I am not Paul Avery.

[iridescentglow]

1. I just finished reading Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey, which deconstructs Hollywood movies into archetypes and a "mythic" structure. Apart from being wanky and overwritten, it was a really good read. Clearly not something to be taken as gospel (who wants to write stories that are so cookie-cutter?), but I would definitely recommend

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[iridescentglow]

\o/

I did read The Little Friend. I hated it. HATE. Actually--omg, I'm such a nerd. I just had a quick poke through my files and I have the review of it I wrote for my personal site about 5 years ago. How about a copy&paste? :D

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'The Little Friend' builds to a fascinating and tense climax, where the interwoven threads of misunderstanding, coincidence and human folly are drawn together. Unfortunately, this climax arrives only after an exhaustive 400 pages. Endless pages of frustratingly irrelevant narrative swamp the foreshadowing and set-up of the novel. Elaborate scenes are arranged to illustrate the most miniscule and mundane of details. The characters are drawn -- and then redrawn and redrawn again, until the reader is left with an irritatingly confused impression. The wrapping up of some of the major plot points, namely Robin's "killer" and Allison's emotional instability, are left to extremely vague conclusions. (Considering the time spent constructing these storylines, it seems ironic that Tartt should leave their conclusions so predominantly up to the reader's interpretation.) For the majority of characters, no real journey had been accomplished, and there was not even a hint of a happy ending.

To briefly consider the inevitable comparisons with 'The Secret History', Tartt beautifully depicts the murky repercussions of murder with similar finesse. (I, for one, felt desperately sorry for Danny Ratliff.) However, I feel that this was the wrong material to display her talents. A large part of 'The Secret History's success sprang from Tartt's ability to be effortlessly erudite in her handling of the themes of Greek history and literature, but it is impossible to show such intellect in a book about '70's Mississippi. The adventures of a 12-year-old were, by definition, never going to be the most scintillating reading (Harry Potter and Lyra Silvertongue notwithstanding ;), and Harriet is hardly the most sympathetic of characters. Donna Tartt is undoubtedly a wonderful writer; parts of the novel (the snake encounter at the Mission; the aftermath of the funeral; the events in the water tower, to name but a few) are stunningly well-written, but the novel is ultimately over-written.

P.S. What the fuck is the little friend, anyway?!?
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There. :D I have a feeling TLF suffered from Tartt dwelling too long on writing it and (probably due to Tartt's success) her editor being unwilling to really tear it apart. If there's one thing it required, it was a good editor.