The Goldfinch (2013), Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Donna Tartt: summary

Donna Tartt is an American author and has won the Pulitzer award for the Goldfinch, her third novel. The robust reason to love this novel is the beautifully words, some part of smart and elegant conversation and narration. Words are in art. The 962-page bestseller was published by Back Bay Books, New York in 2013.

The character development is very neatly and beautifully. The author did fantastic job at creating character Boris, an Ukrainian boy to color the story (perhaps) in balancing the melancholy main character Theo. Boris is vivid, wild, risk taker, and funny. He grew up from continent to another continent with totally different culture and nature. A city boy like Theo learns much on wild world from him. Once Boris lived in Indonesia, a place where he did religious stuff. Boris recalled the frigid night on the street in Ukraine while he ran away from his father. He dealt with heat in Australia. In Las Vegas Theo eyewitnesses abusive father of Boris, but the two friends also have some good time together in the heating desert.

As an Indonesian, all I can say is what Ms. Tartt has depicted about Indonesia in this book is not far from reality. It’s apparent that the author had been in Indonesia or at least she did deeply research on it. The book also takes us on a journey to beautiful Amsterdam and real life in Las Vegas desert.

What I like least about the book was the excessive repeating, the inconsistency of using the past and present tense (it's quite distracted). The book seems like needing re-editing for allowing the reader can enjoy the stories while not becoming distracted by mistakes or errors. The editor also needs to pay more attention on page 294, 295, and 303. It’s casual conversation between Theo and Boris about Bami, the cook, and Boris's favorite place. What I got from the conversation: Papua New Guinea (PNG) is part of Indonesia. In fact, Papua (the western part of Papua Island) is part of Indonesia, and PNG (the eastern part of Papua Island) is clearly an independently country.

Overall, I found myself enjoying it more when it’s connected to painting. The author has review on greatest painters: Adriaen Coorte (1665-1707), Rembrandt van Rijn (1609-1669), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Frans Hals (1580-1666), Johannes Vermer (1632-75), Carel Fabritius (1622-1654), and Egbert van der Poel (1621-1664).

Carel Fabritius (a pupil of Rembrandt) was one of the greatest painters of his day, in one of the greatest ages of painting. The famous painter was killed tragically at the age of 32 in the explosion and his studio was destroyed. Many of his works was missing in the blast and the survivor the Goldfinch (1654) is his masterpiece. This fiction is linked to the famous the Goldfinch. The tale isn’t all about the painting here, but more about life of a boy. The realistic life around us, it isn’t always as we expected and planned.

The Goldfinch (2013), Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Donna Tartt: summary

The story began at a hotel room in Amsterdam. Narrator is Theodore Decker, and this is his story since teenage days (13 years old) till turn to be a man in 27.

New York

He recalled his youth life and his death mother. As it was she died when he was a kid. He remembered everything a few weeks before she died. When she came to New York fresh from Kansas, she worked part-time as a model though she was too uneasy in front of camera to be very good at it; whatever she had, it didn’t translate to film. She had black hair, fair skin that freckled in summer; and in the slant of her cheekbones there was such an eccentric mixture of tribal and Celtic Twilight that sometimes people guessed she was Icelandic. In fact, she was half Irish, half Cherokee, from a town in Kansas near the Oklahoma border. Her parents had unfairly died before Theo had a chance to know them. His grandparents had been affable horse trainers. His father had run away and left his mother and him.

She had never seen a great painting in person until she was eighteen and moved to New York. College was the second important to her in New York for her. And if not meet and marry, she would almost certainly have finished her master’s and gone on for her PhD. The mother worked for the advertising firm specialized in women’s accessories. She supervised photo shoots where crystal earrings glisted on drifts of fake holiday snow. She was good at what she did, she preferred working behind the camera rather than in front of it, her work on subway posters and on billboards in Times Square.

Theo was relief to have his father out of their apartment. He and his mother didn’t seem miss him, though it was sad they had to let out the house keeper go because they couldn’t afford to pay her. Even though the apartment was rented stabilized, getting without his father’s salary was a month-by-month adventure, since whatever new life he had fashioned for himself elsewhere did not include sending money for child support. Basically they were content enough doing their own laundry down in basement, eating day-old baked goods, and cheap Chinese carry-out and counting out the nickles and dimes for bus fare.

He was a part from his mother when bomb blasted at the gallery, a museum guard ran across the open doorway of the exhibition shop beyond. Before the blast, he noticed a girl observing his mother. Pippa was with an old man. He recognized him - his mother. He was wounded, asking Theo to take a drawing and his ring. Before he died he uttered Hobart and Blackwell. Theo left bomb’s debris with a painting. The trauma still was haunting him, and blaming himself for her mother’s death.

According to the television, they now knew who was responsible for the explosion. The right wings extremists. They had worked with a moving and storage company; with help from unknown accomplices inside the museum, they had concealed the explosives without hollow. The paper believed the Goldfinch, the famous painting of Carel Fabritius burnt in the explosion.

Fabritius (a pupil of Rembrandt) was one of the greatest painters of his day, in one of the greatest ages of painting. The famous painter was killed tragically at the age of 32 in the explosion and his studio was destroyed. Many of his works was missing in the blast and the survivor the Golfinch (1654) is his masterpiece.

Technically he had a set of living grandparents – his father’s dad and stepmother, in Maryland. Relations were barely civil between her father and his stepmother, Dorothy, an immigrant from East Germany who cleaned office buildings for living before marrying his grandfather. He had met Grandpa Decker and Dorothy only twice in his life. No picnic was the primary phrase he associated with Grandpa Decker as his father saying living with the bastard was no picnic.

A social worker in Department of Child and Family Services informed him, his mother, Audrey Decker, was one of the victims in the museum blast. She had died instantly. Theo was now minor without a guardian. He was removed immediately from his home. The social worker needed some temporary arrangements until they the people who loved and cared about him. They would arrange him a temporary custody, but Theo didn’t want a foster family. Off the top of his head, he gave them the telephone number of his old friend Andy Barbour. Though Andy and he had been good friends in elementary school, he wasn’t quite sure why his name was the first to fall out of his mouth, since they weren’t such a good friends any more. They had drifted apart at the start junior high.

Living with the Barbours

Andy had been his best friend since third grade. His father had a big job on Wall Street. His mother and Theo’s mother were friends. Mrs. Barbour was a stay-at-home mother and did charity work on the Antique Show. Mrs. Barbour was from society family with an old Dutch name, so cool and blonde and monotone that sometimes she seemed partially drained of blood. She was the masterpiece of composure; nothing ever ruffled her or made her upset, though she was not beautiful.

People stopped by to see him- his social workers, pro-bono psyciatrist, people from his mother’s work, his old housekeeper. Around him, the life of the household went on. Everyday, the doorbell rang many times: house keepers, nannies, caterers, tutors, the piano instructors, social-pages ladies and tassel loafer business guys connected with Mrs. Barbour’s charities. Andy’s younger siblings, Toddy and Kitsey, raced through the gloomy halls with their school friends.

Social Service had contacted his Decker grandparents. Everyone seemed profoundly shocked at the hotel idea, as if Grandpa Decker and Dorothy had suggested he moved into a shed in their back yard. He wanted to live in a hotel, but he was only thirteen. It could not possibly live on his own at a budget hotel in a suburban Maryland.

The Barbours lived on Park Avenue. Though the Barbours’ apartment was enormous by New York standards, it was on a low floor and practically lightless, even on the Park Avenue side. He began trying especially hard to be a guest: to make his bed every mornings, to always thank please and thank you, and to do everything he knew his mother wanted him to do. Unfortunately the Barbours didn’t exactly have the kind of household where you can show appreciation by babysitting, the younger siblings or pitching in with the dishes.

There were eight people working for them – the woman to look after the plant, rearranging the closet and the china collection. Luckily, Andy’s parents were around so little that his presence didn’t seem inconvenience them very much. By far biggest issue he faced was Andy’s siblings. Platt was the older sent away for school, Theo occupied his room. Toddy was only seven, Kitsey was the only sister.

Theo was investigated for museum explosion, he was an important witness. The interrogation had disturbed him greatly, kicking up the wall of disjointed sensations that crashed over him unexpected moments: a chocking burn of chemical or smoke, sparks and wires, the balanced chill of emergency lights, overpowering enough to blank him out. He had bad dreams and crying out in his sleep. A psychiatrist has sent to heal his trauma, he dreaded his sessions with Dave, a twice-weekly ordeal. He felt guilty for not liking him.

The Last Weeks in New York

He visited the Hobart and Blackwell. James Hobart and Blackwell ran furniture and art business. He brought Welty Blackwell’s ring to Hobie, but he kept the painting to himself. He didn’t steal the Golfinch, but he never reported it to art police. The girl who caught his eyes at the museum, Pippa, was now on her medical care. She didn’t know him, but she only can hear his voice and name. The girl at the gallery survived but not Blackwell, her father. The blast waves were liked sounds waves. He frequently paid visit to Hobie’s house and became friend to the old man. Pippa was motherless and her nearest relative brought her back to the family in Texas. He hated to think her leaving, he woke feeling heartsick.

Hobie studied the story about Theo in the paper, he knew Theo was staying with the Barbours. He had done some work for Samantha Barbour and her family in the past. Every art dealer an antiquario in New York knew Samantha Barbour.

He stood speechless with shock to meet his father in the Barbours’ apartment. It was him, though he had changed since. He had looked a bit-worn and seedy but out in the rippling heat his white sportcoat and his cult-leader sunglasses. The boy found himself confronted by strange woman is father and a woman, tan, and very fit-looking. Although she was older than his mother, or any rate older-looking, she was dressed like someone younger, she declared her name Xandra, Larry’s girlfriend.

Audrey Decker had played her cards way too close to the vest. She was often uncommunicative. When she was upset it was difficult to tell what she was thinking. His father never blamed her after all. Before leaving his old apartment, he took the painting with him. The painting, though small, was getting heavy, and his face felt frozen with the effort of concealing his discomfort. The doorman at his old apartment, Goldie, gave him money, as he said paid back his debt to his mother.

They was out for dinner, Xandra gave him champagne. Platt found Theo came home drunk, when back to Barbour’ apartment, before he left New York. Not only champagne, on the flight to Vegas, Xandra also gave him a pill that kept him high and happy.

He was so disoriented in the glare when his father stopped in front of a new luxury car. The desert air had magnetized him. His father lived in Xandra’s house, he saw the painting for the first time.

Two years in End Desert Road, Las Vegas

Theo’s father was minor actor, he had played guest roles on several TV show. He was drunk even to pick up Theo from school. He often heard his mother told how she and his father were dating. Larry Decker had turned up a Porsche he had borrowed from a friend to impress her.

In the weeks in Las Vegas before school started, he learned a number of interesting facts. His father’s former job had not involved nearly much business travel as he led his mother and him to believe, he had been flying out to Vegas, in a bar had met Xandra. In the house on Desert End Road, which super expensive cable television package his mother would never let them get, he drew the blinds against the glare and sat smoking in front of television, glassy as opium addict watching TV with the sound off. What wasn’t clear was if his dad had a job.

He might have liked Xandra in other circumstances. She wasn’t pretty in the face still she was in shape, she worked out, and her arms and legs were so glossy and tan that they looked almost sprayed, as if she anointed herself with lots of creams and oils. Living with them like was like living with roommates, he didn’t practically get along with. When they were at home, Theo stayed in his room with the door shut. Many of the rooms were bare of furniture, or almost bare, and the open space, the uncurtained brightness. No one cared he that he never changed his clothes. The houses around them were empty and no neighbors.

School and Best Friend Boris

At school, the sense of transience was unsettling. There were a lot of army brats, a lot of foreigners- many of them the children of executives who had come to Las Vegas for big managerial and construction jobs. Some of them had live in nine or ten different states in as many years, and many of them had lived abroad. There were also a good many shy, half-invisible boys and girls whose parents had fled rural hardship for jobs as hotel busboy and chambermaids.

The dark-haired boy scowled and sank deeper in his seat. Somehow he found they were standing together in the crowd that was waiting for bus after school. He looked like the homeless-looking kids who stood around passing cigarettes – the scars on his face. His name was Boris.

His New York clothes made him look like a freak at school where most people dressed in tank tops and flip flops. For his clothes and glasses, Boris called him Potter (Harry Potter). He just was two months in Vegas, though he spoke English fluently enough, with a strong Australian accent. Boris had lived in Russia, Scotland, Australia, Poland, Indonesia, New Guinea, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and Ukraine. Mostly in three places: Australia, Russia, and Ukraine. His first language is Polish.

His mother was Polish, from a town near the Ukrainian border. He spoke Slavic languages - Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and even Czech. His father (born in Siberia, a Ukrainian national from Novoagansk) was in mining and exploration. Boris mother’s was dead. She was an alcoholic and drunk, fell out the window and died. His mother was Polish, his dad was Ukrainian, and Boris himself was born in Australia.

But the place he wanted to get back to was Indonesia. Before Boris, he had borne his solitude stoically enough without realizing quite how alone he was. Boris had ridden a camel; he had eaten witchetty grubs, played cricket, caught malaria, lived in the street in Ukraine, swum in Australia rivers infested crocodiles. He had read Chekhov in Russia. He had been converted to Islam and even had an Arabic name in Indonesia. He was taught him the Koran and practiced that religion but he wasn’t Muslim any more.

Boris’s father was mysterious figure. As Boris explained his father was often on site in the middle of nowhere, at his mine, where he stayed with his crew for weeks at the time. Boris’s house was bad. He hit Boris because of the beer bottle. Though he never seen anybody snorting drugs but Boris was pretty sure that Xandra took cocaine. Boris and his father didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Xandra and his father had reservations for Thanksgiving in a restaurant, but Theo chose to be with his friend, Boris.

Ever since Boris had shown up with the bruised eye that had built Boris’s father into Theo’s mind to be someone thick-necked Soviet with pig eyes and a buzz haircut. Theo finally met him. He was a thin and pale as a starved poet. He smoked incessantly, wore cheap shirts that had grayed in wash. Despite his shabby clothes, he wore expensive shoes and lots of gold jewelry. Mr. Pavlikovsky thanked him for letting Theo came into his family - in fact, term ‘family’ was too exaggerated for Xandra’s house.

As fond as his dad was of Boris, he was constantly trying to divert attention from the fact that Boris had basically moved into the house with them. It wasn’t difficult as between the gambling and the drug. Xandra was a bit tougher to negotiate, more prone to complain about the expense, despite the supply of stolen snack food Boris contributed to the household. They were drunk together a lot.

He wrote letter to Hobie in New York, Theo was delighted when a letter arrived -- from none other than Hobie. Though he knew Pippa was too ill to answer, he wrote a letter for her in Texas, since most of the letters never sent. He tried to call the Barbours.

In the late afternoon, he glared at a very tall man, very tan, very thin, indeterminate age. He looked partly like rodeo guy with a red cowboy hat. Bobo Silver, looked for his dad, and left him the message. Larry Decker had forced his son to call his mother’s lawyer for the check – the money should to be his school pay.

The good thing, he was pleased at how nice his dad was. He had been taking him out to nice dinners, just the two of them, at least one a week. Sometimes he invited Boris, but he found himself enjoying more when it was his father and him. Boris met a girl name Kotku, it was not her real name, Boris adjusted her name into Polish (Kitty cat). She went to the same school with them. She was legal adult - eighteen years, older than Boris. The peculiar thing about the two was how rapidly their relationship had taken on a punchy, irritable quality.

It was not a time when Xandra normally came home, but her schedule was erratic sometimes and she had surprised them before. She declared his dad had a car accident, he died. Several of Xandra’s friends showed up. His dad was dead when his cigarettes were still on the kitchen corner. He had crashed his car on the highway. The blood-alcohol news was both surprising. Theo didn’t want to deal with Social Service or Grandpa Decker, he ran away. He stole Xandra’s money, pills, and his mother’s jewelry.

  

At Age 15, Back to New York (Pippa and Hobie)

He didn’t have any family, he decided back to New York. Popper, the dog, made him to take bus to New York. He had no one in New York, he sat like a homeless. He saw and called Mr. Barbour at the street, but with he turned and threw his hands off. In ideal world, Mr. Barbour would have been the member of the family he would most have wanted to meet on the street. Boris had texted him. Theo tried to call him but no one picked up, even Kotku, Boris’s girlfriend. He was only five blocks from Andy’s. As much he liked Andy, it had been almost two years. He couldn’t forget the way that Mr. Barbour looked him. Clearly something had gone wrong badly.

He wasn’t that comfortable at the notion of turning up at Hobie’s house, since they hadn’t been in touch for a while, his fault, he had just stopped writing back. It was Pippa, the girl in his dreams in two years, still tiny. She was dressed like a boy. She recognized his name even she didn’t recognized him. The friendly surprise on his face was such an astonishment that he began to cry. Hobie’s hug was strong and parental, and so fierce that make him cry even harder. Hobie suggested him to call Xandra. She was the last person in the world he wanted to talk to - especially after he ransacked her bedroom and stolen her tip money.

He felt sick to read the news about the missing masterpiece art. He kept hiding the painting. Years passed. Pippa left the house for school, without her the house deathly quite. He came to her mother’s lawyer for the check. He had been accepted for the spring term of his early college program. He had taken six years to finish, and at last he graduated at twenty-one.

  

Theo (23), an art dealer

On afternoon eight years later after he had left school and gone to work for Hobie, he heard a familiar voice called out his name. Platt Barbour called him. The man was in his thirties, bigger than him. He had not aged well, in the old days he had been the blondest and best-looking of brothers, but he had been grown thick in jaw. He worked for an academic publisher. He said Andy was dead five month ago, he and his father drowned. He told everything about his father. Mr. Barbour was bipolar disorder. He had been in medicine.

Platt invited him to come see his mother. Mrs. Barbour was so glad to meet him in growing and handsome form. She spelt the story of Andy before died. Theo shared his own story, he now dealt with antiques. Theo was kind of person who wasn’t on Facebook for reasons of paranoia, he more had been worried about the shop.

His years in Vegas had rendered him unfit for any manner of hard work. He knew what he wanted. His career as a dealer started about seventeen, when a rare afternoon Hobie had decided to open the shop. By that time, he had begun to be aware of Hobie’s financial problems. The trick, he discovered through trial and error, was to keep at least a quarter of prices low and jack up the rest. He took great pleasure in rooking. He never open the wrap, he just hid it. He knew that Theo kept the Goldfinch, and found his fraud business. The most worry of all was a client named Lucius Reeve. He had begun in summer to receive a series of troubling letters.

He addicted to drugs since Xandra’s pills. He bought drugs from the bike messenger, Jerome. The pills he had stolen from Xandra all those years before had started him on a bad road. He had been buying them off the street for years; for months.

Pippa, at many different ages, were daily torment. She was the unbruised part of himself he had lost his mother. Pippa was with a man who he judged as a kind of loser. Theo berated himself for not being forceful with her. It wasn’t as if Pippa had led him on- quite contrary; if she cared anything about him she would have come home back to New York instead of staying in Europe after school. The memory of that childhood afternoon had sustained him for years, as if –sick with loneliness for his mother.    

The night of his dinner at the Barbours in some respects, grievously altered in others, as if the Ghost of Christmas Past and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, had joined to host the evening. But despite the Andy’s absence and everything else so strange and shrunken the oddest part of evening was his blood-deep, unreasoning sense of returning home. Mrs. Barbour hadn’t really been interested in talking to anyone but Theo – Andy, a little, but most about her family’s furniture.

It took him a pulse or two to recognize an open-faced college kid as Toddy, Andy’s brother. The last time he saw him when Toddy was eight. It was fascinating to see Andy’s leukemic wannes in Kitsey, Andy’s sister, remodeled and prettified, the candyfloss twinkle of a Disney princess. Kitsey and Theo hadn’t talked much, but almost every time he’d glanced in her direction he’d been aware of her eyes on him.

He had been downing by the handful – Oxycontins, strong enough to kill someone without tolerance. Within two months of a dinner at the Barbours, Kitsey and Theo were seeing each other practically every day. For the truth of it was: Pippa and he saw each other maybe twice a year, they e-mailed, and texted, though with no great regularity, when she was in town they loaned each other books and went to the movies. They were friends and nothing more. His hopes for  a relationship with her were wholly unreal, whereas his ongoing misery, and frustration, were an all-too-horrible reality. The other side there was Kitsey that with the amused. They were engaged.

Boris in New York

He couldn’t contact his drug dealer, Jerome. But he recalled a name of Jerome’s client. That name was led him to an Eastern European’s bar. In disbelief, he heard a man called him Potter down the street bar. Boris was taller, face hollower, long black coat, same old scar over his eye, plus couple of a new one. Boris introduced him Myriam, his wright-hand. His official business was house cleaning agency – Polish Cleaning Service. He travelled a lot in Northern Europe.

After Theo had left, Boris lived with Xandra for months before she moved to Reno. Xandra was in big trouble when Theo stole her drugs. Boris’s father had gone back to Australia. Kotku wasn’t talking to him. Xandra was alone, drinking a lot, afraid to go to work, no neighbors. Bobo Silver actually wasn’t bad guy, he didn’t go after her for his father’s debt. Because he wanted to hire him, Boris made up big sad story told Silver that his mother was Polish Jewish, her family in concentration camp. Bobo was good and generous, always fair to him.

Boris had taken the painting. Theo was drunk unconsciously all the time. He climbed the roof and jumped to the swimming pool. He yelled about everything including the painting. Boris saved the painting because the Jewish Mafiya like (Bobo Silver) was clearly coming to his house for money. The painting was wrapped and tied by Boris.

Every day, he had multiple occasions to remind himself how lucky he was. Kitsey never tired; was never unhappy. She was appealing, enthusiastic, affection. There were cash flow problem in the Barbours, the money was tied up in trust.

Then Boris filled him with quietly about Horst, a Germany. He was an art lover, a drug addicted, and an intellectual. His father was part American and load left him loaded of money. His family business was related to a world-famous industrial name, with a dark old Nazi echo. Horst was bad junkie and fell in love with a girl, Ulrika.

The painting was in Antwerp, Boris and Theo flew to Amsterdam. Boris convinced him his apartment was in Antwerp. From Antwerp to Amsterdam was only three hours drive. The painting was stolen by with Ulrika’s brother, Sascha. Horst was right on the money about the painting. No one was going to buy the painting- black market. Horst even didn’t notice Sascha had stolen the painting. It wasn’t easy to get the painting, Theo had shot a man named Martin. He was hiding in a hotel room in Amsterdam, waiting for Boris. He was so desperate, and drunk all the time. He felt guilty to Kitsey, Mrs. Barbour, and Hobie.

Finally Boris showed up with the stack of Euro. He gave the painting to the museum. They got the reward, Sascha got in jail. The police got to close the case, and insurance company got its money back.

09 p.m

February 22, 2017 

Sekapur Sirih

Predikat Pemenang Pulitzer pada sampul muka novel ini berhasil mencuri perhatian, plus paparan sinopsis pada bagian belakang. Beberapa tahun silam, saya sudah pernah membaca sekilas tentang novelis Donna Tarrt pada sebuah majalah, hanya saja ketika itu kurang memberi perhatian. Karena disebut pemenang Pulitzer tentu saja harapan sudah tinggi, awalnya kecewa. Lembaran halaman di permulaan terlalu banyak kata pengulangan cukup melelahkan, tetapi semakin lama dibaca, semakin menikmati dan tenggelam dalam keindahan kalimat-kalimatnya, cerdas, serta elegan.

Cerita dinarasikan oleh Theo Decker, ini adalah curahan kisahnya sejak berusia tiga belas tahun hingga dua puluh tujuh tahun. Halaman awal menarik, tetapi di lima bab terakhir rasanya seperti hambar. Novel ini tergolong panjang, ditulis 962 halaman, diterbitkan Back Bay Books, 2013.

Cerita ini sangat ril, realistis, sangat dekat dengan kehidupan sesosok individu. Kehidupan tidak selalu mulus seperti yang diinginkan. Bukan bertumpu masalah lukisan the Goldfinch (lukisan burung kecil) karya masterpis Carel Fabritius pelukis tersohor asal Belanda, cerita lebih kepada detail kehidupan sosok Theo Decker, mewakili insan, perjalanan kehidupan yang dijalaninya selalu dibayangi awan hitam, memang kehidupan banyak tidak selalu seperti yang kita rencanakan atau citakan.

Perkembangan karakter lambat tetapi detail membuat kita bisa belajar teknik penulisan. Kekuatan cerita sepertinya bukan hal utama yang ditawarkan, pemburu thriler tentu saja tidak akan puas, mengesampingkan hal itu, novel ini luar biasa bagus dalam penyampaian, penggambaran tokoh dan tempat, cerita yang diselingi dengan narasi cerdas dan pengetahuan luas dari berbagai aspek kehidupan.

Dari pelosok Indonesia, Ukrania, Kanada, pendeskripsian kota Amsterdam yang begitu detail seolah kita dibawa ke sana dan demikian juga daerah gurun gersang dan panas Las Vegas dan kota New York sebagai sentra cerita. Pikiran kita seperti ditenggelamkan dalam cerita itu. Banyak frasa menarik, kalimat yang indah dan hampir setiap halaman, mungkin itulah factor kuat yang membuat novel ini menerima Pulitzer.

Dari penuturan penulis tentang Indonesia dalam karya ini, membuat saya percaya kalau penulis Tartt telah pernah ke Indonesia atau setidaknya melakukan riset mendalam tentang Indonesia. Tambang Batu Hijau, kehidupan tokoh Boris selama di Indonesia, termasuk orang Indonesia yang bermukim di Amsterdam, Belanda. Bagi peminat tulisan bagus dalam lintas genre tepat menikmati kalimat-kalimat indah dan frasa dari penulis.

Terjemahan (Ringkasan) dalam Bahasa Indonesia: Goldfinch, Peraih Penghargaan Pulitzer 2013, karya Donna Tartt

Kisah diawali dari sebuah kamar hotel di Amsterdam negeri Belanda. Ia mengenang kelembutan, ketegaran, kasih sayang, keeleganan ibunya yang telah tiada. Umur tiga belas tahun Theodore sudah harus kehilangan ibunya, orang yang sangat dicintainya, dan selama ini menghabiskan waktu bersamanya. Ledakan bom di sebuah pameran lukisan di museum sentral New York telah membunuh wanita itu dan korban-korban lainnya.

Audrey, gadis belia, datang dari kampung halaman Kansas, merantau ke kota New York menjalani hidup sebagai model. Kegigihannya belajar dan kuliah membuatnya tidak sabar hanya menjadi seorang model, ia lebih menyukai bekerja di balik layar. Dia bekerja pada pengerjaan photoshop. Poster-poster karyanya dipampang di tempat umum di kota New York. Ia pun bertemu ayah Theo, terpesona dengan ketampanan dan mobil mewah yang menjemputnya. Tanpa alasan jelas ayah Theo menghilang, tanpa pernah kembali. Setelah sempat dilaporkan ke polisi, sepucuk surat darinya diterima, mengatakan bahwa dia baik-baik saja. Semenjak itu pula kontak hilang dan tidak ada tunjangan hidup untuk Theodore, anak satu-satunya.

Theo ikut dalam pameran itu, ia dan ibunya terpisah. Anak muda itu mencari-cari ibunya, polisi mengabarinya bahwa ibunya tewas dalam ledakan bersama sejumlah korban lainnya. Sebelum terjadi ledakan, seorang gadis kecil cantik menarik perhatiannya, sayangnya ia tidak sempat berkenalan. Setelah terbangun dan sadarkan diri, lelaki tua yang tengah sekarat memanggil nama gadis itu, Pippa. Lelaki tua itu adalah orang yang bersama gadis itu. Sebelum meninggal, lelaki tua itu memberikan cincinnya dan memberi pesan pada kawannya bernama Hobart. Ia juga menyebut kata Hobart and Backwell. Lelaki itu menyuruh Theo mengambil sebuah lukisan yang terpapar di antara reruntuhan.

Ia kini tinggal sendiri di apartemennya, ayahnya entah di mana. Pihak dinas sosial pun menawari orang tua asuh sementara sebelum menemukan ayahnya. Theo lebih memilih tinggal di rumah sahabatnya Andy. Kedua ibu mereka juga berteman, kedua anak itu juga telah berteman sejak kecil. Kakek-nenek dari pihak ibunya sudah meninggal, ia tidak sempat menegnal mereka. Ibunya juga jarang membicarakan keluarganya. Ia hanya bertemu dua kali dengan kakeknya dari ayahnya. Nenek tiri dan kakeknya tinggal di daerah lain. Itupun kakeknya sudah sakit. Pihak dinas sosial akhirnya mendapati ayah Theo dengan kehidupan yang tidak jelas dan dililit hutang.

Theo mencari tahu alamat Hobart dan Blackweel sebuah usaha barang antik dan toko furnitur. Ia mengembalikan cincin Blackwell, akhirnya ia dan Hobie berteman, apalagi gadis yang disukainya Pippa tinggal di sana. Namun gadis itu sedang sakit parah akibat ledakan bom itu. Pippa pun tidak ingat padanya.

Jantungnya berdegup kencang ketika membaca berita lukisan Golfinch dinyatakan hilang dalam ledakan bom itu. Adapula media yang memercayai jika lukisan itu sudah musnah dalam ledakan. Polisi pun mengeluarkan hasil penyelidikan jikalau pelaku ledakan bom itu dilakukan oleh ekstrimis.

Goldfinch (1654) dipercaya menjadi karya terakhir dari pelukis ternama pada masanya dan tetap tersohor hingga kini. Carel Fabritius adalah murid Rembrandt pelukis Belanda, Carel terbunuh mengenaskan akibat ledakan dari ekstrimis menghancurkan karyanya dan juga menewaskan banyak orang. Banyak lukisannya hilang atau musnah namun Goldfinch selamat hingga kini. Walau lukisan sederhana yakni menggambarkan burung kecil akan tetapi Goldfinch menjadi masterpis dunia seni hingga kini. 

Sejak kecil Theo sudah terbiasa bermain dan bahkan menginap di rumah kawannya Andy. Keluarga kaya itu tidak keberatan dengan kehadiran Theo. Tetapi baginya sebuah siksaan tinggal bersama keluarga Barbour. Ayahnya pun muncul suatu saat bersama seorang wanita berpenampilan norak menjemputnya. Setelah mengosongkan aparteman sewa mereka, Theo diajak ke Las Vegas, dimana ayahnya tinggal bersama Xandra kekasihnya.

Dua Tahun di Las Vegas

Dulu ayahnya seorang aktor film, peran pembantu, pada dua serial TV. Theo tidak pernah tahu pekerjaan ayahnya yang jelas. Tinggal di Las Vegas daerah yang tandus dan gurun sangat berbeda dengan New York. Dia pun bertemu dengan Boris, teman satu sekolah dengannya, hanya berbeda usia satu tahun. Boris penampilannya seperti anak pengemis di pingiran jalan kota besar, apalagi ditambah bekas luka atau cakaran di mukanya. Dia seperti anak liar dan tak terurus. Ibunya yang pemabuk, jatuh dari jendela dan meninggal. Ayahnya adalah pekerja tambang. Mereka berdua kerap berpindah negara dari Rusia, Ukrania, Papua Nugini, Indonesia, Australia dan Kanada. Tetapi yang paling sering mereka tinggali Rusia, Ukrania, dan Australia.

Boris banyak bercerita tentang kehidupannya di negara-negara tersebut. Dia sangat ingin kembali ke Indonesia, bahkan ia pernah pindah agama menjadi seorang Muslim. Tetapi ia sudah meninggalkannya. Sementara, Theo seorang anak kota New York yang berbudaya, sopan, dan tidak terbiasa dengan kekerasan dan hidup keras. Keduanya pun berteman akrab dan bahkan bisa dibilang Boris sudah tinggal di rumahnya. Boris sering dipukuli ayahnya yang kasar dan pemabuk. Ayah Theo tidak keberatan Boris tinggal di rumah, hanya saja Xandra kadang mengeluh, tidak mungkin membiayai Boris, tapi  Xandra terkadang lupa keluhannya, karena Boris sering membawa makanan hasil curiannya ke rumah.

Hanya beberapa minggu tinggal di Vegas, Theo bisa dengan jelas menyimpulkan profesi ayahnya, sebagai penjudi, dan Xandra bekerja di bar. Ayahnya dengan mobil mewah dan Xandra dengan uang banyak. Boris pun curiga Xandra tidak hanya pakai Narkoba tapi pengedar juga. Mereka kerap mencuri minuman keras, dan memakai narkoba Xandra. Keduanya pun mabuk-mabukan bersama dan menikmati hari-hari di gurun, yang sepi. Xandra tidak memilki tetangga,  hanya rumah-rumah kosong. Banyak juga hal indah yang dikenangnya, ketika ayahnya mengajaknya makan malam di luar. Saat ayahnya banyak uang ia juga disuruh membuka tabungan untung pendidikannya kelak. Menurut Boris, ayahnya dan Xandra itu baik.

Theo sangat terhibur berteman dengan Boris. Karena tampilan baju New York-nya dan kaca matanya, Boris memanggilnya Potter (tokoh Harry Potter). Anak-anak di sekolahnya beragam kewarganegaraan. Orang tua mereka para eksekutif yang mengelola beragam usaha dan tempat hiburan di Las Vegas, tetapi ada juga kelompok anak yang tidak percaya diri dan pemalu karena orang tuanya bekerja  sebagai buruh kasar, pembersih, atau supir.

Tidak biasanya Xandra pulang kerja begitu awal. Dalam kesedihan, ia memberitahu kabar buruk, Larry Decker, ayah Theo, telah meninggal dalam kecelakaan tunggal di jalan raya. Ia menyetir dalam keadaan mabuk. Padahal seminggu sebelumnya, ia sempat memukul Theo dan memaksa anaknya menelepon pengacara mendiang ibunya untuk mencairkan uangnya. Larry terlilit hutang banyak. Hingga suatu sore seorang pria mendatangi rumahmya. Bobo Silver, mafia Jahudi begitu kata Boris.

Theo tidak mau berurusan dengan pekerja sosial, dia pun melarikan diri dengan mencuri uang tabungan Xandra dan pilnya, dan membawa Popper anjing kesayangannya. Ia naik bus hingga di New York dan tidak lupa membawa lukisannya.

Kembali New York

Sesampai di New York, ia dalam kebingungan harus kemana; ia malu kembali ke keluarga Barbour dan malu juga pada Hobie karena suara terakhir Hobie tidak pernah dibalasnya. Ketika sedang duduk di pinggir jalan, ia sempat melihat Tn. Barbour di jalan, memanggilnya. Menyedihkan, lelaki kaya itu menepisnya, saat itu Theo memang terlihat seperti anak pengemis. Semenjak itu ia berusaha melupakan keluarga Barbour.

Ia pun memberanikan diri mendatangi Hobie, teman ibunya. Dia diterima dan tinggal di sana. Ia dan Hobie mendatangi dan meminta pengacara ibunya mencairkan uangnya. Beberapa tahun kemudian, ia pun kuliah. Setelah lulus, ia  lebih memilih profesi dealer benda antik dan seni seperti Hobie, pekerjaan yang ia geluti sejak usia tujuh belas tahun.

Waktu berlalu. Tanpa diduga Platt, anak tertua dari Barbour, memanggilnya di jalan. Lelaki berusia tiga puluhan itu banyak bercerita tentang keluarga Barbour. Theo sangat terpukul mendengar jika Andy dan Tn. Barbour telah meninggal dalam kecelakaan berlayar, hanya setengah tahun yang lalu. Platt pun bercerita jikalau ayahnya memiliki sifat bipolar, Theo akhirnya sadar memang sesuatu tidak beres dengannya ketika bertemu di jalan. Ia mengundang Theo makan malam ke rumahnya.

Ia tidak bisa melupakan Pippa gadis yang dicintainya, ia tidak mau memaksa, ia tahu Pippa tidak tertarik padanya, tetapi ia tetap menyimpan rasa itu. Hanya beberapa bulan semenjak makann malam, Theo dan Kitsey, adik perempuan Andy, saling tertarik. Tidak lama mereka pun bertunangan, dan berencana menikah. Keuangan keluarga itu sudah mulai merosot dan kehadiran Theo cukup menolong mereka. Dalam pekerjaan Theo banyak meraup keuntungan dengan melakukan kecurangan dalam bisnisnya. Uang bukanlah masalah baginya. Masalah terbesarnya adalah seorang klien yang bernama Lucius Reeve yang mendapati kecurangannya dan kecurigaan Theo telah menyembunyikan lukisan the Goldfinch. Lucius membuatnya tidak tenang.

Boris di New York

Kebiasaan mabuk dan narkobanya makin hari menjadi, Kitsey akhirnya  mendapatinya, tetapi ia dengan lihai berhasil membujuk gadis itu. Pengedar narkoba langganannya tidak bisa dihubungi, dia terpaksa  mencari seorang gadis yang juga merupakan pemakai juga. Dikabarkan gadis itu sering mengunjungi sebuah bar orang-orang Eropa Timur. Suara memanggil dirinya Potter, tentu saja hanya Boris.

Kedua sahabat itu pun melepas rindu dan berbagi cerita. Boris banyak mengakui banyak hal yang tidak pernah Theo sadari. Kebiasaan buruk Theo memanjat atap kalau sedang mabuk dan berceloteh apa saja termasuk lukisan itu. Boris ternyata telah mencuri lukisan itu, Theo memang tidak pernah membuka bungkusan lukisan itu selama ini. Awalnya Boris ingin menyelamatkan lukisan itu dari Bobo Silver. Ia menyadari mafia Jahudi Bobo Silver, datang menggeledah rumah, untuk menagih utang ayah Theo.

Boris juga tinggal beberapa bulan dengan Xandra setelah kematian ayahnya. Xandra dalam masalah besar, setelah Theo mencuri uang dan pilnya. Ia didatangi bandar. Yang paling sedih, Boris juga iba melihat Xandra sendirian, tanpa teman, dan tetangga di sekitarnya. Bobo Silver tidaklah sejahat yang mereka pikirkan, ia murah hati dan tidak pernah menagih Xandra. Boris berhasil mengarang cerita, kalau ibunya adalah Jahudi-Polandia yang keluarganya ikut dalam kamp konsentrasi Nazi. Bobo pun mempekerjakannya. Ayah Boris telah pulang ke Australia.

Pekerjaan Boris, ia menyebutnya sebagai ‘Pembersih,’ organisasi orang suruhan untuk membereskan semua masalah dan ia memiliki anak buah, Boris tidak mau mengakui sebagai anggota mafia. Kendati ia mengaku tidak pernah membunuh orang, Theo meragukannya. Boris akhirnya mendapati lukisan itu ada di Antwerp, Boris memiliki apartemen di sana, yang hanya tiga jam berkendara dari kota Amsterdam.

Theo dan Boris pun terbang ke Amsterdam. Adalah tidak mudah mendapatkan lukisan itu karena berada pada tangan lingkaran orang-orang mafia kecil. Akhirnya mereka berhasil mendapatkannya. Namun Theo dalam ketakutan dan putus asa. Ia berdiam diri dalam kamar hotel di Amsterdam, ia menembak seseorang. Ia sangat depresi dan ingin bunuh diri, hari-harinya dipenuhi oleh narkoba dan minuman keras, badannya sakit dan lemah. semua hal buruk yang pernah dilakukannya membayanginya, termasuk rasa bersalah pada Kitsey. Akhirnya Boris menjenguknya dan meyakinkannya bahwa Martin, lelaki yang ditembak dan terbunuh itu, adalah manusia iblis. Boris menambahkan, bagi polisi budaya dan intel, Theo adalah pahlawan dengan membunuh anggota sindikat penyeludup. Lukisan itu dikembalikan ke museum, mereka mendapat hadiah jutaan Euro, pencurinya telah mendekam di penjara.

Sekembalinya ke New York Hobie mengetahui segala kebobrokan Theo, kecurangan yang dilakukannya pada barang antik. Seorang klien Reeve pun membeberkan semua kejahatan Theo. Usaha mereka bangkrut, Hobie sangat kuatir dengan lilitan hutang yang menumpuk akibat perbuatannya. Theo pun meminta maaf dan menjelaskan segalanya, tentang Goldfinch, jutaan Euro, sebagai uang hadiah atas pengembalian lukisan itu. Ia ingin meluruskan banyak segalanya.