OK, Tana! I Get You Wanted To Try Something Different!!!!!!!!! But, Honey, You're Not Donna Tartt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        Ever since Donna Tartt wrote "The Secret History," back in 1992, many authors have wanted to do their own versions thereof.  Only to find Tartt cannot be topped, let alone equaled.  I am sad to say Tana French's latest book, "The Witch Elm," succumbs to this, and even sadder it made the "100 Notable Books List Of 2018," meaning it has a shot--though not much--on the "Ten Best List," supposedly to be announced tomorrow.

                                        I have always loved Tana French, so with it being on the list, and so promising, I settled in for what I thought would be an enthralling read.  French's previous works have always been.  But, here she is going for something very literary, and while she gets the Gothic estate, childhood rivalries turning into adult ones, and the mystery, right, the entire thing is so overwritten and unnecessarily verbose it takes twice as long to tell the story.  If told in half the time, she might have turned out a book worthy to be listed.  But she made the writer's mistake that length means literary, and, as Gershwin said, "it ain't necessarily so."

                                         The Big Reveal is so long, it had me thinking back to the John Galt speech chapter, in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged,"   That ran for 70 pages; this does not, only it feels like it. Should this story be dramatized, the actress playing the character narrating will have one of filmdom's longest monologues, or it will be the lengthiest flashback in film history.

                                            What's sad is French's cleverness and skill with surprise, irony and twisted plot turns is still in evidence.  But it is saturated in overly descriptive prose that does not have the Gothic lyricism  of someone like Tartt, or, even Daphne Du Maurier.  I kept waiting for the pace to speed up, but it did not.

                                             Dedicated French fans will read it, and be disappointed. So, I am warning those ahead of time.  Others, coming to this, I doubt will finish it.  I hope French has gotten what she wanted to out of her system, and gets back to the pulse pounding thrillers that made her a genre favorite.

                                                Chalk this one up to experience. The next one SHOULD be a literary event!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                By the way, this is the ninth book on the "100 Most Notable Books Of 2018 List" I have read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!