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harrowhcrk 's review for:
Portrait of a Thief
by Grace D. Li
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton. All opinions are my own.
“What’s wrong with wanting everything?”
“Nothing, as long as you know how to get it.”
Five Chinese-American students are hired to steal back five works of Chinese art from around the world to return them to the country they were looted from.
Portrait of a Thief is, in a lot of ways, less of a heist story than a story that happens to have some heists. More than anything, it’s character driven; we see all five members of the crew develop and change with each heist, we see their relationships grow and take new shapes, we see how human each one of them is. For the most part, the characters are fully fleshed out, and none of them are perfect. Each is both good and bad, not always in equal parts; there’s a point in the book for each one of them where you almost hate them, and I’ve always felt that a character I can both hate and love is a well written one.
There are moments, too, where it’s painfully clear how young they all are—all of them in their early 20s, all of them full of the self-righteous ego that often goes along with that age. Their pretentiousness and arrogance, while at times frustrating, fit both the age and the characters, who are all painted as brilliant students (or, for Alex, just brilliant). Some of their brilliance could be a bit beyond belief—Irene spoke fluent french after only learning it in high school and not using it since, for example—but, as discussed below, in the grand scheme of things a few stretched details isn’t the end of the world.
The themes of this book, too, feel much more the focus than the heists themselves. Colonialism is, of course, at the forefront; it’s the root of the motivation behind the heists in the first place. Cultural diaspora and identity also play major roles for each of the characters. In a lot of ways it felt very coming-of-age, watching all these young adults struggling to figure out who they are, what they want, and what comes next. It never felt like there was one right answer or set takeaway and I loved that open ended-ness. Grace D. Li handles all of these themes beautifully, and if it hit me this hard I can only imagine how hard it’ll hit for those who’ve lived similar experiences.
I’ll readily admit that this book asks you to suspend your disbelief pretty heavily. The main bones of the heist itself are far-fetched, and the reasons why Will and his friends were chosen for these heists aren’t the strongest. Planning a major crime through Google Docs and Zoom and all these other wildly unsecured platforms—with background narration on how thorough and careful the crew was being—was almost comical. There’s so much planning for when they’re actually carrying out the heists, then an obvious paper trail of all their planning and major gaps in their plans that are just overlooked. None of this is the end of the world, but for me personally it pulled me out of the story at times.
In addition to this, I personally wish there’d been a little more focus on the heists themselves; as I mentioned, I love how character and narrative driven Portrait of a Thief is at its heart. But I picked this up when I did because I was in the mood for a heist novel, and in the end it just didn’t scratch that itch.
Overall, Portrait of a Thief tells an exciting and heart-wrenching story full of adventure and poignant character moments. While it very much felt like a debut, and the writing could be repetitive, the story draws you in and holds you there. I loved all but one of the characters so much, and they felt so real and flawed and human. The ending underwhelmed me, but I appreciated how optimistic the last 10% or so felt. Definitely recommend, and I can’t wait to see what Grace Li does next.
“What’s wrong with wanting everything?”
“Nothing, as long as you know how to get it.”
Five Chinese-American students are hired to steal back five works of Chinese art from around the world to return them to the country they were looted from.
Portrait of a Thief is, in a lot of ways, less of a heist story than a story that happens to have some heists. More than anything, it’s character driven; we see all five members of the crew develop and change with each heist, we see their relationships grow and take new shapes, we see how human each one of them is. For the most part, the characters are fully fleshed out, and none of them are perfect. Each is both good and bad, not always in equal parts; there’s a point in the book for each one of them where you almost hate them, and I’ve always felt that a character I can both hate and love is a well written one.
There are moments, too, where it’s painfully clear how young they all are—all of them in their early 20s, all of them full of the self-righteous ego that often goes along with that age. Their pretentiousness and arrogance, while at times frustrating, fit both the age and the characters, who are all painted as brilliant students (or, for Alex, just brilliant). Some of their brilliance could be a bit beyond belief—Irene spoke fluent french after only learning it in high school and not using it since, for example—but, as discussed below, in the grand scheme of things a few stretched details isn’t the end of the world.
The themes of this book, too, feel much more the focus than the heists themselves. Colonialism is, of course, at the forefront; it’s the root of the motivation behind the heists in the first place. Cultural diaspora and identity also play major roles for each of the characters. In a lot of ways it felt very coming-of-age, watching all these young adults struggling to figure out who they are, what they want, and what comes next. It never felt like there was one right answer or set takeaway and I loved that open ended-ness. Grace D. Li handles all of these themes beautifully, and if it hit me this hard I can only imagine how hard it’ll hit for those who’ve lived similar experiences.
I’ll readily admit that this book asks you to suspend your disbelief pretty heavily. The main bones of the heist itself are far-fetched, and the reasons why Will and his friends were chosen for these heists aren’t the strongest. Planning a major crime through Google Docs and Zoom and all these other wildly unsecured platforms—with background narration on how thorough and careful the crew was being—was almost comical. There’s so much planning for when they’re actually carrying out the heists, then an obvious paper trail of all their planning and major gaps in their plans that are just overlooked. None of this is the end of the world, but for me personally it pulled me out of the story at times.
In addition to this, I personally wish there’d been a little more focus on the heists themselves; as I mentioned, I love how character and narrative driven Portrait of a Thief is at its heart. But I picked this up when I did because I was in the mood for a heist novel, and in the end it just didn’t scratch that itch.
Overall, Portrait of a Thief tells an exciting and heart-wrenching story full of adventure and poignant character moments. While it very much felt like a debut, and the writing could be repetitive, the story draws you in and holds you there. I loved all but one of the characters so much, and they felt so real and flawed and human. The ending underwhelmed me, but I appreciated how optimistic the last 10% or so felt. Definitely recommend, and I can’t wait to see what Grace Li does next.