The Little Friend

De: Donna Tartt

Narrado por: Karen White

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch comes an utterly riveting novel set in Mississippi of childhood, innocence, and evil. • “Destined to become a special kind of classic.” —The New York Times Book Review

The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved and his family remains devastated. So it is that Robin’s sister Harriet—unnervingly bright, insufferably determined, and unduly influenced by the fiction of Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson--sets out to unmask his killer. Aided only by her worshipful friend Hely, Harriet crosses her town’s rigid lines of race and caste and burrows deep into her family’s history of loss. Filled with hairpin turns of plot and “a bustling, ridiculous humanity worthy of Dickens” (The New York Times Book Review), The Little Friend is a work of myriad enchantments by a writer of prodigious talent.©2002 Donna Tartt (P)2002 Books On Tape, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

2003, Orange Prize for Fiction, Nominated

"This extraordinary book [has] a main character, a twelve-year-old girl named Harriet Cleve Dufresnes, who ranks up there with Huck Finn, Miss Havisham, Quentin Compson, and Philip Marlowe, fictional characters who don't seem in the least fictional.... To Kill a Mockingbird If is the childhood that everyone wanted and no one really had, The Little Friend is childhood as it is, by turns enchanting and terrifying." (Malcolm Jones, Newsweek)

"Breathtaking... A sublime tale rich in religious overtones, moral ambiguities, and violent, poetic acts... From its darkly enticing opening, we are held spellbound." (Lisa Shea, Elle)

"Languidly atmospheric...psychologically acute...A rich novel that takes you somewhere worth going." (The New Yorker)

"It is an exceptionally suspenseful, flawlessly written story." (Booklist)

But I invested 22 hours!

After Donna Tart skillfully pulled me into this fascinating and well-constructed drama, got me to understand and feel for the vivid characters (Go, Harriet!), and wove an intriguingly tangled yet believable web between them, she just CUT OFF the story! I thought there must have been a Part 4 I'd forgotten to download. While some stories end this way on purpose (real life often has loose ends, right?) they usually let you know in some way that it's been done on purpose, that you're supposed to ponder something because of it, etc. This one just ended with NOTHING. All the loose ends were still loose, and more was unresolved than at the beginning. Which would have been ok, really, if Ms. Tart had just communicated in some way that this was the point of the whole thing. The way she left it, however, was very disappointing. Especially since I didn't want to put it down! I feel so cheated.

It's Donna Tartt

Really, what else do you need to know?

Jump in and follow Harriet, one of the most gripping characters in modern literature. She's the independent, super-strong, serious, brainy serial killer, and she's not yet 13.

not what I expected

it's a good drama but I was surprised with the abrupt end. the performance was great and engaging. the story and characters had a good atmosphere surrounding them. reminds me of Tom sawyer

What a great story teller!

I love her stories! So detailed! You just get sucked right in like you're there, living it with the characters.

Couldn't finish because of the narration

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The lack of proper inflection and intonation this that this narrator presented as she virtually barked the story to us resulted in such and uneasy and confusing cadence that I found the story impossible to follow. I made it to chapter 6 - which in this book, was quite far! But at that point I realized that I had little idea of what was going on in the story simply because the narrator made it so difficult to follow. I will definitely try this book in hard copy, as it seems to be a beautifully written story.

I loved it!

I loved this story! It kept my attention, all night. But it ended without resolution. I want to know what happened next.

Donna Tartt!!!

What made the experience of listening to The Little Friend the most enjoyable?

Great characters, good story, narration didn't get in the way.

What other book might you compare The Little Friend to and why?

Donna Tarrt writes mysteries based on complicated, realistic relationships between believeable characters. I sank into a world I sometimes forgot didn't exist.

What about Karen White’s performance did you like?

Karen White's narration NEVER distracted me from the story. Almost zero other narrators perform so splendidly.

If you could take any character from The Little Friend out to dinner, who would it be and why?

All the best characters ended up dead at the end of the book, so no way I'm inviting their corpses to my house.

Just kidding... I don't want to spoil the book. Any of the main characters would make entertaining dinner guests, although I'd hide the silver before the Radcliff's visit.

Any additional comments?

Long and luxurious.

Fantastic

Thia is one of my all time favorites. I didn't want it to end.

well written but long

book was enjoyable enough. beautifully written but long and dragged in places. listened in car and book was not great for having to concentrate on things other than the writing.

Couldn't put it down

What made the experience of listening to The Little Friend the most enjoyable?

The richly drawn cast of characters is I think the main strength of this book. If you've ever spent time in the South, especially during the time frame she's set this story in, you will agree I think that she really nails it about how people interact, what small towns were like there, etc. The book revolves around an event that takes place (in memory) within the first chapter or so. The rest of the book is loosely organized around the mysterious circumstances that surround that event, a death. Eleven (?) year old Harriet, the central character, is worth the read all by herself. Donna Tarrt could not have done a better job in bringing her to life and making you care deeply about her. I laughed a lot as her thought processes unfolded, as she engaged in her amateur sleuth work, and as she enlisted the help of her adoring young friend with her plans. One reviewer mentioned Nancy Drew. Hardly. This is an adult book, with adult themes. I would challenge those who said it was too long to detail what parts of the plot/story they would have edited out. My book group could not come up with anything they'd have taken out, even though the length of the book is a bit daunting. It is a gripping story and you care deeply about many of the characters. The ending for many, including several in my book group, felt very unsatisfying, I will grant you that. But as we talked about it, we decided that this book was less mystery than it is a study of a time and a place and the ways in which people come to wrong conclusions based on their prejudices, misconceptions, and miscommunications. Those wrong conclusions change whole lives and can be tragic. Many things DO NOT get