THE LITTLE FRIEND by DONNA TARTT (2002)

Second reading



Author Donna Tartt has published only three novels in 21 years: The Secret History in 1992, about intellectually arrogant students at a prestigious New England college; The Little Friend in 2002, about the repercussions following the murder of a child; and The Goldfinch in 2013, (which won the Pulitzer Prize) about the life of a man who as a boy was present at a terrorist bombing. All three open with the mention of a murder. All three could, on the surface, be classified as "coming-of-age" stories. All three veer into dark territory. And all three are beyond excellent.

The central character in The Little Friend. is a 12-year-old girl named Harriet, whose brother Robin was murdered, apparently in front of her eyes, when she was an infant. Even after twelve years the murder has not been solved, and her family has fallen apart: her sister has withdrawn into herself, her father is living with his mistress in another town, and her mother has sunk into a chemically tranquilized haze. In a quest to make some sense of her life, Harriet determines to find Robin's killer.

Anyone familiar with the children's book Harriet the Spy will immediately recognize the initial resemblance between the two girls, surely not coincidental. Both are brighter than most, inventive, and often charge ahead without giving sufficient thought to their actions. Both fancy themselves to be detectives. But the seeming resemblance soon crumbles as this novel veers in a darker direction. Harriet's hearsay evidence leads her to believe that the murderer is one of the Ratliff's, a family of petty criminals and meth cookers, but when she decides to investigate them events soon tumble out of control in unexpected ways.

One of the most attractive aspects of this book, for me, is that it is totally surprising; I never anticipated the events as they unfolded. From about midway, an atmosphere of dread intrudes, but of what? The prose is old-fashioned, almost 19th century in flavor. Even minor characters are so clearly delineated that they take on a reality, much like Dickens' characters. Tartt has a particularly keen ear for dialogue. Her ear-perfect renditions of the conversations of fallen Southern aristocrats, Southern white trash, and Southern black servants are most impressive. The whole novel is so well executed that the addition of its extremely suspenseful plot is almost unnecessary.

I highly recommend this to folks who appreciate extraordinarily good writing and who welcome the unexpected.