Books are a wonderful way for coworkers and friends to share experiences, even when we’re miles, states, and countries apart. Hearing about what someone is reading is like taking a 5-minute vacation. Each week, one Piper team member will answer the question, “What are you reading?” and take you on a well-deserved, 5-minute vacation.
This week Christina is reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
“…the way the plot unfolds is entrancing.”
CHRISTINA SAYS…
After being disappointed by The Goldfinch, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, I wanted to give Donna Tartt another try. I chose Tartt’s first novel, The Secret History, because it had been recommended to me by my brother and a friend who understands my taste. Tartt is a master. Her prose is nearly perfect and the way the plot unfolds is entrancing. The six main characters are quite successful in isolating themselves and creating an alternate reality, sort of where ancient Greece meets Evelyn Waugh/Hogwarts. The book starts with a murder that is central to the plot. Its surrounding events cause their bizarre little world to wrap even more tightly around them. We already know who dies and how. As the why unfolds, it drives the story forward and leads the main characters (offbeat, somewhat snobbish undergrads studying classics at a ritzy New England college) to evolve and “grow up” in ways that are creepy but inevitable.
AMAZON DESCRIPTION
Donna Tartt, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her most recent novel, The Goldfinch, established herself as a major talent with The Secret History, which has become a contemporary classic.
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.
HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK?
Tell Christina what you thought in the blog comments below!
