Theft: A Love Story
by Peter Carey
A Novel We Love
A review by Anna Godbersen
Michael "Butcher" Boone, one of the two voices that make up Peter Carey's
insanely readable Theft, is an Artist with a capital A, an egotist and
genius ranting of his own work: "This stuff can't be talked, or walked, or
garnered from the auction record. These are my mother's bones, my father's
dick, the boiled-down carcass of Butcher Bones." Unfortunately for the Butcher,
the art market is a fickle thing, and when we first meet him he is ruined by drink,
divorce, alimony and the misfortune of having gone out of fashion. He is also
the caretaker of his story's other narrator, Hugh, his fat, pungent, not-quite-right-in-the-head
brother. The brothers Boone (or Bones, as they also call themselves) are exiled
to the country house of the venal collector Jean-Paul, and that might have been
an end to it save for the arrival of one Marlene Leibovitz. The daughter-in-law
of an early 20th Century master, an art world ingénue turned art world
fixer, she draws the brothers back into the world, with kindness and sex, and
also into a game of high stakes international trickery.
Carey, the author of Oscar
and Lucinda and True
History of the Kelly Gang, writes convincingly of painters and painting,
with careful attention to color, brushstroke, process. But more importantly,
he gives distinct voices to two maniacs, whose violent and passionate parallel
trajectories suggest those weighty themes of obsession, loyalty and authenticity.
Theft showcases animated, hilarious, jewel-encrusted prose, and it is
motored by some good old-fashioned storytelling.
 Subscribe
to Esquire and Save 75%
Get 12 fantastic issues of Esquire magazine
for only $8. The best culture, entertainment, style, financial advice, women
and more delivered right to your door every month ? at an incredible 81% savings
off the newsstand price! What could be better... or easier?
Click
here to subscribe now!
|
|
Don't Miss
