The Goldfinch

Theo Decker’s world is upended when him and his mother stop at the Met one rainy morning. There is a terrorist attack and Theo finds himself in a bombed wasteland that was once a gallery, alone with a badly injured elderly man. He gives Theo his ring and instructions to go to a storefront downtown. Ring the green bell. Both Theo and the old man are disoriented, babbling, and Theo thinks he is being instructed to take a painting off the wall. The painting that him and his mother were looking at only moments before the explosion- Fabritius’ “The Goldfinch”. In a daze, stumbling over lumps of bodies, Theo snatches the painting out of the frame, throws it in a bag, and searches for an exit out of the museum. His life is changed forever from this point on. Not only did he steal a painting from the Met, but his mother has died in the explosion. The book follows Theo’s life post-accident; getting taken in by the wealthy upper East Side Barbours for a few months, meeting Hobie and re-meeting Pippa (they were both in the explosion together) at the shop downtown, moving to Vegas when his deadbeat father shows up out of the blue, befriending Ukrainian/Russian teenage alcoholic, Boris. All the while dragging the painting everywhere along with him, developing a drug and alcohol problem of his own. The painting of the Goldfinch is Theo’s secret that he carries with him throughout his life. He doesn’t tell anyone, he can’t, he’s waited too long. Towards the end, as Theo is an adult reconnecting with people from his past, there is a twist once a character reappears, Theo’s reality is flipped on its side AGAIN, and the book takes an unexpected turn. The book is long (nearly 800 pages) but you don’t want it to end. Theo is a lovable character that is easy to feel empathy for. He’s been through so much in his life, you can’t help but feel sorry for him. I kept reading page after page, interested in what crazy thing would happen next, high tension throughout. It doesn’t hurt that Donna