Read More: The Secret History

Kaye's friend Ellen recommended Donna Tartt's The Secret History, and I'm so glad she did. It was a really fun book--hard to put down. It's a thriller set in the classics department of an idyllic northeastern liberal arts school. It really brought me back to my college days, although of course I did not experience the murder and intrigue. It made me want to break out my old Greek flashcards.

I read some reviews that faulted this book because they thought it was unrealistic. A bunch of undergrads who are so obsessed with the classics that it leads to ruin... who think they're brilliant but seem to drink and do drugs all day... who squander lots of money and spend unreasonable amounts of time cultivating personas that seem out of place in this century. To those people, I say, "You, my friend, have never spent time at Reed College." Or probably any other small liberal arts college peopled with impressionable young classics dorks. How many times did we sit in the commons room of the dorm talking about how fun it would be to reenact the Bacchae? Well, what I learned from this book is that it is probably a good thing we did not.

Anyway, I would recommend this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has studied the classics, because I'm sure they will get a kick out of it. I think Megan would dislike it because none of the characters are particularly likable. But her standards for behavior are much higher than mine, in real life and in books, so all of the characters' personality flaws were A-OK with me. They kind of made the book.

-Kristin