The Secret History
Author: Donna Tartt
Rating: â 4/5
Date Read: 2014/04/03
Pages: 559
Get ready to suspend your disbelief, because the plot of The Secret History is outlandish, to say the least. A group of Classics students gets into some trouble following an incident during some Bacchanalian activities. And I mean Bacchanalian in the most literal sense of the world, Ă la Sebastiano Ricci:
(See, I can make cultural references too. Being set at a college, and being written by a 28 year old, The Secret History sometimes goes eye-rollingly over the top with references that are supposed to be impressive, but mostly make one feel as if one is taking part in a pseudo-intellectual circle jerk. I think this kind of stuff is only effective when Joyce does it, but à chacun son goût.)
Anyway, combine a bacchanal, intensely dislikable characters, bad decisions, classical references, and lots of blow, and youâve got The Secret History. Itâs more or less [b:Crime and Punishment|7144|Crime and Punishment|Fyodor Dostoyevsky|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1382846449s/7144.jpg|3393917] with sophomoric upper-class hipsters. The major problem is that Tartt seems to write them as if they really were the cognoscenti, which prevents her from adding in any humor about how ridiculous they are.
The Secret History came out in 1992, when this yearâs college graduates were still gestating and [a:Bret Easton Ellis|2751|Bret Easton Ellis|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1274408405p2/2751.jpg] was still relevant; as you can imagine, it doesnât display the maturity of [b:The Goldfinch|17333223|The Goldfinch|Donna Tartt|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1378710146s/17333223.jpg|24065147]. However, itâs a pretty fun ride, if youâre into this sort of thing.
