Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I almost never shut a book down having almost completed it but after 600 pages of this deathly boring tripe I did just that. The book's timeline-as pointed out by other reviewers-just makes no sense. That is indicative of its overall sloppiness. Tartt writes whatever comes into her head. It is the antithesis of good literature. While editing is a major issue here, no amount of consolidation could or should have saved this worthless diatribe, which moves from one rambling exhortation to the next. About half of the narrative is allegedly about drug addiction but the subject is drawn obsessively and gives us no insight at all into the behavior. In fact the author seems to idealize the experience. Another quarter of the narrative is a encyclopedic-like description of the nuances of antiques and their restoration. (Oh heart, can you withstand the suspense here?) The characters feel cartoonish, which is the only reason they are saved from being despicable. Sorry, but there is no saving grace here. I have no idea why this miserable failure has been highly reviewed by some critics. It is in a word, awful.