The New Canon: The Secret History by Donna Tartt - Page 3

The only disappointing aspect of The Secret History is what happened in its aftermath. Despite the critical acclaim and commercial success of this brilliant debut, released when the author was 28 — a work sometimes described as the most celebrated first novel of the 1990s — Tartt only published one book during her thirties, and by the time we see her third novel she will be in her late 40s.

With such meager output, this writer has fallen out of the literary limelight - a fickle source of splendor under the best of circumstances. Yet The Secret History is, by any measure, a significant fiction, and arguably the book that tilted the scales away from the minimalist 1980s fictions with their Raymond Carveresque starkness, and toward the more maximalist sensibility that has been in the ascendancy in recent years. In short, new millennium readers will do well to acquaint themselves with this large talent with the small oeuvre, who would deserve a place in the contemporary canon if only on the basis of this gripping novel.

Article Author: Ted Gioia

Ted Gioia is a writer and musician. He is the author of Delta Blues, The History of Jazz and, most recently, The Birth (and Death) of the Cool.

Visit Ted Gioia's author page — Ted Gioia's Blog