“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt – Murder: The Maddening Solution

The Secret History, written by Donna Tartt, starts off innocently enough as a young man by the name of Richard leaves his low-class California home to attend the Hampden College in Vermont.

Shortly after arriving, Richard finds himself part of a somewhat pretentious clique of friends, who spend their time drinking, taking pills, and studying classical literature with a professor who doesn’t seem to be quite all there in the head.

Though they seem innocent enough, one day they reveal to Richard that during a drug-fueled frenzy they murdered a man. Unfortunately, one of the group seems ready to burst with guilt, and so they take the easy road: kill him too.

However, as the weight of the second murder starts to weigh down on the group, it begins to slowly decay and disintegrate, leaving its members to slip into madness and lunacy.

Will the murderers be caught?

Are the police onto them?

Are the police even bothering with it in the first place?

Why is it so easy to kill?

These are all questions the protagonists ponder on time and time again.

The only thing that hurts this book, in my opinion, is its length. At nearly six hundred pages, some parts of the book feel a bit drawn out and unnecessary. It is a mixture of an intense psychological thriller and a criticism of today’s wasted and debauched youth, essentially making for a novel that is at times highly entertaining, and at others very intense and even philosophical.

Also, those who aren’t very knowledgeable in classic literature will probably miss out on numerous references, which I believe is the author’s fault for being so specific with her humor.

Nevertheless, despite all the little flaws and quirks this book may have, the story remains pretty darn interesting to follow, with Tartt being quite good at drawing various emotions out of the reader.

I can safely say that this is a book I thoroughly enjoyed; the characters are fun and have depth where they need it, the mysterious storyline is rich in all kinds of details and can be quite suspenseful at times, without forgetting the humorous bits thrown here and there to balance it all out and make a very well-rounded product which slightly suffers because of its length. All in all, a great first effort by an undoubtedly-talented author.

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Donna Tartt Donna Tartt is an American author who is known to take her time to weave long, large and complex novels, with her better-known ones including The Little Friend, which win the WH Smith Literary Award in 2003, and The Goldfinch, for which she was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.