THE LITTLE FRIEND by Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt crafts each sentence so meticulously that it’s no wonder she writes only one book every ten years.  This novel takes place in the fictional town of Alexandria, Mississippi, not far from my home town of Memphis, in the 1970s.  Reminiscent of Faulkner in its setting and its subject matter, this story takes place during one summer in which precocious 12-year-old Harriet sets out to avenge the hanging of her brother when Harriet was an infant.  Harriet has to rely on her elderly aunts, her grandmother, and her household’s black maid for adult role models and supervision, since her mother has never recovered emotionally from her son’s death.  Harriet’s nemesis is Danny Ratliff, who may or may not have murdered her brother, and his family is dysfunctional in a completely different way.  One brother, Eugene, is intent on becoming a snake-handling preacher, and the other, Farish, is cooking crystal meth, with a taxidermy business on the side as a cover.  Some reviewers have deemed this a coming-of-age story, but I see it as an adventure that gets out of hand.  Harriet and her partner-in-crime, a boy named Hely, get in way over their heads by threatening the Ratliff brothers, particularly since Eugene and Farish are completely whacked out on their own product.  I really felt sorry for these ne’er-do-well Ratliff men whose grandmother constantly warns them that they will never escape their impoverished roots.  For me, this psychological beating is almost more devastating than a physical assault.  It just seems so much more difficult to overcome.  My biggest disappointment in this book was the ending.  The suspense and excitement grow right up until the last page with no clear resolution.  After reading 600+ pages, I was expecting a more satisfying conclusion.  The author leaves us with clues about what will happen next, but I wasn’t really sure if all of the clues were reliable.