First Comments on "Comments": Not on par with Gone Girl...quit after 500 pages...about a drug addict.
Sigh and then sigh again.
This is not a book for children or those who read only for entertainment or readers who are looking for a twisting plot or a tidy ending.
This was the finest book I have read in 20 years about the American experience- an extraordinarily intelligent look at the life of a young man, events that could be real and in some part are real, blended with a knowledge and insight into the 21st century to my knowledge never examined so succinctly by any other modern writer.
If you have no interest in how other people interpret, question or feel about the events around them, this is not the book for you.
To reject it based on these negative comments is in itself a sad commentary on the literary intellectual level that is likely the norm in our American society.
And yes, I read Gone Girl and was entertained but in 20 years, I won't remember anything about it except that it was a murder mystery.
But I will remember the Goldfinch.

The novel opens with Theo Decker ensconced in an Amsterdam hotel scanning Dutch newspapers, which he cant decipher. Theo is looking for his name in any and all articles that relate to criminal activity by way of their photographs. Before Theos circumstances are explained we are transported back fourteen years when he was only thirteen. On a visit to New Yorks Metropolitan Museum with his art-loving mother a terrorist bomb explodes killing many people including his mother. Theo comforts a mortally wounded old man who asks him to take his signet ring and return it to a local antiques shop, a place that will profoundly change Theos life. With not only the sound of the blast ringing in his ears but also his mothers last words, anything we manage to save from history is a miracle, Theo scoops up Carel Fabritiuss small painting, The Goldfinch and makes his way through the falling debris out of the museum unnoticed. With the death of his mother, Theo is placed by the authorities in the care of the wealthy Barbours, the family of a school-friend. While these same authorities attempt to place him with his unlikable paternal grandparents his estranged father appears at the Barbours apartment and sweeps Theo off to Vegas. The Goldfinch is a bird that can be found in innumerable Renaissance paintings by the likes of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael to name but a few. In many of these works of art the bird is invariably in the hands of the infant Jesus. It symbolizes the soul, revivification, sacrifice and death and salvation. Legend has it that a Goldfinch plucked a thorn from the head of Jesus as he made his way to Calvary and some of Christs blood splashed onto the head of the bird. The afore-mentioned symbolic interpretations of The Goldfinch painting are at the heart of the novel. Theos metaphysical soul is at times on the point of being ruptured due in some small part to the guilt he feels over the theft of the painting and his belief that he may have inadvertently caused the death of a parent. Revivification comes through Theos various new beginnings, his rebirths that punctuate his life. Sacrifice, death and salvation come in many forms in Theos life. The painting becomes the one constant in his life. Not only does he need to possess it but he must gaze on the paintings beauty and artistry often. There is a genealogical line that could be drawn between Salingers Holden Caulfield and Theo Decker. They both have problems at a private school that initiates problems for both. They both wander the streets of New York recognizing and rejecting phoniness. Both are clever and perceptive but their narration is one of scepticism and jadedness. The book is wonderful in its scope and intentions. It may be too easy to see this novel as a comment on 9/11 and its aftermath but it does pervade the novel. And not simply due to the act of terrorism that explodes through the museum and from the pages of the novel. Like many of those who survived 9/11 Theo is suffering from survivors guilt, that corrosive, disconcerting internal dialogue that creates feelings of shame and ignominy. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is sublimely intelligent but is also mordantly funny and in particular when Theo is living in Las Vegas with his alcoholic, gambling father and his copper-skinned girlfriend Xandra. It is only after Theo has had the painting in his possession for some time that he notices that the Goldfinch is harnessed to the perch by a small chain that encompasses its ankle. Theo believes for short periods of time that he is free from all restraints; family, guilt, shame etc. Inevitably, he notices the chain around his ankle and flutters back to his perch returning to the same hopeless place. Carel Fabritiuss The Goldfinch is in the artistic style of a trompe loeil. This style uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that depicts objects that exist in three dimensions. This style of painting has the effect on the viewer of wanting to look closer at the painting; to study the brushstrokes, the depth of paint on the canvas, the lushness of the colours. I believe that this is what the author, Donna Tartt, is trying to achieve. She wants you to not only look and read her three dimensional book but to lovingly scan the words, sentences and paragraphs individually and this will ultimately enable the reader to appreciate and enjoy the novel as more than just a singular entity chained to a bookshelf.

Book is in perfect condition; no nicks, bumps or scratches. It's a bit heavy pero that's expected because, it's my first time reading a full hardbound novel though!

The seller is so polite and accommodating; updates me alot about the packaging and delivery. Kahapon lang ako nag-order and dumating sya the next day agad! Thank you so much. I appreciate this book a lot!

Sorry folks! I'm an avid reader and this one attracted me because I am a fan of a lot of Dutch painting. Lived in Holland 4 years and visited a bunch of Dutch museums, as well as many in Belgium. My favorite is the Mauritshuis in The Hague. I probably even saw The Goldfinch, but don't recall. The story began in a way that was quite intriguing, poor orphaned boy, the mysterious old man and the equally mysterious girl. I was completely interested until Theo began his downward spiral into drugs, alcohol and immoral behavior. That kind of story just doesn't just doesn't hold my interest. The style of writing I found equally troublesome. Descriptions that go on and on for pages without really adding to the story development.