I read about it early, tried to gather as much information as I could on the Internet - and there was very little to be had. Though lightning may strike me down and the good people of the reading world may disagree with me with all their heart and soul, I am here to tell you that, despite everything you may read to the contrary, despite all the cover stories and rave reviews that will doubtless appear, despite people bowing down in the streets, Donna Tartt's new novel, The Little Friend - a decade-in-the-writing, salivated over by rabid fans from Podunk to the Netherlands (where Tartt is something of a literary god), closely guarded by its publisher until the last possible moment - just isn't that good.Īnd I didn't hear any thunder. Not lifeless, but certainly not crackling with the excitement of the first, headline-grabbing effort. And more often than not, that second effort is just. Go ahead, be a sophomore, the world says. If one's first is lucky enough to be well-received, one then feels the pressure to Do It Again. Know why? Because as tough as first novels are, second novels are worse. But a novel we could all sink our collective teeth into? A dark tale we could love with passion and talk about incessantly with everyone who would listen? No. Sure, there were a few dribs, maybe a drab or two. That alone was - and is - a rare thing.Īnd then, to follow it up, Donna Tartt wrote. The Secret History actually lived up to all the hype it received. It was the kind of novel that became part of you. It was the kind of novel you talked about, argued about and wanted to hold on to, like a close friend. Well-written in a way that made you think about whether you really could be a novelist. Thrilling in a way that made you want to go back to school and be a little more decadent than you were - and a little smarter.
Scholarly in a way that made you want to know as much as Tartt obviously did. I think I bathed, but I'm not sure after all, it was ten years ago. I mean, it was all I did for days and days. When I first got my hands on The Secret History, I devoured it. In that respect, it was very much like another first novel, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. A few years ago, there was a novel called A Simple Planby Scott Smith.
Sometimes they're just downright bad.Īnd then, other times, they're sublime. For the rest of us, it's quite often hard to read them, as they're not always of the best quality. It's tough to write one (I've done it, so I know), and it's tough to get one published (I've done that, too, so I know that, as well). Review | The Little Friend by Donna Tarttįirst novels are tough.
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