--- title: Donna Tartt The Goldfinch Vanity Fair Article: Critics Disagree description: You've had more than six months to read it. Time to have an opinion. canonical: https://time.com/2857286/why-people-are-talking-about-the-goldfinch-again/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-11T20:04:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:20:59.737Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Donna Tartt The Goldfinch Vanity Fair Article: Critics Disagree og:description: You've had more than six months to read it. Time to have an opinion. og:url: https://time.com/2857286/why-people-are-talking-about-the-goldfinch-again/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6df892831b14d8e9/69869710f983e74d0504e58f/goldfinch.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Goldfinch og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donna Tartt The Goldfinch Vanity Fair Article: Critics Disagree twitter:description: You've had more than six months to read it. Time to have an opinion. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6df892831b14d8e9/69869710f983e74d0504e58f/goldfinch.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why People Are Talking About _The Goldfinch_ Again > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 11, 2014 8:04 PM UTC  This photo provided by Little, Brown and Company shows the book cover of “The Goldfinch,” by Donna Tartt. Tartt won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday, April 14, 2014\. (AP Photo/Little, Brown and Company) This photo provided by Little, Brown and Company shows the book cover of “The Goldfinch,” by Donna Tartt. Tartt won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday, April 14, 2014\. (AP Photo/Little, Brown and Company)Little, Brown and Company  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 11, 2014 8:04 PM UTC Donna Tartt’s novel _The Goldfinch_ came out last October. It won a Pulitzer in April. So why are certain corners of the Internet upset about it today? A [new article from the July issue of _Vanity Fair_](http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/07/goldfinch-donna-tartt-literary-criticism?mbid=social%5Ftwitter) is making a book that may have seemed universally acclaimed seem less criticism-proof. The article starts by acknowledging that the book is a major sales and buzz success, with rave reviews from the New York _Times_ and its Book Review, before launching right into pans from “higher brows” like _The New Yorker_ and _The Paris Review_. The former compares the book to children’s literature and the editor of the latter accuses the _New York Times Book Review_ of being “afraid to say when a popular book is crap.” (TIME’s own Lev Grossman is quoted in the story; he comes down on the pro-_Goldfinch_ side, though he acknowledges that the world of the book is “slightly simplified.” [Subscribers can read his review of the book here](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2155623,00.html).) The piece inspired a grabby headline from [Page Six](http://pagesix.com/2014/06/10/what-the-literary-world-hates-about-the-goldfinch/) — “What the Literary World Hates About _The Goldfinch_” — and inspired those who didn’t like the book all along to have the courage to say so. “I had found the book ungainly, dull and shockingly unimaginative,” [wrote](http://www.newsweek.com/secret-haters-goldfinch-grab-their-torches-254471) Alexander Nazaryan for _Newsweek_. And _Slate_‘s Willa Paskin, apparently, agreed (at least until now): Which, of course, led those who liked it—including TIME staffer Jessica Roy—to speak up too: There’s no way for us to know why _Vanity Fair_ is revisiting _The Goldfinch_ this month in particular, though the book does remain at the top of many readers’ to-discuss lists, but perhaps the timing is as good as any. In some ways, this conversation has been going on non-stop for years and won’t stop any time soon. Just ask Jennifer Weiner, the author and outspoken critic of book reviews that focus only on perceived high-brow literature: Weiner was interviewed by _VF_ for the story, in which she’s quoted pointing out that the most perfect books aren’t always the ones that people decide to read, but she’s made that point many times before. The question is, in the end, whether _The Goldfinch_ is “serious” enough — which is the same question that has surrounded lots of other books that have received lots of attention, no attention, big-name reviews, no reviews, high sales numbers and low ones. _The Goldfinch_ has enough cred (awards! length! interesting author!) that it’s novel — no pun intended — to see it at the center of that debate. The debate itself, however, isn’t new at all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2857286/why-people-are-talking-about-the-goldfinch-again/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2857286/why-people-are-talking-about-the-goldfinch-again/"},"headline":"Why People Are Talking About The Goldfinch Again","datePublished":"2014-06-11T20:04:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:20:59.737Z","description":"You've had more than six months to read it. 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