Of course, you can’t help but wonder which bits align to Tartt’s own life, particularly given that she is a famously private person. My re-read was through the lens of the Bennington College podcast, and it gives the story and characters another layer of complexity that is so, so juicy. In fact, when I think about my real childhood I am unable to recall much about it at all except a sad jumble of objects: the sneakers I wore year-round coloring books and comics from the supermarket little of interest, less of beauty.
The dazzle of this fictive childhood – full of swimming pools and orange groves and dissolute, charming show-biz parents – has all but eclipsed the drab original. There’s nothing left to say in terms of reviewing this book, but what struck me was how little Tartt’s style has changed – why would you change when your descriptions are so perfectly crafted and evocative, that they could be classed as flawless? I toggled between listening and reading – it was every bit as engrossing as it was in 1992. And when I discovered that Tartt herself is the narrator of the audio version, there was no question that I would revisit Secret History. I had flirted with a re-read a number of times, and was finally prompted to do so as a result of the Once Upon a Time at Bennington College podcast. But, if I dare say it, it wasn’t until I helped to kill a man that I realized how elusive and complex an act of murder can actually be, and not necessarily attributable to one dramatic move. Religious slurs, temper tantrums, insults, coercion, debt: all petty things, really, irritants – too minor, it would seem, to move five reasonable people to murder. I recall being engrossed in the story, but not much of the detail other than the fact that one of the students was murdered, stayed with me. Like the characters, I was at university, wholly absorbed in campus life and a circle of friends who were new, but immediately close.
I first read it when it was released in 1992. The Secret History by Donna Tartt is one such book. And while I want to experience that particular reading pleasure again, re-reads can be like returning to the ‘perfect’ holiday spot – somehow it’s not quite what you remembered, despite the main ingredients being the same. There are a handful of books that I enjoyed so much when I first read them, that they have taken a reverent place in my reading life.
0 kommentar(er)
