Finished The Goldfinch, and although it's not a perfect book I did enjoy reading it a lot. For all the criticism I've seen, nearly all of it didn't apply to me really. Anytime there's a long book, people will always always say it should be shorter. I had no issue with the length. I also had no issue with the narrator, and I felt like his POV was compelling on its own. Of course, Boris is a great character, but I don't think the book would be as good if it were solely about him (which is something I've seen many people bring up). In the end, I wasn't completely blown away or angry, just somewhere in the middle. Endings are hard, and all considered, I feel like it ended when it needed to, and told the story it wanted to. The final section was a little too "let me ponder the meaning of life and essentially summarize the meaning of this novel" but it didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth or anything. All in all, pretty good book - with lots of amazing bits scattered throughout. I also love her prose, which I guess some people just couldn't get into.
Now I'm onto Universal Harvester. So I read John Darnielle's other book Wolf In White Van a couple of years ago and really loved it. I remember the reception being fairly mixed. This one looks to have even more negative reactions towards it, but so far I really like it. However, what made Wolf In White Van so compelling was the way Darnielle wrote. It just pulled me in, and the ending left a massive impact on me. Universal Harvester, so far, doesn't have the same rhythm and style of Wolf, but I still like what's happening.
