Donna Tartt
The Secret History by Donna Tartt opens with a chilling prologue in which Richard, the first-person narrator of the novel, reveals his participation in a murder which occurred many years prior. The victim was a college friend known as Bunny. The remaining 500 plus pages of the novel circle back to Richard’s background; his attendance at a liberal arts college in Vermont; his acceptance at an exclusive class taught by an eccentric Classics professor; his developing friendship with the five other students in the class; the events leading up to the murder of one of those students; and the aftermath. The opening pages divulge the murder, so we know who gets killed, but we don’t know why.
Unlike his five classmates, Richard comes from a low-income family. He is embarrassed by his background and makes every attempt to fit in with his wealthier classmates. He is susceptible to their influence, is easily impressed, and eager to please. All this makes him a naïve and an unreliable narrator.
The plot is intricate. Since we know at the outset who gets killed and who the culprits are, the suspense is not generated by whodunit but by why-they-done-it, and will they get caught? The culprits hide their tracks, await anxiously for Bunny’s body to be discovered, navigate through police questioning, and attend Bunny’s funeral with an appropriate façade of mourning. This gripping, page-turner charts how the effects of an unpunished crime cause each member of the group to unravel in his or her own way.
Tartt captures a college atmosphere awash with alcohol and drugs which her characters use to anesthetize themselves. The characters are well-developed and intriguing, especially Henry, the de-facto leader of the group. Richard’s fascination with Henry saturates the narrative. And although he survives, Richard continues to be haunted by the crime and by ghosts of the past as evidenced by the prologue written years after the event. His overwhelming desire for acceptance by this elite group blinds him to their snobbery and lack of moral fiber until years later.
The diction is rich and detailed. Tartt immerses the reader in college life. She peppers the narrative with references to Greek plays and Greek phrases. She captures Richard’s insecurities and psyche realistically. And although some of the scenes are unnecessarily drawn out, too long, and overwritten, they don’t mar the effect of the novel as a whole.
With echoes of The Lord of the Flies and Crime and Punishment, this is a gripping novel about a group of elitist students at an exclusive liberal arts college who are convinced the rules of moral and ethical behavior don’t apply to them and who eventually learn they are not immune to the consequences of an unpunished and morally abhorrent crime.