Book 38 - The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Reading date - November 2020

This is a book that I saw all the time when I was growing up and it always seemed like it was too mature for me, like I wouldn't be able to appreciate it.  I feel the same way about Chanel bags, like I'm too young to pull them off yet..but in time, it will come..as did the time come for me to read The Secret History.

I had no clue what this book was about and the blurb also doesn't give much away.  In my head, it is the kind of book I can imagine Lilith from Fraser reading, dressed all in black, jet black hair with a stern look on her face and pearls around her neck.  

See what I mean?

The cover of the book is one of my favourite covers of any book ever, the font and design is totally my style.  I love Georgian houses, I have one of my own and this book is made for the house.  It's mature, classy and cool..I am two of these things but I guess the maturity will come with age.

The book is about five weird students (Henry, Francis, Charles and Camilla who are twins and Bunny) and one normal student (Richard) who are all studying under one lecturer at a small uni (college for the Yanks). The normal student gets drawn into the weird world of these five students and is witness to something they do which needs to be covered up.

The book begins with Richard talking about his life and how he wanted to study something at college but was unable to as the lecturer chose a select few students.  He manages to track down the students and "accidentally" ingratiate himself.  He starts dressing like them so that they let him in even more.  Their style is like Brooks Brothers and J Crew..pearls and expensive fabrics.  I imagine kids at Harvard dress like this.  The joy of imagination is that you can imagine characters however you wish, I see Henry as Gigi Goode with glasses from Ru Paul's Drag Race and Bunny as Piggy from Lord of the Flies.  The Piggy I see is the one from my own mind so I can't show you a photo but imagine a mixture of Martin Price and Ralph Wiggum with a bit of Curly Watts chucked in.  This is not at all how Bunny is described but the mind sees what the mind sees.  Bunny is described as being a tall, blonde haired man who smells because he is lazy.  I see him as short and tubby.

The book is so good.  I wish I had read it earlier as I really enjoyed it.  I could not put it down and I ended up finishing it in about three days.  It is not clear what timeframe it is set in so I would say it was early 90's as that is when it was written and there are no mentions of mobiles so I guess it could be seen as classic.  

The book is written in date order but the way Richard finds information out is very cleverly done, e.g. X comes back from holiday earlier and Richard is trying to figure out why on page 40 (for example)..and he only realises why when he is told why on page 300.  It is easy to piece it together and when the penny drops, its fabulous.

I loved this book, there were some manky bits but on the whole it is amazing, I am what you could call a Tartt-let..Oscar Wilde eat your knob off!

I liked it so much that I've also bought The Goldfinch and The Little Child.