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schnaucl's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
It took me quite a while to get into it, which is probably more about me than the author or the book. I liked the concept and I liked the characters and the intricacies of their relationship to each other.
But I got hung up on a few things. One was that they apparently did things like check out books and watch heist movies under their own names. I'm sure Alex could go back and fix it, but still. It was a weird blend of we're being vary careful in this way but very careless in this other way.
But the thing I really kept coming back to was the money. I suspected the author would sort of hand wave hiding the money from the taxing authorities by saying the people paying them are certainly sophisticated enough to hide it from U.S. taxing authorities, which she did. And fair enough, but it wasn't mentioned until almost the very end of the book. And sure, most readers probably aren't thinking about USA PATRIOT ACT reporting requirements (or even know that they exist) but still.
But more than that I kept going back to a question the FBI agent asks Diane Court in Say Anything, essentially, does your dad have stuff that seems a little too nice for what he's earning from his job? They have all these great plans for what they're going to do with their ten million dollars, and they're all highly intelligent people, but none of them is ever like, it would be great to pay off all my loans and pay off the student loans of everyone else in my family or put cash into the restaurant but how would I explain the fact that I have this kind of money? And sure, Alex is in tech, and maybe her family has no idea what kind of money she makes and assumes all tech people have fund the entire family's college educations money. Or maybe she plans to set up some kind of fake scholarship(s). And Daniel is going to be a doctor so presumably he'll be able to pay off his loans eventually. (After all, his dad knows he was involved in the thefts but not that he got a cash reward for doing so). But it's never mentioned as a problem, let alone a proposed solution. And sure, they could just not say anything, I guess. Although they're all doing a lot of international travel and while I think some of the families are well off, I don't think that's true for everyone. So are they planning to do all this travel and just not tell anyone or not have souvenirs or never have family in their homes?
It's not that I think the police would necessarily be able to pin things on them (Daniel's dad notwithstanding) but other people in their lives who have some idea of what their income is are going to wonder. It just seems like it should be a concern and it was really, really distracting for me that it wasn't.
Anyway, the parts about feeling like you don't really belong to either country and what it means to be a loyal citizen and what it means to have your art stolen and the burdens and expectations of being an immigrant or the child of an immigrant were all very well done. It was just some of the theft stuff that I found frustrating.
But the thing I really kept coming back to was the money. I suspected the author would sort of hand wave hiding the money from the taxing authorities by saying the people paying them are certainly sophisticated enough to hide it from U.S. taxing authorities, which she did. And fair enough, but it wasn't mentioned until almost the very end of the book. And sure, most readers probably aren't thinking about USA PATRIOT ACT reporting requirements (or even know that they exist) but still.
But more than that I kept going back to a question the FBI agent asks Diane Court in Say Anything, essentially, does your dad have stuff that seems a little too nice for what he's earning from his job? They have all these great plans for what they're going to do with their ten million dollars, and they're all highly intelligent people, but none of them is ever like, it would be great to pay off all my loans and pay off the student loans of everyone else in my family or put cash into the restaurant but how would I explain the fact that I have this kind of money? And sure, Alex is in tech, and maybe her family has no idea what kind of money she makes and assumes all tech people have fund the entire family's college educations money. Or maybe she plans to set up some kind of fake scholarship(s). And Daniel is going to be a doctor so presumably he'll be able to pay off his loans eventually. (After all, his dad knows he was involved in the thefts but not that he got a cash reward for doing so). But it's never mentioned as a problem, let alone a proposed solution. And sure, they could just not say anything, I guess. Although they're all doing a lot of international travel and while I think some of the families are well off, I don't think that's true for everyone. So are they planning to do all this travel and just not tell anyone or not have souvenirs or never have family in their homes?
It's not that I think the police would necessarily be able to pin things on them (Daniel's dad notwithstanding) but other people in their lives who have some idea of what their income is are going to wonder. It just seems like it should be a concern and it was really, really distracting for me that it wasn't.
Anyway, the parts about feeling like you don't really belong to either country and what it means to be a loyal citizen and what it means to have your art stolen and the burdens and expectations of being an immigrant or the child of an immigrant were all very well done. It was just some of the theft stuff that I found frustrating.
Content Warnings
Minor: Colonisation, Grief, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation
larareads's review
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
slow-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? It's complicated
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, and Racism
Moderate: Death of parent
jaan's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Medical content and Alcohol
Minor: Terminal illness
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
I, like many (I am sure), do love a heist movie. There is something so satisfyingly escapist about them and I revisit classics like Ocean's 11 and The Italian Job any time I'm looking for a comfort watch. Plus, I am a *huge* fan of the entire Fast and Furious franchise, #sorrynotsorry. (Which, after reading the Acknowledgements, it seems I have that in common with the author, so...take that world!) Anyways, the point of all that was, I was very intrigued in this combination heist and "reclaiming from colonist powers" plot and was excited to receive an eARC from NetGalley (which I am only a little late, in consideration of the publication date, in getting to).
Portrait of a Thief follows five Asian and Asian-American college students from across the US, who come together to form a team (bank-rolled by a mysterious nouveau riche Chinese benefactor) to steal back five sculptures, scattered at museums across the globe, that were looted from the old Summer Palace in Beijing years ago. Will Chen leads the group, a senior at Harvard with a passion for art and a view at claiming a place in history for himself. His sister, Irene Chen, is the perfect daughter, a public policy major at Duke who has the personality and charisma to talk anyone into (or out of) anything. Alex Huang dropped out of MIT to work at a company in Silicon Valley to bring more income to her family, joining the team as the "hacker." Lily Wu is a friend of Irene's from Duke, a car racer in her free time who acts as the getaway driver. And last in Daniel Liang, a childhood friend of Will and Irene, pre-med at Stanford, whose father works for the FBI as part of an art crimes division. Together, they battle familial and intergenerational expectations of success, individual life goals of greatness, and the long history of western colonialism and cultural theft.
My first impression, and possibly the strongest overall impression, that I had of this novel was the reflective writing style and (very-not-breakneck) pace of the story. I feel like this is an important place to start because, while it wasn't bad, it was definitely wildly different from the internal expectations I had and I had to adjust to it as a reader. I read "heist" and expected fast moving. But this had a sort of dreamy, spacey quality to the writing. As I got farther into the story, and realized that this actually fit the story really well. Li really nails the "existential dread of getting close to the end of college" feels, that fear of what comes next, mixed with the dread that this is all there is. And with all five of the main characters struggling with their own variations of that, as they decide whether or not to get involved, to take a risk like this with their future ahead of them versus the stagnant ennui of young adulthood, as well as dealing with the complex emotions of being split/not-belonging to two different countries/cultures (who deserves/gets one's allegiance and how does one prove it?), that contemplative and evaluative tone does fit with the reality of these characters. Overall, it's more an artsy, ethereal, philosophical take on a heist, which I started skeptical of, considering the high stakes subject matter, but in the end appreciated as an interesting and unique choice.
Other than that primary point of pacing and stylistic choice, I was, from the start, very much into this story. Honestly, it does seem a little too convenient that all these young people with the exact necessary, specific skills already were acquainted. However, I was totally willing to suspend disbelief to see how it plays out, for entertainment purposes and, a little bit, to watch a fantasy that I'd be way too chicken to ever take a chance on myself, play out. And I know I said the overall pacing was slower than expected, and there was less action than I'd thought (though that makes sense, with college-aged protagonists with somewhat limited financial resources), but the tension in the plot development did build in a tangible way during and after the first heist, as the "waiting for the other shoe to drop and we get caught" feelings start to hit and grow. This is mirrored by the rising burden of expectations the team puts on themselves in finishing and getting away with their mission, the weight of their potential success and the hopes they've each pinned on it, and how it's come to symbolize something greater both culturally and individually. It makes you feel, as the reader, that they are fast approaching precarious levels of risk-taking because they are unwilling to admit defeat, and that's a lot of well-developed literary tension-building.
And then: the ending. I loved it! What a phenomenal "twist" that allowed for everything to be wrapped up with a positive outcome (the one you're cheering for, as the reader), and yet within a more or less believable, realistic way considering the overall lack of resources and preparedness from this naive-ish (in the not-yet-disillusioned-and-still-sort-of-hopeful way) group of young adult thieves. And really, Li crushed it with the perfect "sepia toned, promise of the future, heist movie ending" vibe too. So satisfying, on so many levels.
And so, though I started out fairly hesitant, by the end, I would call myself a fan of this one. It was really entertaining, the right amount of tense, relatable (if you've ever felt family pressure, an existential un-surity of the future, or that cultural in-between of children of immigrants), and a phenomenal *pop-culture* way of calling out imperialist cultural theft and reclaiming it back to its origins in a really satisfying way.
“Who could determine what counted as theft when museums and countries and civilizations saw the spoils of conquest as rightfully earned?”
“And how to explain this – the ache he felt when looking at the lines of a sculpture, how history could be found, made, left behind by an artist’s deft hand?”
“For all that she loved it, she had wanted nothing more than to leave.”
“…the empty space it had carved within her. How it felt to search and never find. All these years, and Lily had never known how to love a place and not leave it behind.”
“An experiment, he called it, and what else was it but the five of them trying to control every variable they could and live with the outcome?”
“How could he explain how it felt to know, with a terrible and unflinching certainty, that you were not enough for your dreams? There was so much he wanted, so much that would always be out of reach.”
“Art could be beauty, but it was also power.”
“…they talked not of the future but of the past. Immigration stories and unfamiliar history, what it was like to grow up knowing you had more than all your ancestors combined. Privilege, responsibility, all those words that sometimes had a weight too heavy to bear. In the end, that was what this heist was: a way out. If they could do this, it might be enough.”
“All parents leave their own scars. We’re the ones who have to heal from them.”
“It might have been inevitable. But it still hurt.”
“…[she] was learning what it was like to be proud of where she came from. Galveston, China, all these places that were hers, by birth and by blood. They were not all she was, but they were a part of her. She would claim it at last.”
“They had always dreamed of the same things. How to make this life their own, how to love a country that had left them behind.”
“Once, he had thought the diaspora was loss, longing, all the empty spaces in him filled with want. […] But diaspora was this, too: two cultures that could both be his, history that was waiting to be made.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation and Colonisation
Moderate: Death of parent
eegekay's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Death of parent
Moderate: Physical abuse and Grief
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I really wanted to like this book, but it was just sort of fine. It wasn’t a great heist book cause the heists were barely described and felt under-researched when they were. It wasn’t a great character study cause none of the characters were explored in much depth. The author was getting at some really interesting and good stuff about Chinese American identity and art repatriation, but the whole thing ultimately fell short for me because the actual plot and characters felt so surface-level.
Lily was kind of a nothing character. We kept being told that she and Will had so much in common, but the narrative never really showed us that. She had more chemistry with basically everyone else than she did with Will. Their relationship felt very forced.
Alex and Irene’s romance was much better. It was a really small part of the story, but I felt it was developed well and it made sense for both characters.
Daniel’s complicated relationship with his father was by far the best part of the book for me. I related to Daniel a lot, much more than I ever expected to, and he felt like the most complex character with the most developed relationships—funny, that, because I often felt like the narrative cared about him the least.
Hated Daniel’s crush on Irene. I also think it would have been much more compelling for him to have had a gay crush on straight Will than a straight crush on gay Irene (not that either Irene or Alex actually identified as anything).
I thought that the prose was very lyrical and poetic, but it didn’t quite work for a book that was marketed so heavily as a heist story and that centered so much around the (underwritten) heists. I would definitely read another book by this author cause I think she has a ton of potential and a lot to say, but this one just didn’t quite work for me.
One more thing: the mentions of COVID-19 and BLM felt super weird and out of place, especially considering there were no Black characters in the book and no mentions of the pandemic having any lasting presence or impact despite the book seemingly being set in 2021. Super weird.
I did really enjoy the final heist/etc., though.
Lily was kind of a nothing character. We kept being told that she and Will had so much in common, but the narrative never really showed us that. She had more chemistry with basically everyone else than she did with Will. Their relationship felt very forced.
Alex and Irene’s romance was much better. It was a really small part of the story, but I felt it was developed well and it made sense for both characters.
Daniel’s complicated relationship with his father was by far the best part of the book for me. I related to Daniel a lot, much more than I ever expected to, and he felt like the most complex character with the most developed relationships—funny, that, because I often felt like the narrative cared about him the least.
Hated Daniel’s crush on Irene. I also think it would have been much more compelling for him to have had a gay crush on straight Will than a straight crush on gay Irene (not that either Irene or Alex actually identified as anything).
I thought that the prose was very lyrical and poetic, but it didn’t quite work for a book that was marketed so heavily as a heist story and that centered so much around the (underwritten) heists. I would definitely read another book by this author cause I think she has a ton of potential and a lot to say, but this one just didn’t quite work for me.
One more thing: the mentions of COVID-19 and BLM felt super weird and out of place, especially considering there were no Black characters in the book and no mentions of the pandemic having any lasting presence or impact despite the book seemingly being set in 2021. Super weird.
I did really enjoy the final heist/etc., though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Death of parent, Cancer, and Colonisation
courtneyfalling's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
You can tell this is Grace Li's debut novel, but it is an impressive debut. Parts of the characters' monologues or emotions are overwritten (it's a very purply prose style), but I think it works in Li's voice. Their relationships are really what take center stage, even over the plot (which is good, but maybe not immaculate in how intricate heist novels are). And ughhhh love me some messy femmes but I don't even really know if I'm talking about Irene and Alex, heck yeah, or Lily, love her .
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent and Colonisation
being_stupid's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia
ramreadsagain's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent and Colonisation
Minor: Alcohol, Medical content, and Racism
madelinelindy's review
While the book is beautifully worded with gorgeous imagery, the same care isn’t shown to the five main characters. They’re so rapidly moved between they blur together into one person. The author focuses so deeply on the grief associated with growing up and being the children of immigrants, the heist is so secondary you forget that it’s even the major selling point of the book.
Major portion of the book are repetitive and the entire heist subplot is more stealing from the principals office than mutltimillion dollar “project”. The characters themselves added little to the plot since it was mostly their inner struggles about growing up and not knowing who they were.
Overall, this was not a heist book or even that tense of a book since the heist were barely touched upon.
Major portion of the book are repetitive and the entire heist subplot is more stealing from the principals office than mutltimillion dollar “project”. The characters themselves added little to the plot since it was mostly their inner struggles about growing up and not knowing who they were.
Overall, this was not a heist book or even that tense of a book since the heist were barely touched upon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Death of parent and Cancer