The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Secret History charts the ‘freshman’ year of Richard Papen, a small-town scholarship boy at an exclusive New England college called Hampton.
Sex, alcohol and drugs are all features of his first year. However, these typical temptations are merely the background to something far more sinister. Richard becomes part of an elite group of Ancient Greek enthusiasts and discovers that their passion for the classical world extends dangerously far beyond the classroom. At York, student parties tend to constitute a good old piss-up with nothing more serious to show for it than a complaint from the Badger Hill Action Group. At Hampton, Richard discovers that, having reached the summit of classical knowledge, his fellow students have attempted to recreate a bacchanal, resulting in the mutilation and murder of a local man.
Tartt carefully and slowly crafts her characters, each of whom stands out distinctly. Their quirks, weaknesses and short-comings slowly become apparent, and as the group becomes increasingly embroiled in guilt and intrigue the relationships between its members become ominously fraught. The Secret History may be bleak but it is also brilliantly written and totally addictive.
