lengthy descriptions of unnecessary things
Does the product have the description?
I picked up this book simply because I was looking for something new to read on the same day I happened to hear it won the Pulitzer. I'm glad I did, however, because it was exactly what I was looking for. Engaging, well-paced (especially for its length), with interesting and (mostly) well-rounded characters. I took me a bit to get into it, but once I did I was hooked entirely--often reading it when I really should have been doing other things. Tartt excels as exhibiting Theo's journey so naturally and seemlessly, that every action he takes makes complete sense for his character. You completely understand why he gravitates to the people he does, why he needs to self-medicate the way he does, why he follows the path he follows. Many authors tend to shoehorn these details into their characters in order to further their plot, but with Theo, his causes and effects made perfect sense.My problems with the book, while I adored most of it (particularly Theo's youth), the last bit--the ending--felt off. There was a lot of exposition, which the reader needed for closure, but it came off as quite the "info-dump".  The last scene with Boris, followed immediately by the last scene with Hobie--it was very much one character telling us everything we needed to know, while Theo stood in for the reader asking the questions we had in a very "so then what happened?" manner. Yes, we got our answers, but given how great the book had been, I was just hoping for it to play out a bit differently.Also, there were time where the lengthy descriptions of unnecessary things (furniture, for example) got so detailed that it would take you out of the book; I'd find myself skipping paragraphs a time and losing nothing from the story. The book probably could have been 200 pages shorter if an editor had simply trimmed some of the superfluous descriptions down.Lastly, I didn't find any of the female characters to be as fully fleshed out as I had hoped. Each of the more prominent ones seemed to filling a very particular place hold in Theo's life, but I knew very little about any of them outside of that role. In turn, you look at characters like Boris and Hobie, who also hold specific roles in Theo's life, but yet their characters also stand on their own two feet outside of Theo. I would have loved that for more of the females.Enjoyed the book on the whole, however. Would recommend. 