The Secret History

Oops, I forgot I read this book back while I was student teaching and never blogged about it (you know, being busy educating 92 young minds). I had Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch (before it won the Pulitzer) and I wasn't a huge fan, but I thought I'd try a different one of hers. Also, at the school I was teaching at, teachers display outside of their room what they are currently reading. I displayed this book and one of my students really connected over this book. Reading unites!

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Genre: Fiction
Publication Date: September 1992
Setting: Hamden College, Vermont, present-day

The story follows Richard, a California boy who transfers to a liberal arts Hampden College in Vermont. Richard manages to join the eclectic Classics program, with a nutty professor and only five other peers who are all obsessed with Greek history and their own egos. Richard comes from a lower-middle class family and he is put in a position where he only interacts with the very wealthy and profligate. Richard hides his modest upbringing and gradually assimilates into the clique as they take frequent and drunken weekends at Francis's lake house.

Richard becomes obsessed with his "friends" and tries to determine their relationships with each other and with him - Bunny is the boisterous bigot, Francis is a closet homosexual in love with bunny, Henry is elusive and pompous, and twins Camilla (a tease) and Charles who are their own clique. One weekend at the lake house, some of the group get into Ancient Greek-inspired trouble, which other members of the group find out about and use as blackmail. Well things go from bad to worse as these kids try to keep their heads above water, and this small clique eventually self-destructs. Other book reviews refer to this work as a Whydunnit instead of a Whodunnit and that is an excellent description - why did these kids do these things, why do they act this way and to each other.

The book is very well written. What I enjoy is the perfect narrator that is Richard. He is the definition of an outsider - from the West Coast, not wealthy, and new in town. But he is somewhat included into this unique, fascinating, and elite group. Therefore, the audience as well, is included into an exclusive club we always wanted to be a part of. It is also fun to read about college characters, for that times allows for a multitude of opportunities of self-discovery and re-invention.

Finished reading: sometime in March?

DD's rating: A
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Very well written and better characters than The Goldfinch. I also think I've always fantasized about attending a Northern liberal arts school (in the realm of Bucknell, Vassar, or Colby) and living a very intellectual and antiquated life. Additionally, I became obsessed with the characters as much as Richard did. Two thumbs up.