Chance puts thirteen year-old Theo Decker and his mother inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art when a bomb explodes, killing many, including his mother. Theo had just had a life altering encounter with an edgy, fiery haired girl inside the museum before the explosion, and before he escapes the bombed building, he comforts a dying man who gives him an antique ring, asking him to return it to his family, and encourages him to rescue a very small, very famous painting, The Goldfinch. Theo's theft of the painting sets his own tale in motion, and his fate is intertwined with the fate of the stolen painting. He spends time living with a wealthy Park Avenue family with its own dark underbelly, and when his absent, alcoholic, gambling father shows up with his cocaine sniffing girlfriend, he's flown to Las Vegas to live in an almost deserted, abandoned housing tract. He eventually escapes back to Manhattan. The painting, which Theo knows he should have returned, is hidden and eventually thrusts him into the underbelly of the art world.
Donna Tartt creates a brilliant cast of characters--from Theo to Hobie, a New York antique restorer to Boris, a troubled young Ukrainian teen who is Theo's Las Vegas neighbor and partner in crime. The writing is spectacular, and the almost 800 page novel totally engrosses the reader in Theo's tale of fate and fortune. I am a huge admirer of Tartt's other two novels, and I think this book should seal her reputation as a master at her craft. Don't pick it up unless you have some time to devote--it's impossible to put down.
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