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literarymangos's review against another edition
2.0
DNF 37% — I just couldn’t sit through this book any longer. it got very boring and repetitive ☹️
I really did like the premise, it seemed very interesting !! just wish it was like idk structured differently
I really did like the premise, it seemed very interesting !! just wish it was like idk structured differently
piedanger's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
kat42's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Li had a lot of great ideas for this book, but didn't necessarily execute them that well. I also found the writing to be repetitive, and the characters weren't very distinct. I did really like the ending though.
kaulhilo's review against another edition
2.0
i've spent a majority of today debating what to rate this book. objectively (for me), it lies around a solid 2 stars, which is what i've decided to go with, and yet. there's so much more, and so much well, less, going on here.
portrait of a thief is a story centered around a group of chinese-american college students, their despair at wanting to live up to an idealized legacy, the discrepancies between siblings and strangers, and the paragon you hold to yourself, as opposed to who you really are. all that, added to a (senseless? insane?) plan of bringing back to china, what you think china was owed all along, comes together as potentially one of the more intriguing book synopsis i've ever read.
in so many words, this sounds like an excellent book. it seems interesting and compulsive, the sort of thing you absolutely have to read. and i agree, i think, to an extent: this is a fun book, "relatable" on more than one occasion, especially if you're in university and having an ongoing breakdown (at all hours) about being in university. the dread of "real life", the unknowingness of the future, the anxiety that comes with it; i feel like if this book got anything right, it was this. the stress and the burden of being at the cusp of life, and not knowing what to do with it.
but sadly, that's about it. while i enjoyed the writing, the plot sequence was completely out of tune and all over the place; absolutely nothing in the book made any logical or practical sense. it never felt like the author did any proper required research before writing this book, since just about everything was irrational at best, preposterous at worst. at some points, i found the whole thing so.. ridiculous that no justification i tried made up for whatever was going on.
the characters were so well thought out (if a little plain) and somewhat distinct, but i never felt connected to them, or wanted/cared about rooting for them. and since plot and characters are the two most important factors to me while reading, this book, with however perfect of an origin concept, just sadly fell flat.
portrait of a thief is a story centered around a group of chinese-american college students, their despair at wanting to live up to an idealized legacy, the discrepancies between siblings and strangers, and the paragon you hold to yourself, as opposed to who you really are. all that, added to a (senseless? insane?) plan of bringing back to china, what you think china was owed all along, comes together as potentially one of the more intriguing book synopsis i've ever read.
in so many words, this sounds like an excellent book. it seems interesting and compulsive, the sort of thing you absolutely have to read. and i agree, i think, to an extent: this is a fun book, "relatable" on more than one occasion, especially if you're in university and having an ongoing breakdown (at all hours) about being in university. the dread of "real life", the unknowingness of the future, the anxiety that comes with it; i feel like if this book got anything right, it was this. the stress and the burden of being at the cusp of life, and not knowing what to do with it.
but sadly, that's about it. while i enjoyed the writing, the plot sequence was completely out of tune and all over the place; absolutely nothing in the book made any logical or practical sense. it never felt like the author did any proper required research before writing this book, since just about everything was irrational at best, preposterous at worst. at some points, i found the whole thing so.. ridiculous that no justification i tried made up for whatever was going on.
the characters were so well thought out (if a little plain) and somewhat distinct, but i never felt connected to them, or wanted/cared about rooting for them. and since plot and characters are the two most important factors to me while reading, this book, with however perfect of an origin concept, just sadly fell flat.
moominpapareads's review against another edition
2.0
So it wasn't the heist novel it was advertised as, which I guess is not the author's fault. But the plot itself was super boring, and unrealistic. If it were an actual heist novel, I wouldn't mind it being unrealistic, but since it wasn't actually a heist novel, I do mind.
But for it to be a character study, I felt like the characters were way to similar, and didn't have any fundamental differences in opinion, which is surprising given the subject matter.
If the book is supposed to be about imperialism and Art, and why museums/countries should give back art that was stolen, then why was that subject not actually explored in depth? The only thing the author ever says in this novel is "Art is power", "Imperialism is bad", and "Stolen Art needs to be returned to the country of origin". All of which are true statements, but I wish all of these would have actually been explored and explained a bit more in depth. Why is art power? Why is it important that it be retured? What does it mean to members of a diaspora and to the country? Why are museums so important in shaping and telling history? etc etc.
The book also never addressed the question of why returning these Art pieces to a private cooperation is the right move. I mean, many many many art pieces are held in private collections by rich people, where no one from the public will ever see them. Including important pieces of chinese art. I just feel like the premise of randomly trusting this huge private chinese cooperation with precious art is the right move. How would you be ensuring that the art would remain accessible to the chinese public exactly?
On that note: how come none of the characters have any hesitancy about the chinese government or chinese cooperations? They are hardly saints, or innocent when it comes to questions of modern imperialism.
In terms of writing, I also found this novel to be increadibly repetetive:
- any scene with action or dialoge is constantly interrupted with musings on some sort of visual, or thinking about family, or relationships, or how unattainable someone is or somthing else increadibly trivial and not important in that moment. This got to a point where sometimes I totally lost track of what was actually happening.
- i swear the sentence "He thought of something, the something something" was repeated at least twice a chapter. It was sooooooo annoying.
- "he was all long fingers and sharp jawline" or something similar was also constantly used.
- there is only so many times you need to describe the way light washes over a city, or the sun sets over Beijing or California.
Last issue I had was the way journalist and side characters talked about the heist:
- first of all, I don't think most peopel actually care about art thefts happening on another continent.
- second: why is everybody assuming that the art is going back to China? All anybody knows is that chinese art got stolen, why would your first thought not be: of yeah, some private billionaire had it stolen. or, it's going to end up on the balck market and never be seen again. But no, Irene's classmates all talk about it in terms of imperialism and chinese art being returned to China. That doesn't make any sense at all.
I guess the book wasn't all bad, but it tried to be too many things all at once and failed at all of them. I would read future novels by this author though.
But for it to be a character study, I felt like the characters were way to similar, and didn't have any fundamental differences in opinion, which is surprising given the subject matter.
If the book is supposed to be about imperialism and Art, and why museums/countries should give back art that was stolen, then why was that subject not actually explored in depth? The only thing the author ever says in this novel is "Art is power", "Imperialism is bad", and "Stolen Art needs to be returned to the country of origin". All of which are true statements, but I wish all of these would have actually been explored and explained a bit more in depth. Why is art power? Why is it important that it be retured? What does it mean to members of a diaspora and to the country? Why are museums so important in shaping and telling history? etc etc.
The book also never addressed the question of why returning these Art pieces to a private cooperation is the right move. I mean, many many many art pieces are held in private collections by rich people, where no one from the public will ever see them. Including important pieces of chinese art. I just feel like the premise of randomly trusting this huge private chinese cooperation with precious art is the right move. How would you be ensuring that the art would remain accessible to the chinese public exactly?
On that note: how come none of the characters have any hesitancy about the chinese government or chinese cooperations? They are hardly saints, or innocent when it comes to questions of modern imperialism.
In terms of writing, I also found this novel to be increadibly repetetive:
- any scene with action or dialoge is constantly interrupted with musings on some sort of visual, or thinking about family, or relationships, or how unattainable someone is or somthing else increadibly trivial and not important in that moment. This got to a point where sometimes I totally lost track of what was actually happening.
- i swear the sentence "He thought of something, the something something" was repeated at least twice a chapter. It was sooooooo annoying.
- "he was all long fingers and sharp jawline" or something similar was also constantly used.
- there is only so many times you need to describe the way light washes over a city, or the sun sets over Beijing or California.
Last issue I had was the way journalist and side characters talked about the heist:
- first of all, I don't think most peopel actually care about art thefts happening on another continent.
- second: why is everybody assuming that the art is going back to China? All anybody knows is that chinese art got stolen, why would your first thought not be: of yeah, some private billionaire had it stolen. or, it's going to end up on the balck market and never be seen again. But no, Irene's classmates all talk about it in terms of imperialism and chinese art being returned to China. That doesn't make any sense at all.
I guess the book wasn't all bad, but it tried to be too many things all at once and failed at all of them. I would read future novels by this author though.
sylvestra's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
nora13hf's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes