I did not enjoy this book, although I will admit that it was not due to to the book being bad but that the story was just not to my taste.

This story follows a small group of intelligent and relatively wealthy college kids who study Ancient Greek. It's an elite group that is hand-picked by the overseeing lecturer, Julian. Who refuses entry to almost everybody except our six main characters. They are academic snobs and the exclusivity of their course definitely leaves them with a pretty well ingrained sense of superiority. The stratification of their education from the mass of supposed lesser scholars, in addition to the wealth of most of the characters, provides an apt microcosm for the stratification of the classes in general society. The book definitely provides a criticism of class and elitism and ultimately reveals how fickle those distinctions truly are. 

The nature of their course work, studying a dead language, leaves them pretty disconnected from the "real" world and constantly pining for a long dead Era. This mentality is really the crux of the book. These characters have mainly chosen to live by the rules and practices of the Ancient Greeks. Preferring the grandeur and supposed superiority of culture of the lost civilization, however that world no longer exists. 

Donna Tart wrote in an interesting manner. Even though she started with one of the main climactic points,

Bunny's murder

, there was still a sense of mystery and tension throughout the book. She created tension by leaving the reader constantly wondering how the characters progressed from point A to point B. You known what is coming but are unsure of how all of these events line up to culminate into that eventual happening. This wasn't necessarily unpleasant, I'm just not a fan of the whole 'Two Months Earlier' plot device. Besides

Henry's death

there were no real plot twists or surprises for me, and even that event was expected due to the lead up to the end of the book. I suppose this could be chalked up to good foreshadowing on the author's part. It didn't necessarily ruin the book for me, the lack of surprises, but it did make it a little less engaging. 

Also, I wasn't really that fond of the characters. Bunny is a bigot, and thus it's hard to feel any kind of sympathy

when he does meet his eventual and violent end

. All of the characters were self-involved and rather impressed with themselves. I know that this accurately reflects the attitude of an individual in their environment, but it left me feeling disinclined towards the characters and story due to their lack of relatability or even their ability to induce sympathy. I think the lack of connection to the other characters was due to the narrator and his position in the story. Richard, was very much an outsider and admittedly, his perception of the other main characters was very much informed by his admiration for them and his own feelings of inadequacy. The other characters, besides maybe Bunny, really did come across as caricatures; hollow and extreme versions of themselves. 

I know that the value of this book lies in the analysis and study of the effect guilt and desperation has on the human psyche and it is very reminiscent of 'Crime and Punishment'. It also extends that analysis into the herd mentality of a group dynamic and the desire to be accepted into and maintain a certain status quo within a given social demographic. I would say the analysis is spot on but it makes for a rather depressing and unpleasant read.

The characters are lost in their own heads and the closed environment of their small and exclusive university, degree and friend group, leaves everything rather distilled and warped. The incredibly restricted circumstances of their social environment are reflected in the supposed restriction of their choices, which is why they escalate quickly to murder. 

An additional problem with the characters all venerating Ancient Greece is that it not only leaves them disengaged from the reality of their time and place but it also leaves them with a predisposition to be disdainful towards other cultures and histories that don't mirror or are similar to that of Ancient Greece. This is really one of the only aspects of the narrative that frustrated and offended me

besides the incest, copious drug use and Bunny's disgusting and near constant slurs of course

. Their mentality largely excluded African, East Asian, Southern American and indigenous cultures, basically everything that wasn't European and that irritated me. I know it's simply a product of their studies and the general snobbery that is associated with studying the Classics (which are only European languages, thanks colonization), but it was never addressed in the book as being offensive and at its core, discriminatory and this is quite an important issue race wise. People often attribute elegance and sophistication to anything European and barbarism and simplicity to anything that is not. Which is quite ironic considering all of the ridiculous shit that the characters get up to. The book was written a while ago, but it's still an issue and thus must be addressed. 

Overall the characters were slightly unlikable, with Bunny being downright nasty. Charles and Henry were also questionable characters, with particularly Charles needing ridiculous amounts of therapy. The main character, Richard, was slightly irritating due to his desperation to be accepted into a group of people that he had attributed fineness and grandeur to based on nothing but the fact that they studied an exclusive degree in a dead language. Camilla was the only woman in the friend group and a rather absent character, despite being the center of some of the conflict within the group. Things seemed to happen to her and not because of her. She kind of just went along with whatever Henry or Charles had initiated and her most valuable qualities seemed to be her beauty and patience. The same can be said about Richard, he was at his essence, an observer to the antics and lives of the other characters but because he was the narrator his presence in the story was more obvious. Francis was more active than Camilla but not as dominating a presence as Bunny or Henry. 

In conclusion, the book was fine, the characters unlikable and the story kind of just plodded along to it's somewhat expected conclusion. I think that it is a great book to dissect and evaluate how the characters and story highlight and mimic real life issues. It provides many great discussion points on guilt, regret, classism, academic politics, crime, justice, reconciliation and perception. That being said I generally read for escapism and that was not what this book offered.