thoughts and feelings of these eccentric youths are available only by induction.
Ok read another 100 pages, but it is still excrutiatingly slow for me. Maybe I will read the ending sometime to understand what all the hype is about. Well I did read a final section and the epilogue and I really cannot see this story which according to the NYT is "tightly paced" as anything but needlessly and excessively detailed. That said it is interesting that since the book is wholly dialogue and actions could easily be a movie -- by cutting out a lot of scenes, ha ha.
I was not a fan of The Goldfinch either. Both books seem so intrigued by and deferential to monied elites to the extent of seeming fawning. Both books revolve around themes of drug and alcohol abuse and that again does not engage me. ( )