The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

 

Characters

Theodore Decker Audrey – mother Larry – father Xandra – Larry’s girlfriend in Las Vegas   Welty Blackwell Pippa - niece James Hobart – Hobie Aunt Margaret Blackwell Pierce – Pippa’s aunt, took her to Texas   Barbour family: Parents Andy – Theo’s classmate and friend Platt – older brother Kitsey and Toddy – younger siblings   Tom Cable – Theo’s friend from school, got into trouble with Theo – reason Theo and mother went to museum that day   Boris – school friend in Las Vegas, meets again as an adult in New York Gyuri - driver   Lucius Reve – customer/collector   Mr. Bracegirdle - lawyer

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       When Theodore left Las Vegas, Xandra told him he was more like his father than he knew (page 370).  Did you see any resemblance at that point in the novel?

 

2.       If you have experienced deep grief, what did you think about the author’s description of Theo’s feelings, particularly pages 86 – 87 where she wrote of Theo and his mother, “I missed her so much I wanted to die: a hard, physical longing, like a craving for air underwater.”  If you have not experienced this type of grief, did the description help you understand the experience?

 

3.       After four or five days of Theo staying home at the Barbours, Mrs. Barbour told him to go back to school and said, “…keeping busy is the only thing in the world that’ll make you feel better” (page 89).  Was this good advice?

 

4.       At the school, Theo worked with a social worker, the school counselor and a psychiatrist as well as concerning teachers.  Was there any way they could have helped him that they did not do?

5.       Even though he knew his father’s death was not his fault, Theo felt, “on a bone-deep, irrational, completely unshakable level I also knew that it was” (page 393).  Why did he feel this way?

 

6.       Likewise, Kitsey felt guilty over Andy and her father’s death because she was the better sailor and did not go to help her father.  Should she feel guilty?

 

7.       Why did Kitsey become engaged to Theo even though it seemed she was in love with Tom Cable?  Why were the Barbours so tolerant of Theo, thinking the marriage was still going to happen after he traveled the world for close to a year at the end of the novel buying back to art forgeries he sold?

 

8.       Hobie felt that Welty knew what he was doing when he gave Theo the ring (and painting which Hobie did not know about).  Why did Welty give those things to Theo after the explosion?

 

9.       Given that Hobie was making such good reproductions, was he totally blameless in the scheme Theo was running selling them as authentic?

 

10.   Given the time we are living in where so many businesses are in danger of closing, did you understand Hobie feelings about patronizing businesses to help them stay solvent?  Pippa texted Theo, “he only goes places where he feels sorry for the owners!  Because he is scared they will go out of business and then he will feel guilty” (page 396).

 

11.   Theo and Boris’ drug use was a theme throughout the novel. Do you think their addiction was accurately described?  Did you feel any empathy for either of them?

 

12.   What part did Lucius Reeve play in the story?  How did he make the connection between Theo and The Goldfinch (page 484)?  Was his motivation to get the painting or just recover the money Theo cheated him for? 

 

13.   After reading about Hobie’s work, do you have a different view of your furniture?  For example, he explained to Theo about the damage done by years of hairspray and drawers “crammed too full with junk” (page 417).

 

14.   Hobie and Theo felt that rooms and objects had their own souls, “emanations left by time” (page 506).  Did this idea make you think about your home and possessions differently?

 

15.   On page 762 Theo comes to the realization that he and Pippa could never have survived together because they had both been through the same trauma.  Did you agree?

 

16.   On page 763 Theo reveals that he is the author of this story, hoping that Pippa will eventually read it.  How do you think she will feel if she does?

 

17.   At the end of the novel, Theo wondered what Fabritius, when he chose to paint the goldfinch chained to the perch, “was trying to tell us by his choice of tiny subject” (page 765).  What message do you think the artist was trying to show?

 

18.   Did the last five pages (“life is catastrophe” [page 767], “We can’t escape who we are” [770], “fate is cruel but maybe not random” [page 771]) give you a hopeful or negative feeling?   Why did the author end the novel that way?

 

19.   Could this book have been shorter and still be as good?  What would you eliminate?

 

20.   This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2014.   The main criteria are that the book must be written by an American citizen and somehow deals with American life.    Was this book deserving of the honor?  Why or why not?

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