If you read Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch and loved it...

[Anonymous]

Cutting for Stone and A Fine Balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone read her first book, The Secret History?

Yes. It's fantastic. I was blown away when I read it the first time on a whim. Can't wait to pick it up again 20+ years later.

[Anonymous]

I was also going to say A FIne Balance! Similarly immersive and also sticks with you long after you've finished it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:46 again. I think Jeffrey Eugenides has some of the same faculty with language and, like Tartt, he writes with great intelligence and intimacy. And like Tartt he is a novelist of ideas who can also tell an engrossing, compelling story. Have you read Middlesex?

+1 I also thought of Middlesex.

[Anonymous]

Agree with A Fine Balance and Tartt's earlier works. I didn't like Eugenides, though.

[Anonymous]

I've always found James Agee's book A Death in the Family very lyrical:

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Family-Penguin-Classics/dp/014310571X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386833083&sr=1-4&keywords=james+agee

[Anonymous]

Big sprawling, multi-story books:

Charles Palliser, The Quincunx
Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies
David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Mark Helprin, Winter's Tale

Also, Michael Chabon is, IMO one of the best sentence-crafters in the business today. The Yiddish Policeman's Union is fabulous. You might also like Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin.

[Anonymous]

Yes, yes, yes to Margaret Atwood and Kate Atkinson.

I'd also recommend The Lake of Dead Languages and The Drowning Tree, by Carol Goodman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cutting for Stone and A Fine Balance.

You know, I love Abraham Verghese's nonfiction but I couldn't get into Cutting for Stone. Something turned me off. Should I give it another go?

[Anonymous]

Something about The Goldfinch reminded me of Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America." The only similarity plot-wise is that terrorism features in both, but they're both similar in that sprawling, lyrical writing style. It's been at least ten years since I read the plot against America but now that I just finished goldfinch I'm probably going to re-read it bc they felt so similar to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cutting for Stone and A Fine Balance.

You know, I love Abraham Verghese's nonfiction but I couldn't get into Cutting for Stone. Something turned me off. Should I give it another go?

Cutting for Stone is excellent, you should give it another go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in the middle of it now, about 1/3 of the way in. It's huge (750 pages+) and due at the library. I just got it for my Kindle for only $7.50.

Possibly Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer? I will admit I didn't read the book, but my daughter saw the movie at school, and we just rented it on demand last week since she wanted to see it again. There's the parallel of NY terrorism, young boy and losing a parent. Not far enough into The Goldfinch yet to know if they key in this book parallels the painting in some way.

No, not remotely similar imo.

[Anonymous]

Kate Atkinson is a good recommendation - Life After Life.
Also, Great Expectations because of the parallels.

For me the Goldfinch was good not only because of the sprawling story but because it was so densely imagined, and that's the quality that I think is tougher to find.

[Anonymous]

God, I hated The Children's Book. I actually wondered for a minute if I'd written the PP's post about it being one of the few books she'd never finished, but I don't live in Takoma Park. For what it's worth, I didn't love Cutting for Stone, either. I also have enjoyed some of Ken Follet's books, but there is no way on earth you can compare the writing of his Century Trilogy to The Goldfinch. The Century Trilogy books read like a third-grader wrote them, in comparison. They're just plain bad.

I loved The Goldfinch. I just re-read The Secret History because it was $2.99 on Amazon and didn't think it held up as well over time--I spotted so many plot flaws and things that distracted me from the story that I don't recall noticing the first time around. But it's still a good read.

One of the few other books I loved like I did The Goldfinch was The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I've re-read that several times over the years and always love it just as much.

I also recently read The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, by Bob Shacochis. It's also huge, sprawling, and dense, but not quite as lyrical. And it's harder to love the characters than those in The Goldfinch. But I really enjoyed it.

It's more of a sparse, lyrical, dreamy read, but I adored The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli. Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost is similar.

[Anonymous]

Three Junes by Julia Glass. I wouldn't say it's similar in material, but it had multiple stories & characters and I really enjoyed her writing.

I also enjoy Ann Patchett. Didn't like Bel Canto, but read several other of her books and really enjoyed them.