Kudos for Donna Tartt and her complex characters and riveting plot. Yes, art in whatever form brings us as close to ourselves as we will ever get. It is where through understanding others we discover ourselves. This is a novel of ideas, a splendid, spellbinding, stunningly written saga for the 21st century. The Goldfinch is a metaphor for the world in the aftermath of 9/11 and the state of fear we have lived in since. Is it too long? Certainly not. Are 10 words as transforming as brilliantly written 200? Absolutely not. Tartt is not for lazy readers, but if Tom Wolfe captured you, if Dickens transported you, if Tolstoy riveted you to each page, then read The Goldfinch, for there is nothing quite like it -- except for Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things -- out there at the moment. Great writing can be as long as it needs to be.