![]() ![]() And when I discovered that Tartt herself is the narrator of the audio version, there was no question that I would revisit Secret History. I had flirted with a re-read a number of times, and was finally prompted to do so as a result of the Once Upon a Time at Bennington College podcast. But, if I dare say it, it wasn’t until I helped to kill a man that I realized how elusive and complex an act of murder can actually be, and not necessarily attributable to one dramatic move. Religious slurs, temper tantrums, insults, coercion, debt: all petty things, really, irritants – too minor, it would seem, to move five reasonable people to murder. I recall being engrossed in the story, but not much of the detail other than the fact that one of the students was murdered, stayed with me. Like the characters, I was at university, wholly absorbed in campus life and a circle of friends who were new, but immediately close. I first read it when it was released in 1992. The Secret History by Donna Tartt is one such book. ![]() ![]() And while I want to experience that particular reading pleasure again, re-reads can be like returning to the ‘perfect’ holiday spot – somehow it’s not quite what you remembered, despite the main ingredients being the same. There are a handful of books that I enjoyed so much when I first read them, that they have taken a reverent place in my reading life. ![]()
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