The Little Friend

Author – Donna Tartt

Genre - Thriller

Publisher – Vintage Contemporaries

Rating – 3/5

A book rich in prose and poise but oh.... so much anger and vengeance, I had to keep asking myself why I was reading this book.  I felt like a bystander to a road accident held in a trance by the tragedy, looking on, eyes and limbs refusing to do otherwise.

The murder of a nine year old boy in his own backyard while his family prepared for mothers day dinner shocks the town.  But while the town slowly comes to terms with the murder, the family members never do. The worst casualties as usual are the children. Robin's two sisters, grow up facing their insecurities all alone. Their mother becomes a recluse in her own house; their father takes up a job and a mistress in another town. Their grandmother and great aunts stay close and fill in for the absentee parents as much as they can. Their steady companion though is Ida, their coloured house-keeper. A presence at once warm and formidable, her stories and prejudices colour their imagination. Allison grows up to be a wish-o-wisp kind of young lady seeking refuge in sleep while Harriet is a rebel.  Harriet tries to pierce together Robin’s murder from her grandmothers who refuse to say anything, from her mother and Allison who clam up, from newspapers which offer only sketchy accounts. Only Ida speaks to Harriet on the matter. Her information though is based on personal views rather than facts. Ida blames Danny Ratliff, one of the poor whites in town for Robin’s murder.  To a child however, this straw of information is the red line, the truth at last now etched in stone. One summer, having totally convinced herself on the matter, Harriet goes out seeking revenge.

 

A tragic story of neglect of children and how the refusal of elders to face up to a tragedy can affect their young ones.  A child needs to be talked to, given colours to colour their imagination and pickets to build their boundaries. When none are provided, children turn to any source which will provide them understanding irrespective or right or wrong.

Harriet almost murders an old woman with a cobra and gets herself almost killed when she unwittingly steps into a family drug ring in her quest for revenge. As Harriet is lying in the hospital she learns from her parents that who she thought and targeted as Robin’s murderer was actually his friend!  Trigger happy, drug dealing, white trash yes, but a friend never the less!

Slow reading at times, the book touches a raw nerve especially in a young parent. How vigilant must one be with the young ones.  While it is important that the adults lead their lives, it cannot be without the young ones’ inclusion. Only providing a house, food and scholarly education is not enough, it is important to tend to them, to hear their anxieties, to ensure that they know and appreciate their protective environment and respect their boundaries for their own safety.

While the book is beautifully written, there is a typecast of charectors that is hard to miss – Coloured peoples prejuidice for poor whites, Trigger happy-domestic violence filled upbringing of poor whites, Moneyed whites preoccupation with proper behaviour in society and tight lipness of anything emotional.  The author’s message in the book is not typecasting typecasts but in giving the message, the author has unwittingly followed stereotypes herself.