From: fi@grebyn.com (Fiona Webster)
Subject: Re: Donna Tartt
Keywords: Any comments?
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 19:10:03 GMT

I haven't read it me-self, but the Sept. 4th issue of _Entertainment_
_Weekly_ (yes indeed! a sure-fire way to keep up on pop culture without
having to watch any television) has a splashy review.  The issue may
still, just barely, be on the supermarket stands: look for Drew Barrymore's
cleavage.  ("Just *barely*..." yeh, I caught that--this must be my
week for inadvertent puns.)

_EW_ blesses Tartt's first novel, _The_Secret_History_, with an "A" grade,
which they give out only sparingly.  Here's an excerpt from the review
by L.S. Klepp:

	Not only does..._The_Secret_History_ give a major role
	to the frenzied orgiastic rites of the Greek god Dionysus,
	it comes to us amid the frenzied, orgiastic rites [why a
	comma there, interfering with the repetition? why ask why?]
	of the American god Publicity.  Book publishers, moviemakers,
	and glossy magazines [yeh, like _EW_] have already descended
	upon Tartt in the form of a shower of gold, [as Zeus showered
	Danae?!] but don't be misled by the glitter and chatter.  This
	is actually a good, even profound novel.  ['Love the use of
	"actually" there.]  It's the story of a group of pampered and
	precocious students [such an original choice for main
	characters!] at a small New England college who devote them-
	selves to ancient Greek culture and get more than they bar-
	gained for--tragedy, fate, Furies.  [I take it that most people
	who devote themselves to culture assume they're cheating Fate.]
	It's as gripping [oh no!] as a murder story should be, even
	though the murders and murderers are no mystery; as in Greek
	tragedy, it's mainly a question of retribution.

The novel is further described as being "full of sly literary allusions
and jokes" (we lit types are so sly), and (here's some substance, don't
miss it) takes its title from a purportedly scandalous book by the
Byzantine Greek historian Procopius, who (according to _EW_) "laid bare
the exceptionally dirty secrets of the Emperor Justinian and the Empress
Theodora."  (I can hear Bill and Ted saying, "Indeed this is a most
exceptionally dirty book.")

Klepp's review is a hoot, *actually*.  Other phrases include:
	--"squalor beneath glamor"
	--"air of formal, dandified distinction"
	--"rarefied aesthetic approach"
	--"dissolving their egos in the flowing life force"
	--"an icy incarnation of pure intellect"
	--"delirious sex and mystical union"
	--"perils of detached aestheticism" (ah--vivent les Decadents!)
	--"elegant, edifying work of art; even Plato might approve."

Wow--how can we miss it?  Seriously, y'all, I haven't been reading
this L.S. Klepp long enough to be able to tell if there's a real novel
behind all this puffery, but if you're interested in Tartt, there's a
delightful full-page portrait of her.  She's pale and tiny with short
dark hair and a nearly Roman nose--which the photographer wisely placed
in profile.  She's dressed like the media's concept of a classy
intellectual: black mini-frock, pearls, white "nerd" socks, and black
men's shoes.  If only _EW_ hadn't ruined the photo with a caption: "The
author's winsome pose masks a wicked intelligence."

Weird--if they think her mind is "masked" in that photo, I'd hate to
think what they'd make of my own appearance, status post Hawaii.
("With her rich brown tan and shining gold-white hair, the author is
the very image of a blonde airhead.")  <sigh>

							--Fiona