The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
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Book Summary Information
Author: Donna TarttEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-04-13
ISBN: 1400031702
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of The Secret History
Book Review: La Histora est vitae magistra
Summary: 5 Stars
Many years ago, I first cracked the spine on 3 Plays by Euripides; where Antigone stole my heart. There was a rush as of stealing down ancient brambles winding around stone walls and falling after running too hard upon a sun dial made of white stone; a plateau of passion, possibility and bliss.
One feels a certain stealthy intelligence sneak into the room blowing greatness as of glass sculptures while in the front an ageing yet quite agile and alluring Latin Professor unpacks his briefcase. Was there a book to be reviewed around here somewhere? This is what happens when climbing into the rich air of the Classics, a dizziness overcomes me and I am slipped inside the labyrinthine chaos of the warriors and asking Caesar to please show me the way out before trouble ensues.
It is why I hold with iron fist this idea that we are all Greek characters in a tragedy and if Odysseus would just return from his voyages, well, I could pull my Penelope gown from the closet and we could finally carve our names in that forever tree. And now back to reality.
The secret reason why Donna Tartt's book is such an important canon in Contemporary American Literature is because of what she withholds rather than reveals. She does not hand you the truth in question, she makes you feel the truth, and go through it like an overgrown maze. She puts you in line and hands you a mallet and tells you not to stare.
There is one scene where Henry reaches out and hits Charles, or Francis, I can't quite remember, but it's quick and sure as a roundhouse punch. Yet, not once does Ms. Tartt display a placard with hitting verbage; non sans lettres; she simply hands the picture around the room; and there you see; the magic fairy dust.
Starting college can be such a rush! The sense of escape from the suffocating confines of family, regardless of the amount of love and care; it can be a time of rank and file choice by following one immature friend to the next. Quite simply, no matter how many mentors may show up to stand illuminated in the sunny doorway; there can be no set direction. The heart is pounding at a significant lope and no tether shall hold; all bonds are broken.
A sense of loneliness and isolation climbs inside the suitcase and comes along no matter if one is destined to be the president of a sorority, or kept outside the closed gates altogether; loneliness does not discriminate.
Bunny is such a clever name for conscience, and his character hops along from one tidbit to the next; sometimes vacillating from the mad hatter to the velveteen rabbit; he knows the truth and doesn't know yet what to do with it. He is kept around for pity sake and then Henry realizes what a liability Bunny has become. Horrors! Yet, considering, this is no big surprise.
Now how many Henry's have I personally known? Too many to count. And I thought sociopaths were just an inane part of life, cropping up here and there. Sadly, in academia, Henry's are admired and courted down aisles everywhere. Why does it matter? Because one needs to recognize the source of the evil in order to put it to the test.
Regrettably Henry isn't the source, nor the twins, or anyone else in the select choir. The source of evil is the sense of invincibility one gets when stepping inside the room of the elite, ahem the room of the Ancient Classics.
I like, The Secret History for the way it opens up the picture show and peers into a room that many outsiders in college rarely get to see. And yet, somehow, so many seem to play a part.
It examines the illusions of all the characters and shows how badly they want to be something special! So badly that they will believe almost anything, including the ridiculous nothing of the Bacchanel. That in gruesomely killing a man, for the sanctity of the ritual they have achieved their ceremonial place in the sun. That reality does not count. The nightmare only begins when they see that the classics won't save them.
I found myself thinking, "yes, this is exactly how it was when I was in the English department, almost exactly." And then my Classics Professor came to mind, who wasn't like this at all, and rather, balked at the idea of groupism. Yet, I could have idolized him so easily; because that's what young folk do. We idolize, we admire, we want to be just like them. And this serves to push one towards a study of excellence, yet in this case the writer takes us to the edge to show us, this is what happens when we go overboard.
She is deftly telling the reader to retreat from the suffocating bubble and look outside at the world; wake up and walk away from the Sunday cloned in cream cheese faux metal die caste designer drug crowd and enough with it all come on, just get real already.
But it is so hard when a Professor or a psst finger to the mouth shhh, secret group, tells you that you can be special too; you can be one of them, if only you discard all of the rules and tumble down the hole together. It is so hard when one climbs inside of the world of the elite, the select; personally, this novel addresses any course of study, what is addressed is this idea that one can be so special that they can ignore all the rules; that its okay to make people disappear if they get in your way. Richard continues to protect his little group as long as he continues to be allowed to sit in the circle. All are accessories, all hands are washed in Bunny's blood. The Secret History, is quite simply a book about getting lost in and finding your way around in a specialized religion of sorts.
It can be especially hard inside the world of ancient languages and rituals; it is so hard when tempted with an aura of air that only sets upon the world between the hours of 3 - 5a.m. A magical hour when ghosts can be called as witnesses and one is ready to become immortal. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: this book so reminds me of Ethan Canin's, "For Kings and Planet's," and how the narrator got suckered in to the world of his friend. For further selective reading I also suggest, Tobias Wolff's fabulously stellar, "Old School." One gets a sense that Donna Tartt has inserted herself among the classics of today without even trying. Her sense of narrative is somber and aching with yearning, a definitive song of the younger crowd that so gaily and earnestly wants to belong, if only they had the wherewithall and the gumption.
The way that someone with money can literally be truly worthless and not contribute a thing to human society, yet everyone gloms onto them as if they are the saving point of grace. Does this gloming onto make the idolitrated one feel as if they must deliver? I'll bet for certain that it does. And how does it make the ones feel who are gloming on?
Because what specialty do they bring to the table? Other than pretending and copying? Yet, copying is so rewarded and emulated, especially when done right.
And oh the snow, the snow! How Richard Papen's world is opened up. Going from California to the verdant hills of Vermont and that sweet apple air. I truly love it when an author decides to invite nature to join the cast and as a main character at that.
How can one make their way out of the heady scent toward realities awful bend in the road? Poor Richard (ridiculously terrible pun yet I couldn't resist temptations calling!) finally asks the question of Francis, who is staring hard at him, regarding how do the poor survive, how do the unpretentious, those on financial aid, the ones who've no money for books, much more a car; how do those down below survive? They put their fingers to the wheel and they push until callouses appear, until their health disappears, until they are sure exactly of what they want to do in the future: not have to suffer quite so much. So Francis unblinkingly looks at Richard and asks him with a giant messed up beat just how stupid does Richard think he is? Work for a living?
This is a question that many rich kids will never have to answer and yet Richard dares to ask it. Touche, Ms. Tartt. There is the very clever juxtaposition of the manhunt for Bunny. The whole town takes part in, including television and newspapers. And then there is the lowly farmer who was killed, mangled, and left for dead in a field. No reward for the killer is offered and his story fades off into the distance out of view. Also interesting is that the farmer's ghost never makes a showing; while, Bunny and Henry show up in cameo ghost appearances. Is this Ms. Tartt's way of also showing that the elite college crowd matters and the poor farmer does not? Begs a look at least.
Yes, I truly could go on and on about the collegial and cultural merits of this book which I personally feel should be included in Freshman Literature 101: how not to be a clone. This is a beautiful aching book, and one wants so badly for Bunny to just get back up in his yellow rain slicker and come pounding on Henry's door. The ending is predictable enough, but what could Ms. Tartt have done otherwise? Was an alien spaceship going to touch down and ask Henry and Camilla if they would like a ride? Because there was no other trip into paradise, not for them. Such a very lovely book, and I do not think that I shall soon forget it; nor the special group, all characters whom I both hate and love; even while berating them for their secret feel of specialness; all their own; cloying upwards, their murderous faces begging to be Gods.
Summary of The Secret History
Truly deserving of the accolade a modern classic, Donna Tartt?s novel is a remarkable achievement?both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.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.
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