The Goldfinch and Welsh Rarebit

If I could make a dish with vodka, Oxycontin and tragedy that would be perfect for Donna Tartt's engrossing and heartbreaking The Goldfinch.  Tartt is one of my favorite authors  - but she is rare among contemporary novelists in that she takes about 10 years per book.  Undoubtedly the anticipation adds to the enjoyment of her books, and it is the anticipation that powers the reader through her hefty tomes.  The Goldfinch is like those before it is long - but it is worth the effort and I different in some ways from Tartt's previous works.  What I loved about The Secret History and The Little Friend was the hidden mystery and subtle but constant sinister atmosphere underlying the story. With The Goldfinch Tartt adds something else to the mix - a character that the reader really emotionally connects to - Theo Decker.   Many reviewers have dubbed The Goldfinch "Dickensian" and there certainly is that spirit in this book - it spans many years, has a wide array of eccentric and interesting characters and most importantly tells the coming of age story of an orphan.  Theo is a young pre-teen who lives in New York with his beautiful and engaging single mother.  On their way to a parent teacher conference at Theo's school the mother-son pair stop at the Metropolitan Museum to peruse a collection of Dutch artwork Theo's mother was interested in.  A huge bomb explodes during their visit  - Theo's mother is killed but Theo miraculously survives.  But with his mother's death (and the unreliability and absence of his father) he becomes like an orphan if not literally one.  The book traces Theo's coming of age and entrance into adulthood - documenting how the trauma of the bombing and the loss of his mother scars his every moment thereafter.  This welsh rarebit pictured above represents one of the rare good and comforting things in Theo's life - his friendship and eventual home with a quiet quirky antique dealer known as Hobie.  More about the book and the dish after the jump.

 After his mother dies, 13 year old Theo Decker's life is full of heartbreak, neglect and darkness - and it is clear that Theo thinks he deserves this bad luck.  The day of the terrorist bombing he and his mother were in the museum because they were called into Theo's posh prep school because of Theo's bad behavior.  In the chaos after the bombing Theo is in shock and cannot find his mother - right before the bombing went off he was staring at a beautiful red haired girl and her grandfather.  After the blast he finds the grandfather and holds his hand as he dies - this man gives Theo a ring and inspires Theo to do something outrageous - steal a small but priceless work by a somewhat obscure Dutch artist - The Goldfinch by Fabritius (a small portion of it pictured in the cover art, left).  This painting is both what keeps him going after the bombing and what drags him deeper into guilt and depression - it is the source of his connection to his mother and the source of all the bad things he has done in the past and will ever do.  After his mother is killed Theo's living situation is precarious - his father was a drunk who left him and his mother years ago, his grandparents want nothing to do with him. He ends up living with the rich family of his middle school friend Andy - the Barbours of the Upper East Side.  Theo tip toes around their Park Avenue apartment, trying to be invisible so they won't kick him out into foster care.  He forms a connection with Andy's icy mother Mrs. Barbour but never is entirely comfortable in her home.  A few months after the bombing Theo makes his way down to the village to try to find someone connected to the old man and young girl from the bombing - he finds an old antique store and discovers that the man who gave him the ring was named Welty and his partner, Hobie runs the store and antique restoration business.  Theo is drawn to Hobie - a large, older man who while strange exudes warmth.  It is with Hobie that the pretty girl Theo was drawn to lives after the accident - Pippa.  She suffered a head and leg trauma as a result of the bombing and is in a bit of a dream state when Theo first meets her.  It is just that one meeting that Theo needed to fall deeply in love with Pippa - an obsession that he carries into adulthood.  The novel takes an even darker turn when Theo's sinister father and his Las Vegas girlfriend show up.  Theo is dragged to Las Vegas to live with them - his father is a gambler, an addict and clearly up to no good.  He neglects Theo so that Theo basically left to fend for himself.  It is in the creepy underpopulated Las Vegas subdivision that Theo befriends a young Russian boy, Boris, who has also been left to his own devices.  While Theo and Boris become close friends, Boris is nothing but bad news and gets Theo involved in excessive drinking, stealing and heavy drugs.  He skips school, gets drunk during the day and is on a fast path to self destruction.  Although Boris is the impetus for Theo's self destruction he is a witty, engaging character who the reader can't help but be charmed by, even if we know he will hurt Theo in the end (he affectionately calls Theo "Potter" because of Theo's Hogwarts style specs) .  Eventually Theo moves back to New York and is taken in by Hobie who becomes his guardian and eventual business partner.  He is the only positive force in Theo's life, but cannot save Theo from his own demons, his addictions, guilt and duplicitous.  All of this stems from the cloud of the stolen painting that follows Theo everywhere.  The book brings Theo back into the lives of the Barbours and Boris reappears to drive the final portion of the book into a wild, violent conclusion.  In Theo Tartt has created a deeply sympathetic but utterly flawed character.  He does awful, deceitful things but throughout the novel I still thought of him as the wounded boy who lost his mother.  While I loved The Goldfinch I did not find it quite so spectacular as The Secret History.  It is slower going with a lot of detail about seemingly mundane things - old furniture, for example.  But it is a rich, moving story of one boy's utterly screwed up life and how one loss can really destroy someone forever.  Not uplifting, but emotionally engaging in a way Tartt's previous works are not. 

Welsh Rarebit, from the NY Times
(printable recipe)
As I said above, the things that Theo takes into his body are predominately alcohol and drugs.  When he is fending for himself in Vegas he eats chips and leftover munchies from the bar his father's girlfriend works in.  Before he leaves New York, when he first meets Hobie, he is served this cheesy toast dish that perfectly captures the warmth, comfort and safety that Hobie represents to Theo.  Hobie makes this cheesy bread during one of Theo's visits and it is the first food Theo wants to eat after his mother's death.  While it is not referred to as Welsh Rarebit in the novel this is exactly the kind of dish that the traditional, patrician Hobie would throw together.  It is a cheesy bear sauce spread over bread and broiled until it is bubbly.  A perfect lunch for a snowy, cold February afternoon.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon dry mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 cup dark stout beer
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 lb shredded sharp cheddar
1/4 cup milk (optional)
4 - 8 pieces lightly toasted bread (I used my favorite rye, which was delicious)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat.
2. As butter melts whisk in flour. 
3. Whisk flour and butter and cook over medium heat until lightly browned - 5 - 7 minutes.
4. Whisk in the mustard and cayenne, then add the beer and Worcestershire.
5. Bring the heat to low and add the cheesy - whisking until smooth.  Add the milk if the sauce is grainy or dry, whisk until smooth.
6. Remove the sauce from the heat and pour into a container.
7. The the sauce cool until it is spreadable.
8. Preheat broiler.
9. Spread a thick layer of cheese sauce onto bread.  Put bread under broiler until it browns and bubbles - a few minutes (watch closely)