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| Book Cover |
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| The Painting, 1624, by Fabritius |
I now understand why this was one of the best books of 2013 if not the best. It's about so much more than a painting: art, good/bad, truth/illusion, life/death, randomness/order, especially mystery, uncertainty, the world that surrounds us. It begins with the death of thirteen year old Theo Decker's mother, in a bombing of a New York city museum by terrorists. Theo survives, speaks briefly with an old man, an antiques dealer, before running from the museum, with the famous painting of The Goldfinch under his arms. With no place to stay, abandoned a few years ago by his father, disliked by his grandparents, he ends up living for a time with a grade school friend's family, the wealthy Barbours, who offer him a safe haven, until his long lost father reappears to take him to Las Vegas. Before he heads to Las Vega, he befriends James Hobart, antique and fine furniture refinisher, the partner of the old man he speaks with in the museum. Hobie, alone now, cares for the orphaned Pippa, also a teenager whom Theo briefly glimpses just before the bombing. She becomes his 'Laura', the ideal woman through out the novel.
Theo's Dad, unfortunately, is a compulsive gambler, a liar, and along with his pill pushing girl friend Xandra, intends to use Theo to get at his mother's money. Theo lives a dissolute life in Las Vegas for a couple of years, goes to high school and befriends fellow outcast, Boris Pavlikosky, the delinquent son of a Ukrainian oil magnate, who has lived all over the world. They become fast friends and despite their youth, end up wasting their days, watching TV, laughing, talking, getting to know each other, ordering pizza, drinking and doing drugs. Boris is as street smart as Theo is naive and they develop a long lasting and loyal if unusual friendship, getting in trouble, selling drugs. Eventually, Theo's Dad becomes in big time debt to gamblers that forces Theo to call his lawyer in New York for money. It does not work, the lawyer smells a rat, and Theo's Dad ends up driving his new car into a bridge, killing himself. At this point, both Theo and Boris are ready to leave Vegas and they part as friends. Theo takes a bus across the United States, hopes to live with the Barbour's again, finds it is impossible, and Hobie, fortunately, takes him in. We jump ahead a number of years, find out Theo is now Hobie's partner in the antique business, after having wasted a number of years in college, getting his degree. Unfortunately, some of Boris has worn off on Theo, the art of deceit, and he sells antiques that he knows are fakes, to wealthy mostly dot.com buyers.
The novel jumps ahead, to Theo in his early thirties; he still has the painting, hidden in the storage vault. Somehow, one of his clients seems to have deducted that the picture still exists and Theo's the only one who know of its whereabouts. Theo, of course denies this, but it sets him to thinking about how to return the painting without getting arrested and put in jail. About this time, he meets up again with Boris, now wealthy, with a driver and body guards, clearly involved in something illegal. But Boris has never forgotten his affection for Theo and confesses that years ago, when they were both in Las Vegas, he took the painting. Theo, having been afraid to look at the wrapped painting, filled with guilt all these years for having taken it, cannot believe this is true, and goes to his storage vault and finds out it's true. Unfortunately, Boris has been using the picture as collateral on drug deals and has been taken in by 'supposedly' loyal a friend. He vows to get the painting back for Theo and together, the two get involved in something out of The Sopranos, where tough guys threaten Theo and Boris, and they both barely escape being killed, eventually parting with just their lives and ironically, its Theo that ends up shooting the two gangsters, saving their lives.
Theo flees to Europe, hides out in a hotel where Boris eventually finds him, tells him a story about saving the painting, how because there was a huge reward, he tells the police where to find it, gets the reward, splits it with Theo, making them both quite wealthy. Theo goes back to his life in New York, where he makes things right with Hobie and all the clients he cheated. A great read, almost Dickensian in length and story. And, as I mentioned earlier, I often highlighted passages, as Boris and Theo discuss and argue about the ways of the world, about what is the truth, who deserves what, is anyone honest, to what extent are we free, and what part chance or fate plays in the world.
Theo's final observation: "here's the truth. Life is a catastrophe."
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