The Little Friend is the second novel by the American author Donna Tartt. The novel was initially published by Alfred A. Knopf on October 22, 2002, a decade after her first novel, The Secret History.

The Little Friend follows a young girl, Harriet Cleve Dufresnes, living in Mississippi in the early 1970s. The story revolves around the unexplained death of Harriet's brother, Robin, who died by hanging in 1964 at the age of nine. The aftermath of this early tragedy, as well as the dynamics of Harriet's extended family serves as the principal focus of the novel, which explores a broad spectrum of perspectives and aspects of Southern life.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2002, Tartt stated that The Little Friend was intentionally different from The Secret History, stating: "I wanted to take on a completely different set of technical problems. The Secret History was all from the point of view of Richard, a single camera, but the new book is symphonic, like War and Peace. That's widely thought to be the most difficult form." The Observer named a principal theme as one traditional in children's literature: "the mysterious unknowability of your parents' love either for yourself or for each other, the question of how much any of us will or will not therefore feel alone in the world for the rest of our lives."

Ruth Franklin of The New Republic highlighted Tartt's literary "obsess[ion] with crimes that go unpunished."

Happiness and methods of coping with tragedy are explored throughout the book, as are: guilt; coming-of-age; obsession, as well as "misunderstanding, bereavement, solitude and... cruelty."

Christianity is referenced throughout the book in the form of snake handling preachers, Baptists, and Mormonism, as well as an epigraph attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Reception

The novel won the WH Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2003.

Publication was highly anticipated, but reviews were mixed: A. O. Scott of The New York Times described the book as "tragic, fever-dream realism," although Entertainment Weekly criticizes the "inconsistent" characterization and describes the style as "bad Faulkner."

The Guardian praised the "energy of the prose" and Tartt's "accurate ear for dialogue," whilst criticizing the novel's unevenness. The London Review of Books called it: "thrilling stuff, and viscerally involving; but at the same time... emotionally unengaging," criticizing the apparent invulnerability of Harriet's character, and comparing it to "Alien, without the cat."

Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review, saying: "Tartt's second novel confirms her talent as a superb storyteller."

Cover design

The jacket design is by Chip Kidd, a New York City book cover designer.

References

  • David Hare review in Guardian Unlimited (October 27, 2002)

;Video

  • RTE TV panel discussion

;Audio

  • NPR: Talk of the Nation: Donna Tartt interviewed by Lynn Neary (November 5, 2002)
  • Donna Tartt reads The Little Friend at a Jackson, Mississippi bookstore (November 13, 2002)