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The Goldfinch - good choice for book club?


MtnTeaching
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I am part of a real live grown-up book club!

 

We read Unbroken for our first book (could not put it down.)  The Goldfinch was chosen for the second book.  Has anyone read it? Is it a good choice for a book club?  I am so used to reading chemistry books, college admission books, and "Pride and Prejudice" that I am a bit rusty on the more popular books.

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I've got it from the library right now, but not for book club (which coincidentally just left my house). It's too long a book for our club--771 pages! We'd be seriously stressed trying to get it read in time (we meet once a month). But I could see using it as an over-the-summer choice since we often don't meet in July. Of course for our club it is also supposed to be out in paperback, so we don't typically do the new releases.

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I loved, loved it. It could be a very good choice for a book club, depending on your book club. However, as Ali in OR mentioned, it is quite long (don't know if that is a plus or minus for your book club).

 

It just won the Pulitzer for fiction, btw.

 

 

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I've got it from the library right now, but not for book club (which coincidentally just left my house). It's too long a book for our club--771 pages! We'd be seriously stressed trying to get it read in time (we meet once a month). But I could see using it as an over-the-summer choice since we often don't meet in July. Of course for our club it is also supposed to be out in paperback, so we don't typically do the new releases.

 

We are only reading half of it by the middle of May, then the other half for the middle of June.  Our library has around 10 copies, but of course they are all out.  I finally caved and got it on Kindle.

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I just finished it and was hugely disappointed.  I didn't like any of the characters and really didn't see any point at all to the story.  There seemed to be lots of inconsistencies with the timeline.

 

FWIW, I absolutely love long books. The Goldfinch isn't anywhere near long by my standards.  So my dislike of it wasn't due to length.

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I just finished it and was hugely disappointed. I didn't like any of the characters and really didn't see any point at all to the story. There seemed to be lots of inconsistencies with the timeline.

 

FWIW, I absolutely love long books. The Goldfinch isn't anywhere near long by my standards. So my dislike of it wasn't due to length.

I have barely started Goldfinch, but I felt "meh" about her previous book, which also received quite a bit of acclaim. I have to say that save for Man Booker prize winners, I end up feeling the same about major award winners. "A visit from the Goon Squad" was another such example for me.
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I loved her previous book - A Secret History - and was seriously disappointed by The Goldfinch.  It could have used a good editor (the whole Las Vegas part should have been distilled to a few sentences I think.)  I don't think it deserved the Pulitzer. 

 

I did just finish the Orphan Master's Son and I loved it!  Much more reasonable length for a book club, lots of interesting topics, takes place in North Korea.  I highly recommend it!

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