This is an author that I learned about from Greg Iles. Tartt is one of his favorite Southern authors- she also sets her novels in Mississippi; this one is in Alexandria, MS (fictional city, but there is an Alexandria, LA) that's a bit south of Natchez.
I read Tartt's 'THE SECRET HISTORY' a few months ago, but I liked this novel much more.
The title probably refers to Danny Ratliff. Danny was Robin's 'little friend'. The Ratliff's were from an inferior social class, so that's probably why the diminutive reference.
This is a long (over six hundred pages) and dense, but it's wonderfully written. Although the book is predicated by the murder of a young boy that occurred twelve years before the setting of the novel, and the search for his killer is a major plot in the book, at the end- it's not resolved. A strange resolution, but I guess it reaffirms the reality of the situation. In the real world, a couple of eleven year olds couldn't solve a major crime that was central to so many in their community.
NOTES:
Set in a small town in rural Alexandria, Mississippi; in about 1970
'Tribulation' is the old family home where the Cleve's/ Dufresnes family grew up. The family sold it off and it became a black rooming house and later it burned down. The is told in a 'faded glory' southern writing genre tradition. The central characters were rich and influential a few generations ago, but now they are threadbare and living in genteel poverty.
Harriet Cleve Dufresnes- She is an eleven year old girl and she was just an infant when her brother Robin was murdered. He was playing outside his home just before a big storm. Later he was found hung in a tree. Harriet is convinced that it was one of his friends that did it. Her great aunt planted this false idea.
Robin- Harriet's older brother who was murdered over ten years before the beginning of the novel. This murder is the driving force of the novel. Hely and Harriet plot to avenge her brother's death.
Hely- This is a close friend of Harriet's. He lives down the street and his family is a bit higher on the economic ladder.
Pemberton- Hely's older brother and this guy was the same age as Danny and Robin, now both men are in their early twenties.
Edie (Edith) is Harriet's maternal grandmother and she is the true matriarch of the family.
Alison is Harriet's older sister. She was about four years old at the time of Robin's death. Both she and Harriet were in the yard during the hanging incident, but neither can remember the details.
Dixon and Charlotte are Harriet's father and mother. After Robin dies the mother begins to drink and drug and basically withdraws from life. Dixon leaves the home and relocates to Tennessee. Although he doesn't divorce Charlotte he has another family. This woman keeps in contact with Harriet and Alison with Xmas and birthday gifts. Dixon has little influence on the family in Mississippi.
The Ratliff family. These people are drug cookers (meth) and Danny and Farish are constantly strung out on meth the entire novel- freaked out and hallucinating.
Farish- A kind of hillbilly mountain man. Missing one eye- he shot it out when he tried to commit suicide while high on meth. Crazy and dangerous and all people are frightened of him.
Danny- Long haired and lanky. He's the family meth dealer and drives a flashy Trans Am. Tat, one of Harriet's great aunts, told Harriet that Danny and Robin didn't get along and this is why Harriet feels that Danny is the person responsible for Robin's death.
Eugene- He is recently out of prison and 'born again'. He has a large burn scar on his face. An inmate threw some flammable goo at him while he was incarcerated and it badly burned his face. A creepy figure in the novel.
Curtis- The mentally challenged brother and he is probably suffering from Downs Syndrome. He has a speech impediment and is a kind of loveable character. The best of the Ratliff's.
Gum- The brothers' grandmother. She is afflicted with various ailments and diseases and should have died years ago. She scoots around with the help of a walker. One day Hely and Harriet throw a King Cobra into Danny's car from a railroad track. They think they are going to kill Danny, but it's Gum driving the car.
A major scene in the novel is when Hely and Harriet break into the Ratliff's apartment and meth lab and steal some dangerous and poisonous snakes. Harriet is convinced that this is a good idea- she's only eleven.
From Fiction Book Review-
"Widely anticipated over the decade since her debut in The Secret History, Tartt's second novel confirms her talent as a superb storyteller, sophisticated observer of human nature and keen appraiser of ethics and morality. If the theme of The Secret History was intellectual arrogance, here it is dangerous innocence. The death of nine-year-old Robin Cleve Dufresnes, found hanging from a tree in his own backyard in Alexandria, Miss., has never been solved. The crime destroyed his family: it turned his mother into a lethargic recluse; his father left town; and the surviving siblings, Allison and Harriet, are now, 12 years later—it is the early '70s—largely being raised by their black maid and a matriarchy of female relatives headed by their domineering grandmother and her three sisters. Although every character is sharply etched, 12-year-old Harriet—smart, stubborn, willful—is as vivid as a torchlight. Like many preadolescents, she's fascinated by secrets. She vows to solve the mystery of her brother's death and unmask the killer, whom she decides, without a shred of evidence, is Danny Ratliff, a member of a degenerate, redneck family of hardened criminals. (The Ratliff brothers are good to their grandmother, however; their solicitude at times lends the novel the antic atmosphere of a Booth cartoon.) Harriet's pursuit of Danny, at first comic, gathers fateful impetus as she and her best friend, Hely, stalk the Ratliffs, and eventually, as the plot attains the suspense level of a thriller, leads her into mortal danger. Harriet learns about betrayal, guilt and loss, and crosses the threshold into an irrevocable knowledge of true evil.
If Tartt wandered into melodrama in The Secret History, this time she's achieved perfect control over her material, melding suspense, character study and social background. Her knowledge of Southern ethos—the importance of family, of heritage, of race and class—is central to the plot, as is her take on Southerners' ability to construct a repertoire, veering toward mythology, of tales of the past. The double standard of justice in a racially segregated community is subtly reinforced, and while Tartt's portrait of the maid, Ida Rhew, evokes a stereotype, Tartt adds the dimension of bitter pride to Ida's character. In her first novel, Tartt unveiled a formidable intelligence. The Little Friendflowers with emotional insight, a gift for comedy and a sure sense of pacing. Wisely, this novel eschews a feel-good resolution. What it does provide is an immensely satisfying reading experience."
The fact that Robin's murder is never resolved made a lot of people on Goodreads mad, but I can live with it. Harriet is only eleven and the real thrust of the novel had little to do with the actual murder. It was much more about the life of a small southern town during the end of the sixties, and that was extremely satisfying.
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