The Secret History

Man that novel is some next level of shit. It's almost as bad that it's enjoyable, though. I was recommended this nonsene by a friend that knows I like detective novels. And through the book I was quite enjoying it, always expecting that awesome twist that I thought was behind the corner. All the clues were simple and predictable, so I knew there must be a super Agatha Christie revelation to be had near the end. I had at least five awesome and complex plotlines that were on the horizon, each as nefarious as the other, and then nothing came out of it. I was flabbergasted. It all turned out to be a simple and predictable campus novel. But yeah, I can't wait to trick someone into reading it...

No, sorry. Hopefully someone else here does though.

I should have known what I'm reading. There's a minor plotline where author has one of her super smart characters gather for amanita caesarea in USofA, and he even manages to find them! Need I mention that it doesn't grow there?

The Daughter of Time. (Richard III)
The Historian. (Dracula)
Brideshead Revisited. (another campus novel)
Name of the Rose. (Monks and mysteries)

Two good lists:
theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/19/top10s.winter.nights
theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/26/crime.bestbooks

Right, so you didn't like a deconstruction of the detective novel and that's somehow the book's fault and not yours.

IT'S A DECONSTRUCTION DUDE
IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE TEPID
HAHAHA YOU DON'T EVEN GET IT

HAHA NOT AN ARGUMENT DUDE

I was following your lead.

Has anyone here read her other book, The Little Friend? How does it stack up to Secret History/Goldfinch?

I'm not even but your attitude is so lazy and dismissive it bothered me enough to post.

Wait, her other books are good ?
My aunt offered me The Goldfinch for Christmas and the fact it received the Pulitzer had me dumbfounded.
The prose was lacking subtlety, the characters were one-dimensional, the chain of events were just ridiculous.
I soldiered through it but I kept thinking I had already read or heard dozens of stories like this one.
What are her other books like ?

About as lazy and dismissive as telling someone it's a deconstruction. All they're saying is "lol u didn't get it".
Cool, nice.
It doesn't even make sense as a response to what that user didn't like about it.

Yeah I have no idea what happened with the Pulitzer prize, that book was fucking awful; one of the worst I've ever read all the way through.

The Secret History on the other hand is addictive reading and actually original. I couldn't believe the two books were written by the same author (though with a 20 year gap).

I think you will be pleasantly surprised if you read the Secret History.

I'll think about it thanks
Want to read Lolita first

Something fishy happened with that Pulitzer.

I'd recommend this book on the grounds of its comfiness alone. This must be one of the comfyiest books I've ever read. It made me feel as comfy as Harry Potter made me feel when I was 10.

>undergrads in classics not knowing their particles or prepositions
>undergrads (or anyone, really) having rich full conversations in pure Attic Greek
>a 21 year old who can read Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Greek, Latin, Italian, and French

She kept crossing the line where it became unrealistic.

>being a pleb who didn't learn Ancient Greek during middle school

Holy shit, I knew the American educational system was failing, but this is ridiculous.

Face it, Henry is as autistic as anyone on this board.

That's what I'm saying. There's this whole part where they're translating from english to Greek and don't know how to say that the soldiers sailed "to Carthage". And then the protag comes in with "hurr use -de like Homer" which is retarded and would read like it was written by a retard if we ever brought an ancient Athenian back to life. It'd be like saying "the soldiers sailed thitherward". As if directional suffixes weren't long dead even in Homer's time!

Feels rather different from the other two, probably because of the third person narrator. Good though.
Enjoyed it possibly less than The Secret History but probably more than The Goldfinch, it's been a while.

I seem to recall his suggestion being regarded with some scepticism by the others at least.

I'm not American but I've been to schools in most anglo-sphere countries and we never learnt any languages beyond a bit of french we soon forgot. I think some of you people have gone to private schools and don't realize how basic public education is.

Exactly. There's also this godlike classics professor that spews blatant modern hearsay about well documented Roman emperor. It's obvious she went over the head in picturing this high academic circle, and didn't have the level herself of it to make it believable. I don't mind that as much, it's entertaining novel, but it is flawed one on plenty of levels, so I truly don't understand all the critical praise it gets.

The Secret History is irritating with a lot of obvious flaws but god damn is it a page turner. It reminds me of Never Let Me Go in that respect.