Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Portrait of a Thief

I read another review, before I picked up Portrait of a Thief, that said this book is heavy, and not in a good way. The sentences are weighty. They bear down on you unceasingly. However, the lushness of this book would be well-captured on film. I partially agree with this assessment for one reason: there aren’t many ways to tell grief in writing, so the author must use words like grief, loss, hollow. There are, however, millions of ways to show grief in screenplay. This book spends a lot of time on grieving—for home, for parents, for history. I did like the way the author handled grief, but it was TOO present, both in the narrative and in the lives of the characters. There is some discussion of how Will approaches everything, especially love, as being temporary, and as I was reading, I really hoped that Li would write the temporality of grief into a bigger motif than it ended up being.

The first quarter-ish of the story is too romantic. Melancholy pervades the book, even during supposedly tense, high-action scenes like those of speed racing. This melancholy is further oppressive in the sense that it impedes Li's ability to properly develop her characters. They are distinct, but don't have enough depth. They're also, put simply, too sexy. Save for a few group-project scenes, the characters don't interact with each other like real people would (I went to school with people as exceptional as Li's characters, but I didn't find that she gave any of them the complexity, depth, and even lightheartedness they deserved).

I’m glad I stuck with this book, though. As a student of postcolonial literature and art history, I appreciated the story! I just think the target audience for this book is the ninth grade. It would be really excellent for my little sister in a few years.

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ramreadsagain's review

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I already knew this was very character-driven going into it but I still wasn’t prepared for just how little the “plot” mattered to the story. It follows five Chinese-American college students who are each dealing with their own complex feelings about their family origins. A mix of first and second generation immigrants, they each have a slightly different relationship with China and this book explores these sentiments and conflicts beautifully. It’s about feeling Chinese, feeling American, and feeling neither, all through the lens of art theft. It also deals with colonialism, art smuggling, growing up, family and friendships.

While it is very slow paced, it has to be in order to give all five main characters enough growth. I loved how friendships (and more) developed between them throughout the book. A really good read.

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azrah786's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

CW: racism, parent death, grief, alcohol
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I found this book quite slow to get through so I’m finding it hard to pinpoint my exact feelings on it but I did enjoy it!

The book follows a group of Asian American college students who join forces to steal back Chinese art from Western museums and I’m going to straight up say that you have to kind of dispel reality a little going in.

The heist action doesn’t have that big of a focus in the book which was definitely not what I was expecting but the overarching storyline still has a film-like quality to it.

What makes this book shine are the nuanced characterisations. Li’s prose is utterly compelling and beautifully narrates the multifaceted diaspora experience through each of the main characters. However, their individual musings also got quite repetitive which I think was a big reason why sometimes the book felt like stretch to get through.

Though I’ll admit the repetitiveness did help to emphasise the characters dreams and aspirations for themselves as well as the whimsiness of the whole situation too and I know all of their individual stories will stick with me for a long time.
Final Rating – 3.75 / 5 Stars

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venetiana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this is my new favourite book. it is EXCELLENT. who needs heist movies when this book exists!

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Thanks to Tiny Reparations Books for the free copy of this book.

- PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is a cinematic meditation on colonialism, the Chinese diaspora, art history, and rewriting history from the view of the oppressed. You can absolutely already see the movie playing in your head as you read.
- It's much more of a character study than you might expect from a heist novel, but there are still plenty of heart-pounding passages amid the exploration of the team members' motivations and histories.
- Some of the ruminations become a bit repetitive in the last third, but the ending is more than worth sticking around for.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is engrossing from the first page, featuring five young Chinese Americans hired to steal back Chinese art in Western museums. If you've been looking for a character-driven heist novel, don't miss this one.

The tone is generally contemplative, as the motivations for every move are just as important as the action itself. Occasionally the narrative plays around with time as one chapter might actually take place before the chapter it followed in the book. It’s clear when this happens. It’s used just often enough to be a feature of the storytelling, while being infrequent so that the book is linear overall.

Will is the logistical center of the group since he was the one hired to make the heist happen, but all five of the main characters have similar importance in the narrative. The style of rotating third-person narrators mean that not only do we get what each character thinks as the story progresses, but also we get what they think about each other in various combinations and circumstances. Will chose this crew, and so they all know him while having various levels of connection (or even no connection at first) to everyone else. Irene is his sister, Lily is her friend, Alex and Will briefly dated, and Daniel is Will’s friend. Just as important (or perhaps more) than these interpersonal connections is each of their relationships with China and their identities as Chinese Americans.

The worldbuilding is gradual, beginning with enough information to establish an approximate decade, then eventually dialing in on a one-to-two-year range for its start. Where it shines is in the complicated web of feelings that each person has about their positionality with regards to the United States and China, what that looks like and what it means for them individually and in relation to their families. Whether they think of themselves as Chinese Americans, as Americans, as Chinese, or some more nuanced blend of these... all of that combines to affect how they move through the world and, importantly for this heist story, how they move through Western museums holding (looted/stolen) Chinese artifacts and art.

I enjoyed the heists, but at times the actual heists are secondary to the process of each of the crew figuring out their feeling about themselves and each other. Even the attempt is transformational, and I love how the overall aim of the heists is handled.

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