The Goldfinch is
a coming-of-age story enclosed in a thriller. Teenaged Theo Decker and
his single-parent mother are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art when a
terrorist bomb goes off. His mother is killed. Theo escapes with a
real-life painting, The Goldfinch, done
in 1654 by Rembrandt student Carel Fabritius. Instead of returning the
painting, Theo hides it, setting in motion the rest of the plot.
Theo’s problems deserve sympathy — a deadbeat, criminal father,
grandparents who don’t want him, alcohol and drug abuse, unrequited
love, and a brush with the underworld of art theft. But it’s hard to
feel sympathetic toward him, even after he wants to return the painting
but can’t find a credible way to do so. His friend Boris, who leads
around the mostly passive Theo, is eccentric enough to be interesting,
but his deeds are ultimately inexcusable. As much as Boris is supposed
to be Theo’s best buddy, you wonder how Theo might have fared had they
never met.
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