Finished: The Goldfinch (Tartt) I knew from one of the first passages I read of this Pulitzer Prize winner that this would be a very moving, very intricate book, this story about a boy who loses his mother and how that deeply affects the rest of his life, and it was all that, plus a pretty wild ride. It was such a good, good book...a book that makes you feel really deeply. If this is a book you are seriously considering reading, then I wouldn't read this recap, because there are spoilers that may ruin the reading for you! Theo Decker is thirteen years old, and his mother has taken the day off from work to go to a meeting with the school principal. It seems that Theo was seen smoking by the principal, and he fears he will be suspended. Theo knows his mom can't afford to take off work, since she's been raising him on his own, with no financial aid from his dad since his dad, a mood-swinging alcoholic, walked out on them over a year before. As they walk to the meeting, the skies open up and pour down raining. Since they are early, they dash into the Metropolitan Museum of Art where there is a visiting art show exhibiting, The Goldfinch, the famous painting by Dutch painter, and student of Rembrandt's, Carel Fabritius. It is one of the few remaining pieces of art created by Fabritius before he died, and Theo's mother has loved the painting nearly all her life. To see it in person, is a great joy to her, and she wants to show Theo. As they look at the painting, Theo sees a red-headed girl about his age who is also looking at the painting with what looks like her grandfather. He falls instantly in love with her, even though he's never seen her before. As his mother and he make their way to the gift shop, Theo's mom says she's going to go and have one more glimpse of the painting. Theo sees her off and then heads towards the gift shop, where he sees the red-headed girl and her escort. Just then, a horrific blast occurs. There is a bombing at the museum! Theo is thrown unconscious amid tumbling concrete, wires, etc. When he awakens, the only person he sees is the older man, laying, grievously wounded. The red-headed girl is no where in sight, and his mother isn't either. The man, who's name is Welty Blackwell, takes off his family heirloom ring and gives Theo instructions on where to take it. He knows he's dying. He then points to the smokey painting of the goldfinch, which has miraculously survived, and begs Theo to take that too. As a matter of fact, he won't calm down until Theo puts it in his backpack....which he does...because he's in a daze, he's in shock, he doesn't know what to do. He thinks his mother must surely still be alive, and so after Welty dies, Theo makes his way out through the rubble and, despite the blood on him and his pounding headache, makes it back to their apartment to wait for his mom. Of course, his mom never shows up because she was killed in the blast. From this point on, Theo is in a state of shock and then in the hands of child protective services. He is very confused and knows only to bring his backpack with him when he is taken to the wealthy home of his best friend from elementary school, Andy Barbour. He and Andy are no longer close, but the Barbours take Theo in, no questions asked, and make him feel as much a part of the family as they can. They will take care of Theo until arrangements can be made with his grandparents if his father never comes forward. His ne'er do well, selfish grandparents, the ones who raised his ne'er do well, selfish father, don't want anything to do with him. So, Theo settles in at the Barbours and is there for several months. He struggles with nightmares and PTSD since the bombing, and he misses his mother terribly. :-( He also has no idea what to do with the painting now that months have gone by and his head has cleared. He wants to turn it into the museum, but is afraid he will be arrested or kicked out of the Barbour's house. One day, Theo makes the trip down to the Village and finds the address that Welty had given him when he asked him to deliver his ring. A giant of a man answers the door. His name is James Hobart "Hobie" and he is the kindest man Theo has ever met. He's overwhelmed that Theo brought his business partner's ring back, and he embraces Theo. Hobie is an antique restorer and Welty had been the purchasing partner. With Welty gone, Hobie has been at a loss and has not reopened the shop, but keeps up with the bills by repairing antiques for people. Hobie listens to Theo and feeds him and tells him if there's anything he can ever do, to let him know. Theo asks about the red-headed girl, assuming she died in the bombing, and Hobie tells him that Pippa survived the bombing, but is still in pretty bad shape from her head injury and doesn't like visitors. Theo is happily stunned. He learns that Pippa was Welty's niece who he had raised since she was a toddler. She was a talented flutist who was also suffering her own PTSD after the bombing, and especially traumatized by the death of Welty and by her loss of musical ability. Theo begs to see her, so Hobie takes him to Pippa's room and she instantly wants to see him too. She remembers him from the museum and they form an instant bond. She can't handle too long of a visit, and unfortunately her aunt is taking her to recuperate in Texas the very next day....but they have this brief moment of connection. Theo says his goodbyes, but then continues to make his way down to Hobie's once a week or so for the genuine kindness of the man. Hobie begins to teach Theo about restoring antiques, and knowing an antique when he sees one. Theo wonders if he should tell Hobie about the painting, but again, he's too afraid that he'll lose Hobie if he does, so he does nothing.

Just when the new school year is about to start, and Mrs. Barbour has indicated to Theo that he will most likely becoming a permanent fixture of their family, Theo's miscreant father turns up with his cheap girlfriend, and they whisk him off to live with them in Vegas. Theo doesn't want to go at all, but he must.  He panics about the painting, but wraps it up in some clothes and puts it in his suitcase and brings it along! He runs to see Hobie before he goes and they have a heartfelt goodbye. Hobie tells him to call him if he needs anything at all after he gets there, and promises to write (which he does).

From here on out, Theo's life goes even further downhill. I might as well type 600 pages to go into everything in detail. Suffice it to say, Theo's dad and Xandra are terrible parents. They leave Theo to his own devices, alone in a near empty street, in an unfinished neighborhood in the desert near Vegas. They give him a little attention, but mostly focus on themselves. Theo becomes even more lonely. After meeting another motherless, absentee-father boy at school, Ukrainian immigrant, Boris, Theo falls into skipping school, marijuana, shoplifting (for food mostly), alcohol, and then harder drugs. He and Boris become like brothers, but are terrible influences for each other. Theo's dad gets used to having him around, and has a couple of good moments here and there, but basically, he's a gambler...so his good and bad moods are determined by his wins at the casinos any given day. One day when he's in a generous mood, he gives Theo some cash, and then asks him for his social security number so he can open a savings account for Theo. Of course, it comes to light that he really just wanted to use that social security number to try and access the bit of money that Theo's mother left him in a trust for schooling. It's so sad when Theo realizes that. Also, Theo is still chronically worried about the painting and being arrested. He takes the painting out to look at it, and he loves it like his mother did, but then he wraps it in a pillowcase and keeps it taped behind his bed, always fearful that someone will find it. When it becomes clear that Theo's dad is now on a losing streak after a man comes to the house to collect money, and after his dad actually punches Theo in the face to make him get on the phone to the lawyer to try and access his school money, Theo sinks even lower. He and Boris dip further into their drug dependency, and their dependency on each other. Everything changes again when Theo's father is killed in an auto accident. Theo panics and tells Boris he must leave that very night and go back to New York. He will go to the Barbour's. Theo has now been living in Vegas for two years but Boris can't convince Theo to stay for even one more day. Theo does not want to be put back in social services, and he's again panicked about the painting! Theo gets the wrapped painting and a few clothes, and heads for a bus to New York. When he arrives, he heads towards the Barbour's, but as he approaches the house, he sees the formerly friendly Mr. Barbour, who doesn't recognize him and yells at him to leave him alone. It is clear that Mr. Barbour is off his depression medication, and Theo has never seen him like this. Despondent, Theo goes to the only place he knows to go....he knocks on Hobie's door. When Hobie sees him, he embraces him, and Theo breaks down in tears (and so did I) at the first indication of human warmth and kindness he's had in his life, basically since his mother died. Hobie puts the very sick Theo to bed and he and Pippa nurse him back to health. Pippa, however, doesn't stay for long because she's in a school for "crazy girls" in Switzerland. Theo and Pippa do have a little bit more bonding, but clearly he's head over heals in love with her, and she's more just trying to forget the past and move on. When Theo is well again, Hobie takes him to see his lawyer, and the lawyer agrees that Theo is old enough (almost 16 now) to decide where to live, so he sets him up with a small allowance from  his mother's money and agrees that he can stay with Hobie. Theo goes to pre-college (he's very smart) and does marginally well, but what he really likes is helping with the antique restorations!

Flash forward eight years and that's exactly what Theo has done. He's still living with Hobie and now has become his partner! For all those years, Hobie still concentrated on the furniture restoration and repair and left the financial part to Theo. Theo inherited a shop in debt, and in order to get them out from under the debt and to keep Hobie from losing his shop, Theo sells several of Hobie's own creations, which are not antiques, but bits and scraps of different pieces that he puts together, as true antiques to some pretty serious collectors. Hobie has no idea that Theo is taking the pieces from the store room, where he puts them after he's done, and so is completely oblivious to how Theo has re-engergized the shop. In the meantime, Theo, who has never even taken the painting out of the pillow case to look at it again, has paid for his own temperature controlled store room and stored the painting there for years! He goes through a very frantic few months when it is in the news that some of the paintings that were stolen from the museum on the bombing day have been found with an illegal art dealer in Miami and those people are sentenced to prison. He still has no idea what to do, and considers trying to turn the painting in some how, but then he always gets busy and goes back into avoiding the subject. Pippa has moved to London, and it's clear they won't be together, so even though he's deep down still in love with her, Theo becomes engaged to Kitsey Barbour, Andy's little sister. He hooks back up with that family when he runs into Andy's big brother, Platt, on the street one day and Platt tells him that both Mr. Barbour and Andy were drowned in a boating accident earlier in the year. :-( Theo feels terribly guilty because he came back to New York, and after running into Mr. Barbour and being yelled at, he has never resumed communication with any of the Barbours. He can't believe that Andy, one of the only people who had really been a friend when he was younger, is now dead. When he goes over to visit Mrs. Barbour, who has now gone from being a huge socialite to pretty much a recluse, that's when he gets back in touch with the now college-aged Kitsey and they have a whirlwind romance and get engaged! Mrs. Barbour is thrilled and it brings some life back into the family. However, even that can't be just a simple happiness. It turns out, Kitsey is really in love with one of Theo's old middle school friends, Tom Cable. As a matter of fact, Tom Cable is the "friend" who has left Theo holding the cigarette way back when they were seen by the principal, and is indirectly responsible for Theo's mother having to take off work the day of her death. This is the way Theo sees it, anyway, as Theo continues to blame himself for his mother's death, thinking if only he hadn't screwed up at school and forced his mother to have to miss work for the meeting. Anyway, Kitsey loves Tom, and Tom supposedly loves Kitsey, but her family can't stand him and they love Theo, so Kitsey and Theo actually agree to stay together for the sake of Mrs. Barbour for the time being. A few days later at their engagement party, Theo is still reeling a bit, but he's putting on the smiling face. Who should show up but Boris!!! Boris, who Theo hasn't heard from in years. Boris, who for the first few months after Theo left Vegas, would text him every once in awhile, but had basically fallen off the face of the earth! Boris barely gives the shocked Theo time to embrace him when he tells Theo that he must come with him immediately for a few days. Theo, being a bit ticked at Kitsey anyway, tells Hobie he's off for a few days, and leaves with Boris. Boris, who by the way, still looks like he's up to no good!!

Boris talks a mile a minute trying to explain something or other to Theo as Theo throws clothes into a suitcase. Boris says they're going to Amsterdam. He keeps apologizing to Theo and begging his forgiveness, but tells him that he's finally tracked it down and they're going to get it back together. Theo has no idea what Boris is talking about and Boris finally realizes that. It turns out, that years ago in Vegas, Boris had taken The Goldfinch from behind Theo's bed and replaced it with a book, re- wrapped it in the pillow case and re-taped it to the back of the bed!! All these panicky years that Theo thought he had an illegal painting he was keeping safe in a store room, he had not. Theo is furious with Boris. Boris explains that he just did it for kicks and was going to give it back to him, and if Theo remembered correctly, Boris had tried to talk him into staying just one more night when his father died, and then he was going to slip the painting back in, but Theo insisted on leaving right then. As Boris had become further and further entrenched in drugs, then dealing, then petty crime, he had began using the painting and it was actually one of the paintings involved in the Miami art debacle! However, someone Boris knew had made it out with the painting, but then THAT guy had started loaning the painting out as a way to take collateral money from people (or something like that). Anyway, Boris now had an exact location of the painting and he needed Theo to go with him and pose as the rich guy to get it back! Flabbergasted, Theo told Boris that when they DID see exactly where it was and who had it, that he was going to call the police and turn that person in and have them retrieve the painting, finally, after all these years. It would be tough for Theo not to have it in his possession, since it was what he saw as a final connection to his mother, but it would finally be over. Boris was incredulous....no way would they turn it in!! He wanted Theo to have it back. It was very valuable. The retrieval of the painting ends up being fraught with danger as fake money and guns (much to Theo's horror) are involved. Theo, Boris and his men end up getting the painting after Boris pistol whips the man who had stolen it. Theo and Boris unwrap the painting and Theo has a brief moment of absolute delight and wonder in seeing it's beauty when two other men come up with guns and take the painting back. Not only that, they are going to kill Theo and Boris. Boris makes a move and takes one guy down, and Theo grabs a gun and kills the other guy, and then basically goes into shock. Even worse, a third guy has grabbed the painting and fled. Boris knows who the guy is, but they can't catch him. Boris is shot in the arm, but he insists that Theo go back to the hotel and clean up and wait for him there. Theo is distraught from killing the man who was about to kill him, and in a daze, but goes back to the hotel where he waits for days and days. He can't even leave town if he wants to because Boris has his passport in his car. He has no way to get in touch with Boris because his cell phone dies, and then he fries it when he tries to charge it without a converter. Theo falls into fear and despair and seriously contemplates suicide. He's at his lowest low when he sees the one and only vision of his mother that he ever sees. It's clear and he knows it's her there trying to comfort him. She opens her mouth to speak to him, and he wakes up and she's not there. Just that bit of feeling his mother makes him snap out of the suicidal thoughts. He, instead, decides he will turn himself in at the American consulate for murder. Just as he's given up on Boris, thinking maybe even he is dead, Theo cleans up and orders breakfast for a last meal, and is about to eat when Boris turns up at his hotel room! Boris is fine and in a great mood. He's been gone for so many days because he tracked down the guy who took the painting, and then using Theo's "brilliant idea", he had one of his men act as an eyewitness and go to the police and say he thought he knew where The Goldfinch painting was because....the painting had a $2,000,0000 reward on it!! All this time, says Boris, if he'd only used his head, he could have turned the painting in long ago and made them all the money. Theo is at once sad about the painting, but glad at the same time, that's it's finally back in safe hands. Boris insists that he take a huge chunk of the money, and won't take no for an answer. They spend a couple of days together, and then Theo flies back to New York where he is immediately faced with a very troubled and sad Hobie, who has been worried sick about Theo. It turns out, an unscrupulous antique dealer who had tired to blackmail Theo before, when he found out he'd been sold a fake, has gone to Hobie and told him about ALL the pieces that Theo has faked. On top of that, Hobie has now heard in the news about the recovery of The Goldfinch in Amsterdam and wonders if Theo has somehow been involved with that. Theo begs Hobie to let him explain, and says he's got the money to pay back anyone who he sold a fake antique to, and then he goes about the long explanation about the painting. After hearing everything from the moment of the bombing til now, Theo assumes Hobie will want him to leave, but he instead embraces him and tells him that The Goldfinch had been one of two paintings that Welty had loved from childhood on. Since it is now back where it belongs, there's no reason to do anything about that.

So, at the end of the book, Theo is traveling around making amends for all the "mistaken" fake antiques. He's paying all the people back their money, and he's still engaged to Kitsey, though they aren't really doing anything about getting married. Just having Theo around and part of the Barbour family makes Mrs. Barbour happy, and that's all Theo and Kitsey really want. Theo reminiscences and comes to terms with the fact that he and Pippa will never be together when she tells him that she has always loved him too, but that they could never be together because they both have too much of a propensity to fall apart at any moment due to their shared tragic experience, and that they both need people in their lives who will be their rock instead. Theo has grown up and realized his own morals by the end of the book, but I think, still has a long way to go to actually loving and forgiving himself. It ends there, but I found myself really hoping that Theo went on to find real happiness!