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Show c3 Li itte fn'end The Donna Tart Random House Inc. 576 pages $26.00 hardcover by Bart Madso the success of her Following The Secret History, silence, Mississippi native Donna Tartt was in no hurry to produce a second novel. With such a long pause in her literary output, there were speculations and heightened expectations about what her next novel would be like. The wait for a second novel created an aura of mystique about the author, the reasoning being that if it was taking so long, this second novel either had to be unbelievably good or bad. However, Tartt, unfazed by the hype or increased expectations, released The Little Friend to raving reviews. The praise is well earned because The Little Friend is the work of an immensely talented writer. The novel is an account of the members of a family whose lives have been torn apart by the unspeakable tragedy of the death of a child. The dead child is a young boy named Robin Cleve who, during a family gathering on Mother's Day, is found dead hanging from a tree with a rope around his neck, his feet six inches from the ground. It is the haunting figure of a young and innocent boy and the inexplicable mystery of surrounding his death, which overshadows the lives of the Cleve family and the story of the book. The novel occurs 10 years after Robin's death, and it shows just how much the tragedy has effected the family as a whole, and specifically how the heroine of the story, Harriet Cleve, attempts to discover for herself the mysterious facts of her brother's death. Tragedies like these are a part of human existence. The real question and the question that Tartt examines in the novel is, how do we cope with the impact of such a loss? As you can probably guess by the subject matter, The Little Friend is at times a very somber novel. But it is a novel that adults and young adults will love because it does not treat the subject of childhood, and the reader's memory of childhood, in a simplified and sentimentalized manner. Tartt doesn't gently pat the reader on the head and say "There, there, remember childhood with ail of its II ira 30 FY long as we did." Tartt does not judge harshly those who attempt to use such methods to cope with tragedy, yet she presents it as what it is, and how in many ways it is simply the denial of deeper unspoken feelings of rage, blame or guilt. By the time Harriet is 11, she has already had the memory of her dead brother ingrained in her mind not any real memory of her own (since her brother died when she was only 1), but the shared memory of the family consensus, constantly of Instead it looks at childhood all of its nostalgia. Remember childhood? Remember how frightening it was to realize that sometimes the world sucks? un-stripp- ed feel-goo- d and bubble-gum- , baseball cards and Barbie dolls?" Instead it looks at childhood nosof all of its childhood? Remember talgia. Remember how frightening it was to realize that sometimes the world sucks? Remember when that kid you knew died of leukemia, or got hit by a car or drowned at the family picnic? Growing up isn't all smiles and happy photos. Some of it is learn-- , ing about the bitter truths of penny-cand- y un-stripp- feel-goo- d reality-W- hile Tartt's family tragedy is morbid in its severity (a child's possible murder), it addresses the silence and damage imposed on a family through the death of someone who, through accident or intentional malice, has without cause been taken too soon from TlTTDITOTITrElNnJ 1 11 . c 1 b v t nlhoi I. c of I I It S t C K t i M I S T O K 1 DONNA TA nTT revised and retold until it has been memorized and repeated like the catechism and gospel. In some ways the novel is really about Harriet's quest to, if not discover the truth about her brother's death, then to at least discover her. own understanding and memory of the brother and the tragedy that has completely engulfed the family that she belongs to. Tartt's writing style is smooth and enjoyable. She has a natural knack at describing and explaining the inner workings of the family unit. Tartt's remembrances and portrayals of childhood are so vivid and real that the readers will find themselves remembering things from their own childhoods that they thought they had long life. forgot. But Tartt's greatest talent, among the many, is in the descrip- Tartt is patently unsentimental about describing the past or portraying people's emotional foibles. She expertly examines the mythol-ogizin- g of the dead and the coping that occurs when those left behind try to alleviate the pain of loss. She looks at all of the cliched phrases people offer, like "Well, heshe was too good for this world" or "We were lucky to have himher for as tion and development of her characters. They are real, not hyperbolized caricatures. They are tangible and completely recognizable. There are too many characters to describe here, but one of the best descriptions is that of Aunt Libby, whom all of the Cleve family love to tease because "She was a spinster, afraid of everything, of dogs and thunderstorms and fruitcakes made with rum, of bees, Negro men, the police." Tartt is very deft at describing her characters with unflinching, and sometimes unflattering, honesty. As a whole, the novel is certainly on par or above anything else written in recent memory. Tartt is a masterful stylist and storyteller. It is clear that she has some insightful observations and comments to make about society and the main themes addressed in the novel. Some reviewers have criticized what they find as a lackluster or dissatisfying ending. Again, Tartt is unsentimental in her portrayal of the family tragedy, so it stands to reason that a novel about child murder won't end resembling the happy smiles and hugs of an ABC back-to-scho- special. The Little Friend is definitely a book worth its time. Tartt will no doubt continue to receive praise from the literary elite, but her work is as accessible to the casual reader as it is to the painfully studious, furrowed brows of postmodern seriousness. But really, the most amazing aspect of TaTtt's book is that she is not presenting the "I am oh so witty" novel to the "intellectual" literary community, instead she embarks on actually commenting on (dare I say it) something meaningful. bartred-mag.co- The Wcsiocity of EggsFS Siows -- 1 McSweeny's Books 372 pages $20.00 hardcover sv Sarah Smylie would like to give Dave Eggers' new novel You Shall Know Our Velocity a good review. I had it in my heart to love this novel. But maybe my creepy devotion to Eggers' literary magazine McSweeney's and his previous novel A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius automatically precluded my ability to view this novel from an objective standpoint. In any case, his sophomore attempt at experimental and contemporary fiction is a good read, but not great; it adds to the literary landscape, but it doesn't puncture it. The plot is easy enough to understand and speaks to one of the main themes of Eggers' novel: the destination is the goal because of the unbearable journey. Will, the protagonist, has recently come upon trouble, which affects him both literally and metaphysically. Fueled by the recent death of his best friend, he and his friend Hand take the money that Will has recently received and make plans to travel around the world and give it away to the unfortunate. In the feverous atmosphere of their traveling, Eggers probes questions about the optimism, wealth and ignorance of American culture and consequently stumbles upon a goldmine where he can and does accurately portray the contours of a youth who is aimless, hopeful, sad and angry. Whether his main character is engaging in masochistic activities or recounting first kisses, Eggers gives his chaTacter.a voice that is poignant, guilty and angry. Will's disposition allows Eggers a chance to do what he does best, create internal dialogue, punctured by a death drive. It's wildly and endlessly catharrant to his tic. In an eight-pagWill dead friend, Jack, states, "All I ever wanted was to know what to do. In these last months I've had no clue, I've been paralyzed heart-wrenchin- g self-indulge- e the quiet... Intermittently there were answers, intermittently there was a chorus and by they sang to us and pointing...but just as often there 1 i Jus Shall Know Our Velocity Dave Eggers You was silence, and we stood blinking under the sun, or under the black sky, and we had to think of what to do next." The reader might overlook the disposition of Will from the beginning: He is already dead. Since it is mentioned only on the i. i iif .... is it 4 5 first page (which starts on the cover) and the last page, Will's death "in the cool tannin-tinteGuaviare River, in Colombia," is a resolution that appears irresolute because of its brief references, but if the reader takes this into consideration the novel becomes a weighted experience, an explication of guilt, remorse and regret; a synoptic proporcatalogue of tions. 3,1. IS d east-centr- post-deat- al ' V h Shall Know Our Velocity is an example of how Eggers writes fiction, and I guess I was a little let down in reference to his lack of a memorable voice and experimentation. It isn't that hard to portray a character who is sufferYou ing from mental problems due to a death. In fact, Eggers' took the easy way out. It would have benefitted his work if he was more experimental and less heartbreaking, more show and less talk. " 4 1 1 Ml :f , ' ", lt sarahred-mag.co- RED i&, I Rg |
