The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

A third of the way through, I gave up on The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, despite its 4/5 rating on Amazon. The book was recommended to me with enthusiasm by a dear friend, a woman who does not delve often into our usual crime genre, and my wife had already downloaded it for one of her book groups. It’s a story about loss. A boy’s narcissistic father left him and his mother without warning, and then the mother and son are the victims of a new terrorist attack in New York. The son survives, but his mother does not. The book was about pain, agony, and survival, and I was simply not drawn to continue with the characters in that process. In the course of my work as a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst, I experience life with real people as they struggle with loss and pain, and search for the best survival, adaptation, and growth that is possible. I tend to read for escape, and while being well written, this novel certainly does not invite escape.