"It's awful being a child," she said, simply, "at the mercy of other people."
The Little Friend is a 2002 novel written by Donna Tartt, following her immensely successful debut The Secret History a decade earlier.
In the town of Alexandria, Mississippi, on Mother's Day 1965, the Cleve family suffers an immense tragedy: the murder of nine-year-old Robin Cleve Dufresnes, hung from a tree in his own backyard when no one was looking. For twelve years, the crime remains unsolved, an uncomfortable piece of history that the Cleves prefer to never discuss.
That is until Robin's sister, Insufferable Genius Harriet who was only six months old at the time, decides she must solve the mystery of her brother's untimely death. In doing so she travels the lines of race and class in her hometown, discovers the sprawling history of her family, and draws the ire of the local Ratliff clan, the middle brother Danny of which she suspects is Robin's killer.
This work contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- When Harriet's father isn't completely absent he's picking fights with her that often end in her being beaten.
- The father of the Ratliff brothers is described as being almost psychotically abusive towards his sons.
- Aerith and Bob: In spite of not being a fantasy universe it does manage to pull this: there are characters named Edith, Charlotte and Harriet but there are also characters named Farish and Loyal.
- Bad Guys Play Pool: The local pool hall is supposedly the center of all low-life activity in Alexandria.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: After shooting Farish to death, Danny shoots his two pet dogs as well.
- Bittersweet Ending: Harriet doesn't find out who killed Robin, but she at least realizes that Danny was innocent.
- Corporal Punishment: Lots and lots of references, from parental whippings to institutional paddlings.
- Creepy Child: How Danny feels about Harriet.
- Deep South
- Door Stopper: The novel's excessive length has been cited as a detriment against it. The audiobook version, narrated by Tartt herself, is heavily abriged.
- Foil: Hely is this to Harriet.
- Foregone Conclusion: At several points it is mentioned that Harriet will remember a certain day or event for the rest of her life, meaning readers know she will survive the events of the book.
- Hates Being Touched: Harriet isn't keen on physical affection and endures it only when she considers it to be in her best interests.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Both averted by Robin's murder and played straight by Harriet and Hely miraculously avoiding snakebites, homicidal drug dealers and drowning.
- Insufferable Genius: Harriet, and how. Her intelligence and unwillingness to follow social norms rubs almost everyone the wrong way, especially her family.
- Karma Houdini:
- Harriet and Hely are never really faced with any consequences for breaking into a house, releasing boxes of venomous snakes, breaking the windows of a car and ultimately intentionally dropping a cobra into a car from an overpass that results in an old lady nearly dying. As in most of Tartt's work, however, the reader is made aware of the intense emotional damage such acts bring to the protagonist.
- Likewise, Robin's murderer remains at large at the end of the book, as Harriet never discovers who actually killed him.
- Known Only by Their Nickname: Tattycorum (shortened to Tat or Tatty) is a nickname for Theodora.
- No Ending: Not only does the novel end without the revelation of Robin's killer, there is no resolution or hint as to what will become of any of the characters in the future.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: The fact that Danny Ratliff turns out to be this is a deeply troubling revelation for Harriet who believes she has brought about his death. However, she later learns he survived in the tank before being fished out and arrested for Farish's murder.
- Parental Neglect: For most of the novel, Harriet's mother is depressed and functionally useless and her father is entirely absent.
- Pet the Dog:
- While Harriet certainly isn't evil, she does come across as quite uncaring and emotionless at certain points. However, her Ice Queen exterior is shattered a few times in the book, such as her crying with Alison when Robin's cat Weenie finally dies and especially her sadness at Aunt Libby's death.
- Danny Ratliff really does care about his autistic brother Curtis, and while Farish drags him to a car to drive him to what he presumes to be his death, he begs his other brother Eugene to take good care of him.
- Racist Grandma: Harriet's great aunts have more than a few racist thoughts, especially Edie, who secretly believes deep down black and white people are not on the same level of intelligence or propriety. It's especially telling that none of them thought to invite Odean, Libby's black housekeeper of over forty years, to her funeral.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Ultimately the whole novel turns out to be this. Harriet (and by extension the reader) never finds out who killed Robin, only that her prime suspect (Danny) is innocent of the crime. This angered many readers, but defenders of the book say Robin's murder is just used as a kickstart for the plot, and the whole point is not the revelation of the killer's identity, but the journey taken by all the characters along the way.
- Shout-Out: Several literary ones, including the name Tattycorum from Dickens' Little Dorrit.
- Sidekick: Hely to Harriet.
- Sinister Minister: Averted. Eugene Ratliff is often thought to be this because of his facial scars but is actually one of the more decent of the Ratliffs.
- Snake Charmer: Loyal, who is part of a back-woods, snake-handling Christian sect.
- Summer Campy: Camp Lake de Selby.
- Title Drop: At the very end, when Harriet's father calls Danny a "little friend" of Robin's.
- Unreliable Narrator: Harriet sometimes, it seems. But especially Danny Ratliff.
- Would Hurt a Child: Danny Ratliff is prepared to drown Harriet with only a fleeting sense of remorse.
