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Book Review of The Secret History

The Secret History
Catspaw avatar reviewed on


The book was very good in some areas, although it seemed a bit dated. It's set in 1982, and written in 1992. I actually found myself disliking the author/narrator for making condescending comments like "He had such a nice touch with the common people," who were apparently anyone who didn't attend the third rate college where most of the alumni "ran shops selling hippie paraphanalia." The relationship with the professor, which was supposedly so pivotal, was never really fleshed out. Tartt wrote little about him, and even less of his interactions with the students, while other less important relationships were incredibly overwritten.

I couldn't help but compare it to the Rule of Four - also about a group of college friends studying the classics. If Rule of Four is a 10, this book is a 3.