Available for trade, relay

Sending to boomda181 through a relay. I think the book will be used as a replacement for a lost ring (?).

RELEASE NOTES:

Rcvd this book - through the relay site I think - and am enjoying it. The characters seem older than their very early 20s, though I did know a few folks like this in college. They put me in mind of Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, Reed College, though it was obviously based on Bennington.

From Publishers Weekly
Tartt's much bruited first novel is a huge (592 pages) rambling story that is sometimes ponderous, sometimes highly entertaining. Part psychological thriller, part chronicle of debauched, wasted youth, it suffers from a basically improbable plot, a fault Tartt often redeems through the bravado of her execution. Narrator Richard Papen comes from a lower-class family and a loveless California home to the "hermetic, overheated atmosphere" of Vermont's Hampden College. Almost too easily, he is accepted into a clique of five socially sophisticated students who study Classics with an idiosyncratic, morally fraudulent professor. Despite their demanding curriculum (they quote Greek classics to each other at every opportunity) the friends spend most of their time drinking and taking pills. Finally they reveal to Richard that they accidentally killed a man during a bacchanalian frenzy; when one of their number seems ready to spill the secret, the group--now including Richard--must kill him, too. The best parts of the book occur after the second murder, when Tartt describes the effect of the death on a small community, the behavior of the victim's family and the conspirators' emotional disintegration. Here her gifts for social satire and character analysis are shown to good advantage and her writing is powerful and evocative. On the other hand, the plot's many inconsistencies, the self-indulgent, high-flown references to classic literature and the reliance on melodrama make one wish this had been a tauter, more focused novel. In the final analysis, however, readers may enjoy the pull of a mysterious, richly detailed story told by a talented writer. 75,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

October 2006
I am setting this up as a book ring so, as usual, come one and come all! Just PM me with your location and shipping preferences.

Rooshill, prefer US
MooMoo1977, no preference
Quez45, no preference
Rito in Finland, prefer EU
RoryG, prefer EU
anthonybairdis, no preference

Got it and will start as soon as I finish reading "Tam Lin" - an interesting adaptation of a classic Scottish "fairy tale" that also involves a bunch of Classics scholars endlessly quoting... Either I'm going to be used to it and flow through this book without noticing much, or I'll get quote-overload and have to throw it out the window. We'll hope for the former. :)

I'm working on it...made it to page 552 and am wondering where else the story can go? How can it close? I mean, the funeral's over, everyone's drinking too much and avoiding each other...what next? I guess I'll just have to keep reading :)

Although I like it overall, this book was slow to grab my attention, and has a tendency to drop periodically. One thing that's been giving me trouble is that I don't really *like* any of the characters! Usually, there's someone in the story that I can relate to or at least feel sorry for, but the cast here is repellant to me. Every time I start to like someone, they do or say something that just turns me off again.
It's been a different reading experience for me...
Will journal again when I'm finished and mailing off.

Strange ending. I still like it overall, but probably won't re-read.
PMing MooMoo and will send as soon as can.

11/28/06 Mailed today (economy)

Received safe and sound today. Thanks rooshill for sending it and thanks to Lorelei03 for setting up the ring. Oh, and thanks to both for the interesting comments...I am intrigued to start it.

Not bad...but like rooshill - I didn't like any of the characters. For me: you hated them so much you wanted to smack them in the head for being ruthless, heartless, blind, off with the fairies etc (thus the author has managed to show their undeniable skills as a writer to make you either love or loathe the characters).

I found myself continually yelling inside my head at Richard for being so blind to what was before him. I guess in some respect, he saw at the end the truth behind it all, but you still really, really, REALLY wanted to shake him and get him to see the light.

I will be PMing Quez45 for their address and hopefully should be sending it off by the end of the week.

Many thanks again to Lorelei03 for sharing this with us. :)

Egad! How rude of me! THANK YOU to rooshill for the absolutely adorable Smokey the Bear bookmark. It fell out in the latter part of the book and took me by surprise! I hope my abhorrent manners will be forgiven.

Thanks again rooshill...I think Smokey's message is quite credible for where we live in Lismore...loads of bushfire material around our property. :)

posted to Quez45 today...enjoy!

I received this as part of a bookring. I have a few books I need to read first, but I will get to this eventually.

A little long, but definetely a great book. I think the best part of this book for me was the writing style of the author. She describes things so well and is able to give such a clear visual of the situation or the character that she is describing. Although the main characters in the book eventual become murderers, you can't but help but to feel as if they are just simply trying to get by and that they are simply a bunch of confused kids.

Off to anthonybairdis.

Received in the post a few days ago. I have started it and so far I'm enjoying it.

I really enjoyed this book, having finished it yesterday. It is a book that made me nostalgic for a time and place that I have never been a part of, which I think is a great achievement. Also, I thought that Donna Tartt makes you feel as though you know the characters intimately, especially Richard Papen, the main character, through whose eyes we see all of the events unfolding. I thought as well, that the slow descent into murder for the characters was really quite chilling especially as they planned it all so cold-bloodedly, especially Henry.

Anexcellent read, I thought. I'll pass it on to Lorelei03 once I get her address.