Finished: The Secret History (Tartt) My second Donna Tartt book, and it was very good, but so emotionally draining, once again. I'm not sure what kind of a recap I'll give. She certainly creates tragic, heading-down-the-wrong-path characters that you just long to take in hand, maybe shake, but most definitely hug and love. In The Secret History, the narrator, Richard, is a 20 year old young man whose low-life parents could care less about him. He lives in a California town where he has done two years of college studying English literature, but he longs to escape his very poor, very unloving life. He applies to Hamden, a small college in Vermont, and surprisingly is accepted with financial aid. He's completely alone, and has about zero self-esteem. When he discovers that there's an eclectic, mysterious teacher that teaches only Greek studies, and only accepts a handful of students, he decides that's the course of study for him. Refused by the professor, Julian, at first, Richard persists and finally becomes one of the only six students who Julian takes on. You think of Julian at times (at least the young, highly intelligent, but very impressionable students do) as a benevolent father figure who only wants to instill in them his beliefs in everything ancient Greek. However, you can see once we meet each of the students that what he really does is surround himself with students who don't really have good family support...students who will worship him and come to emotionally depend on him. Julian doesn't really do anything bad in the book; he just doesn't really deeply care about the students the way he leads them to believe he does. Once a student joins Julian's classes, those are the ONLY classes they take at Hamden...all Greek, with the exception of one of the Romantic languages if they choose. Richard's fellow students, who have all already taken the Greek classes for two years, are all very close and know each other very well. At first it's hard for Richard to fit in, and for them to trust him with their secretive, Bacchanalian ways...but they all adapt, and Richard becomes one of the group and they all grow to care for each other in their dysfunctional ways, and more importantly, to completely depend on one another.

The other students are Henry, the perceived leader of the group...highly intelligent, but with little emotional affect. He is from a family with money, so has no problem financially, but he is perhaps the most deeply "into" the Greek teachings, language, thoughts, and basic philosophy. He and Julian are very close, and all the others always look to Henry for a final decision or solution when problems arise. Henry's got only a mother, but they are not very close. Francis is the red-headed, wealthy, most dramatic of the gang. He's a hypochondriac, but he'll do anything for his friends. They all will really. He's gay, but must hide it from his family to keep the money rolling in. They all spend many weekends out at his family's estate in "the country". His father is not around, and his mother is an alcoholic who has been to treatment once, but it didn't help. She's got a younger husband. Edmund, known for some reason as Bunny to family and friends, is the big, loud, ex-football playing, gregarious one who is always copying everyone else's homework, borrowing everyone else's money, and accepting no responsibility for his own actions. He's likable in some ways, is well known on campus, but is grating as all get out. He pushes the boundaries of friendship with what he expects his friends to do for him. He's one of five boys who has grown up in a family that likes to pretend it's wealthier than it is. His father is a bank president, whose house is mortgaged to the hilt, and his mother is more concerned with appearances than she is with actually caring for her children. Bunny constantly borrows money from Henry, and Henry doesn't mind...but it's even to the extent of planning elaborate vacations for the two of them, always at Henry's expense. And, if Bunny is somewhere where he can't pay for a bill, he picks up the phone and calls Henry. Henry is always there. Bunny is also bigoted and would probably have a fit if he knew Francis was gay. Charles and Camilla are the beautiful twins. They were orphaned as children and have been raised by their grandmother in Virginia. They are ethereal and seemingly a bit naive, but very complex individuals. They can be the kindest of the friends, but also are the most mysterious. And then, of course, there's Richard, the insecure follower. He has the tendency to have leadership thoughts, and know right from wrong, but he doesn't appear to have a huge conscience that would make him DO the right thing most of the time. All the kids drink loads of alcohol and experiment with different drugs: uppers, downers, cocaine. They are all highly intelligent, and maintain their studies and their classes with Julian for the most part, but they seem to always be under the influence of something or another. In all honesty, they exude an intellectual superiority that doesn't endear them to the rest of the students on campus, but doesn't completely alienate them either.

So, one night, before the group had grown to trust Richard, they went and participated in a wild Bacchanalia night that Henry had planned. He wanted to experience all the primal feelings of the ancient Greeks. Henry, Francis, Charles and Camilla planned the event without including Bunny, who they didn't think would understand the depths of what they were trying to transcend. I'm sure some manner of drugs was involved, given the hallucinations they had, and possibly even some animal sacrifice. Sadly, though, they happened to hold their little event on a private farm. When the farmer comes out to see what the ruckus is, and confronts the gang, Henry kills him in a semi-conscious fit of rage or euphoria or whatever he calls it. All the others witness it, and so it becomes their secret. Bunny, who had not been able to get in touch with anyone, figures out what they did when the news of the farmer's animal-like death is in the paper. He confronts them and they finally admit what they did. He's more hurt that they left him out than he is shocked that they actually murdered someone. They don't let Richard in on the secret until events escalate between Henry and Bunny. By escalate, I mean, Bunny starts demanding more and more money from each of them, draining their bank accounts, but especially from Henry. He holds the event over their heads, so they bend over backwards to make sure he won't go to the authorities. He doesn't ever come out and say he will, but the implication and his loud mouth, especially when he gets drunk, worries them. Henry finally confides in Richard one night because he thinks that if Bunny tells anyone first, he will tell the newbie. Bunny goes so far as to plan another elaborate trip with Henry to Rome where he insists on the best suites, the best foods, etc., all the while Henry's bank account is shrinking. They get into a huge fight and Henry leaves Rome early. He convinces the others that the only thing they can do is kill Bunny and make it look like an accident. So they do. Henry doesn't intend for Richard to be there or be involved, but Richard knows the plan, and when it looks like it might not go as planned, he rushes to the others to tell them that Bunny isn't going to be where they thought he would be that night. As they're all talking in the woods by this ravine, Bunny comes bursting through the bushes, drinking, and surprised to see them all there. It takes only a moment for Henry to push Bunny over the ravine, killing him.

All of these kids are just so broken, that even if they feel tinges of remorse or nostalgia for Bunny, none of them realizes the deep mortal sin they have committed. They worry about being caught, and emotionally, they all fall apart in different ways, most of them involving heavier alcohol and drug use. The rest of the book deals with them all being welcomed with open arms by Bunny's father at his funeral, dealing with the investigation once Bunny's body is found, bailing each other out of scrapes with the law, and finally, to the shame of Julian finding out that it was actually these students of his that killed Bunny. They actually have more shame for Julian knowing what they did, than for what they actually DID. Julian, up and leaves the students and the college, and doesn't give them another thought (at least he doesn't turn them in), which lets them all know that Julian doesn't want his name involved in any of it, i.e., he's always just been out for himself and using them to puff himself up. In the end, with the twin bond between Charles and Camilla breaking down due to her budding relationship with Henry, and due to Charles' excessive drinking, Camilla moves out of their apartment and Charles goes into a tailspin. He's hospitalized with bronchitis, and once out, he's still so furious at Henry, who he feels put alot of the load of dealing with the authorities off on the charming Charles, that he's nearly despondent. He shows up at Camilla's, where he knows Henry will be, but doesn't expect to see Francis and Richard there as well. He's got a gun. He aims it to shoot at Henry, but Camilla jumps at him and then Henry jumps at him, and the gun goes off several times, shooting only Richard, and not mortally. However, the commotion is enough to bring people running. Henry knows that soon the authorities will come, and with things unraveling, the truth of Bunny's death is bound to come out. Henry wrestles the gun away from Charles and whispers something to Camilla, then tells her he loves her, then saying this is for the best for all of them, he shoots himself in the head. They are all stunned and terribly upset. Yet, once again, Henry has fixed things for all of them. The authorities will think that he shot Richard and took his own life. In the end, he bails Charles out, even though Charles was at fault. After that, the students all go their separate ways, and in an epilogue, see very little of each other over the years. Richard goes on to get a degree in English literature and enter a doctoral program. Francis basically still lives off his trust fund, but must marry a girl he doesn't love when his grandfather catches him with a man and gives him the ultimatum, the money or the men. Camilla and Charles go back to live with their grandmother and take care of her. Charles goes into a treatment program, but leaves after two weeks, and then runs off to Texas with a married woman he meets in the program. When Francis tries to commit suicide three years later, Richard and Camilla both rush to Boston. They see Francis through, and he goes on then to marry the girl. Richard walks Camilla to her train and confesses that he's always loved her, and asks her to marry him. She actually considers it, but tells him she loved Henry and will always love Henry. And that's the end. I have no idea how I came to care about these people who could kill with such lack of conscience, except that they all had such terrible childhoods, either through desertion, over indulgence, loss, etc. Donna Tartt, in any event, is a very, very good writer and creates characters that will stay with me for a long time after finishing the book.