Approaching the inevitable peripeteia
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Why 'peripeteia'? It's appropriate to use this term here, Aristotle's word for the turning point that makes a drama a drama, a tragedy a tragedy. All the participants are scholars of the ancient classics - as I was myself - and all, like the characters of ancient tragedy, have their fatal flaw. It's when this fatal flaw does emerge that the action of the book and its eventual conclusion become clear. It's a slow, icy read, but all the better for that. The evil genius, the most flawed and the most capable, has his victim in his sights and calculates his next moves, one by one, openly in his diary - but written in Latin. These are privileged young men, but privilege, ability, is no protection from human flaw
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my special book
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I can put it thus: The secret history manages to read like a book many years older than it is. i was lucky enough to have read it when it was first issued and it has stayed with me in so many ways. i, too, recommend it to many, am unable to do it justice with my description, and instead leave the potential reader with the thought that to read it would be to their advantage.
Donna Tartt has written one other book since, to my knowledge. it wasn't a patch on this too be honest. that doesn't really matter for the SH will stand alone as a book of magnitude...a murder, believable characters, a lesson in greek history and, not least a bloody good way to spend a few hours.
a modern day classic, and one dear to my heart.
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Wonderful
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This book was recommended by the staff at my local Waterstones, and short on inspiration for something to read, I picked it up. My relatively low expectations had little to do with how much I loved this book.
It is at once, gripping, beautifully written, interesting, engaging while managing that most elusive of qualities.. It's a page turner. Try putting it down, I couldn't.
The perfect book? Maybe, I certainly can't fault it. It lacks nothing.
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Did I read the same book??
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I am baffled by the overwhelming number of positive reviews for this rather middle-of-the-road literary fiction... So much so that I ended up wondering if I read the same book as all the other reviewers who are absolutely raving about it! Sure, it is reasonably well written, the storytelling engaging if a little simplistic, and the characters are interesting (though somewhat caricature like and two-dimensional), but saying that it is THE book of all times - I mean, come on! Thanks, but no thanks.
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Wonderful!
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This book is truly gripping. I could hardly put it down! One of the best books I have ever read!
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