Book Review: The Goldfinch
Feb. 13th, 2020 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerUnlike The Secret History, which grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go until I galloped to the end, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch is an unevenly paced book. In the first two hundred pages, there’s a terrorist attack on the Metropolitan Museum of Art which leaves our protagonist Theo trapped in a gallery, where he steals a small but exquisite painting, The Goldfinch, which really ought to be exciting but in fact did not grab me with any urgency.
The explosion also kills Theo’s mother, leaving Theo essentially orphaned, as no one knows how to find his deadbeat dad - and it’s only when said deadbeat dad shows up and drags Theo off to live in Las Vegas that the book really grabbed me.
It’s not because of the dad himself, mind, but because the move introduces Theo to Boris Pavlikovsky.
Boris Pavlikovsky is a sweetheart, which seems like a weird thing to say about a fifteen-year-old drug addict who introduced our hero to shoplifting and sniffing glue, but it’s true. Theo is adrift in the desert and also despair, but he comes to life again when he meets Boris, who calls Theo “Potter” (for Harry Potter, because of Theo’s glasses). Almost instantly they are inseparable companions, talking about nothing and everything and watching old movies and looking after each other, because neither of them have any responsible adults to do things like “stock food in the fridge” or “give them a curfew” or even notice on any kind of regular basis whether they’re still alive.
They also sleep together, both in the literal sense (the exchange that launched a thousand fics: “Shh, Potter. Is only me,” which Boris says to Theo one night when they wake up all snuggled together and Theo tries to slip inconspicuously away, because this is maybe… kind of gay??? But half-asleep Boris is just like, more snuggling) but also in the figurative sense that they definitely screw around when they’re drunk and high on all the various substances that they can get their hands on.
Also Theo is SO in love with Boris, there is an entire section which is about the time that Boris got a girlfriend and Theo is explaining in great detail why this bothered him without ever actually saying I WAS SO JEALOUS THAT IT NEARLY CHOKED ME, although the lengthy explanations that he does offer make it absolutely clear that he was, in fact, nearly suffocated by his own jealousy.
The thing about Theo is that he is wildly! intensely! horrendously! uncomfortable with his own sexuality. My personal read is that he’s bi, but deeply in denial and trying so so hard to repress his attraction to men, but you could also make an argument that he’s gay and his relationships with women are just an attempt to convince himself otherwise. His relationship with Pippa definitely fits that pattern - he loves her in part because of her unattainability, because he can love her without ever having to actually physically be with her.
But he does enjoy having sex with his fiance Kitsey, which is why I lean toward the theory that Theo is bi, but really really uncomfortable with his attraction to men, and also deeply uncomfortable with having to actually express feelings or needs or actually get to know the person that he’s with, which is why he’s so hung up on Boris despite said aforementioned discomfort, because Boris gets him without Theo having to do any of the damn work.
Except! What kills me! Eventually Theo leaves Vegas, and also Boris, and they’re separated for a bunch of chapters, and then they meet again as adults - and Boris actually mentions their previous sexual escapades, and he’s all, this is just a thing that happens with teenagers sometimes when they’re horny and high, it doesn’t mean much, except maybe I think it meant more to you?
And with most characters! I could fanwank my way around this! “He said that because he was repressing the strength of his feelings because of internalized homophobia,” I would say, and ship merrily on.
Unfortunately Boris is the LEAST repressed character EVER and if he wanted to bang Theo, you just know that he would have come breezing back into Theo’s life all “Potter! Let’s bang!”
Or perhaps not quite that directly, given that Boris stole Theo’s stolen painting and believes that Theo knows and is angry about it (Theo has in fact not removed the object he believes is the painting from its wrappings in years, and doesn’t know about the theft). Maybe Boris would want to butter Theo up first and then broach the subject of “Hey! Let’s bang!”
But Boris is such a straightforward person that I’m struggling to think of a reason why he would straight up tell Theo that he’s not sexually interested in men if that were not, in fact, the truth. Except! I don’t want it to be the truth! Because if Boris is straight, that means that Theo’s enormous crush is doomed to remain forever unrequited, and that prospect is crushing my soul!
There are pairings in this world where I love the angst of unrequited love, but this is not one of them. Theo has been through so much already that all I want is for him to be able to sleep in Boris’s arms forever for the rest of his life.
I have dipped my toes into the waters of fanfic and so far people seem to be just kind of ignoring this exchange (possibly the recent movie didn’t include it, anyway? A lot of the fic seems to be drawing on the movie) in favor of “Shh, Potter,” and also the scene where Boris crashes Theo’s engagement party. But if anyone has a good solid in-universe explanation that still leaves open the possibility of Boris someday returning Theo’s feelings, please let me know.
The explosion also kills Theo’s mother, leaving Theo essentially orphaned, as no one knows how to find his deadbeat dad - and it’s only when said deadbeat dad shows up and drags Theo off to live in Las Vegas that the book really grabbed me.
It’s not because of the dad himself, mind, but because the move introduces Theo to Boris Pavlikovsky.
Boris Pavlikovsky is a sweetheart, which seems like a weird thing to say about a fifteen-year-old drug addict who introduced our hero to shoplifting and sniffing glue, but it’s true. Theo is adrift in the desert and also despair, but he comes to life again when he meets Boris, who calls Theo “Potter” (for Harry Potter, because of Theo’s glasses). Almost instantly they are inseparable companions, talking about nothing and everything and watching old movies and looking after each other, because neither of them have any responsible adults to do things like “stock food in the fridge” or “give them a curfew” or even notice on any kind of regular basis whether they’re still alive.
They also sleep together, both in the literal sense (the exchange that launched a thousand fics: “Shh, Potter. Is only me,” which Boris says to Theo one night when they wake up all snuggled together and Theo tries to slip inconspicuously away, because this is maybe… kind of gay??? But half-asleep Boris is just like, more snuggling) but also in the figurative sense that they definitely screw around when they’re drunk and high on all the various substances that they can get their hands on.
Also Theo is SO in love with Boris, there is an entire section which is about the time that Boris got a girlfriend and Theo is explaining in great detail why this bothered him without ever actually saying I WAS SO JEALOUS THAT IT NEARLY CHOKED ME, although the lengthy explanations that he does offer make it absolutely clear that he was, in fact, nearly suffocated by his own jealousy.
The thing about Theo is that he is wildly! intensely! horrendously! uncomfortable with his own sexuality. My personal read is that he’s bi, but deeply in denial and trying so so hard to repress his attraction to men, but you could also make an argument that he’s gay and his relationships with women are just an attempt to convince himself otherwise. His relationship with Pippa definitely fits that pattern - he loves her in part because of her unattainability, because he can love her without ever having to actually physically be with her.
But he does enjoy having sex with his fiance Kitsey, which is why I lean toward the theory that Theo is bi, but really really uncomfortable with his attraction to men, and also deeply uncomfortable with having to actually express feelings or needs or actually get to know the person that he’s with, which is why he’s so hung up on Boris despite said aforementioned discomfort, because Boris gets him without Theo having to do any of the damn work.
Except! What kills me! Eventually Theo leaves Vegas, and also Boris, and they’re separated for a bunch of chapters, and then they meet again as adults - and Boris actually mentions their previous sexual escapades, and he’s all, this is just a thing that happens with teenagers sometimes when they’re horny and high, it doesn’t mean much, except maybe I think it meant more to you?
And with most characters! I could fanwank my way around this! “He said that because he was repressing the strength of his feelings because of internalized homophobia,” I would say, and ship merrily on.
Unfortunately Boris is the LEAST repressed character EVER and if he wanted to bang Theo, you just know that he would have come breezing back into Theo’s life all “Potter! Let’s bang!”
Or perhaps not quite that directly, given that Boris stole Theo’s stolen painting and believes that Theo knows and is angry about it (Theo has in fact not removed the object he believes is the painting from its wrappings in years, and doesn’t know about the theft). Maybe Boris would want to butter Theo up first and then broach the subject of “Hey! Let’s bang!”
But Boris is such a straightforward person that I’m struggling to think of a reason why he would straight up tell Theo that he’s not sexually interested in men if that were not, in fact, the truth. Except! I don’t want it to be the truth! Because if Boris is straight, that means that Theo’s enormous crush is doomed to remain forever unrequited, and that prospect is crushing my soul!
There are pairings in this world where I love the angst of unrequited love, but this is not one of them. Theo has been through so much already that all I want is for him to be able to sleep in Boris’s arms forever for the rest of his life.
I have dipped my toes into the waters of fanfic and so far people seem to be just kind of ignoring this exchange (possibly the recent movie didn’t include it, anyway? A lot of the fic seems to be drawing on the movie) in favor of “Shh, Potter,” and also the scene where Boris crashes Theo’s engagement party. But if anyone has a good solid in-universe explanation that still leaves open the possibility of Boris someday returning Theo’s feelings, please let me know.
