Andrea Francois and Ann Vitz join me for a discussion of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. The novel uses its contemporary idiom (and some rough material) to discuss some of the great themes of literature: art vs. life, mortality, the role of tradition in modern life, and so on. We read the books behind the book (Keats, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, and so on). Finally, we appreciate the novel's ultimately Catholic worldview and find the characters and world fully drawn and ineluctably memorable. (NB: One of us quotes a vulgar word from the text, and maybe this is an episode not to listen to with the kids in the car anyway...)
Life of the Mind: Brookewood & Avalon Schools