I had a hard time telling if it was Carey's writing or the narrator's reading or a combination of both that made the character of Hugh come off as a bit disparaging as well. Some of his accents were just completely off (like that of a woman in New York) while others came off as insulting caricatures (like that of a Japanese man). I had found My Life as a Fake much more thought-provoking than this novel.The reader of the audiobook version of this book was just okay. However, I felt like this theme was very similar to that of My Life as a Fake, the other Peter Carey novel that I read before this one and enjoyed much more. A big overarching theme is about the nature of art itself - what goes into making it, what goes into appreciating it, and what goes into deciding a masterpiece. There were few surprises, except one at the very end.
Plot-wise, Theft is actually pretty slim when it comes right down to it, despite the multiple changes in scenery. The "love story" between Butcher and Marlene seemed completely unbelievable, although there is an attempt toward the end to explain that Marlene is attracted to men who are as a physically imposing and brusque as her country father was. Marlene, who seems to be a one-note character who can do whatever she wants because she is so irresistibly beautiful that all men around her fawn over her, was equally uninteresting.
Neither of them were particularly likable or even engaging characters. Things go from worse to unexpectedly whirlwind when a beautiful authenticator, Marlene Liebovitz, arrives on the scene and declares that the Boones' rustic neighbor is in possession rare piece of art from the early 20th century - and the work is soon stolen days afterward, with Butcher becoming the police's primary suspect.The story of Theft is told in the alternating perspectives of Butcher - a coarse, bitter, and angry man - and Hugh - who, as aforementioned, has some behavioral/mental issues and doesn't always understand what is going on around him.
Michael "Butcher" Boone has hit on some hard times - recently divorced and his life work as an artist not only out of popularity but in the hands of his ex-wife - and to add on to his troubles, he's been appointed the guardian of both a rural estate belonging to a patron and his own brother Hugh, who has an unspecified mental disability.
0 kommentar(er)
