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theimprecisemoonjelly 's review for:
Portrait of a Thief
by Grace D. Li
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
does not reflect well upon the creative writing department at duke.
this is such a sad review for me to make because the book legitimately sounded so interesting and like something i would really enjoy. you dangle in front of me themes of colonialism in relation to art and ownership, the conflicting feelings that come from being chinese and something else(i’m chinese canadian, so it would feel weird to specify american here LMAO), and also wlw, and then give me such a disappointment. this book proves that an interesting premise does not a good book make.
firstly, i want to address thoughts going into this review. when i was at around 20% into the book, i was like okay. this isn’t… very good. the pacing is kind of… not great and the characters aren’t that distinct. but i was only 20% into the book! so, valiantly, i trod on. after the halfway point, i was like um. this is getting worse than not very good. so i went online to look at some author interviews because i wanted to know what li thought of the book. well, it certainly was not optimistic. throughout the rest of the book, i periodically looked at interviews because i needed to know. i needed to be able to compare. so as you read this, just know that a lot of things i address also are related to things the author said in interviews. i will indicate when i’m doing this, because i don’t want anyone to need to read through a bunch of them just for one review, if you’re reading this massive body of text at all. i’m here instead of studying or going to bed, but look. i don’t get angry anywhere except for books and my province’s horrible horrible politics, so i think i deserve the opportunity to be a fucking hater.
i found this book because i looked specifically for chinese wlw novels, because i am nothing if not starved. within that pitch, there was mention of how this book explores that not all chinese americans are the same. i wondered if it was fair to bring this up because it’s not like the author pitched that, but when i looked at interviews, she also talked about how she wanted to address that not all asians are a monolith, so i think this is a fair point to bring up because, personally, i think that was a monumental failure.
however unfortunate, it was hilarious that i opened a book pitched the way it was to find all the characters at these highly regarded schools — harvard, duke, ucla, mit(formerly), you name it. all the characters are excellent scholars and students, all highly competent at what they’re doing, etc, etc. regardless of what the author claims to want to achieve, there are many traits of the characters that are just based on stereotype. many people of chinese diaspora are all these things, of course, but there’s also so many that… aren’t? when people think of asian people as a monolith, i don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine the traits i listed as part of that monolith of assumption. we’ve likely all heard the whole asians are good at math thing, after all. it’s just the whole model minority thing.
additionally, in spite of these statements, li tends to paint things in broad, broad strokes. for example, saying asian when she means chinese. additionally, assuming many things about the chinese diaspora that everyone is just… expected to understand as part of it? you can’t be like i wanted to portray a wide range of experiences, and then speak as if they’re all the same. one of the worst instances of this i can think of is whendaniel’s dad finds out that it’s them who have been stealing artifacts and will is like. aren’t you chinese? doesn’t the old summer palace mean something to you too? like all chinese people would let you get away with international art theft if you brought up the old summer palace.
it’s also kind of ironic how the author spent almost no time on the character appearances, besides repeating that they all have high cheekbones or whatever. today i will demonstrate that Asians are not a monolith by making them physically indistinguishable.
the characters all lacked depth, with the exception of daniel, I GUESS, though it’s like comparing the difference between a first grader’s math skills to a second grader’s. he’s better, but it’s not like he’s good. it’s hard for me to elaborate on what makes a character superb to me, compared to just okay, but he was solidly just okay. we danced around his daddy issues so much that i’m STILL not sure what exactly he needed to heal from. so that doesn’t give me hope for everyone else, which is good because i have none!
everyone else can basically be described by One key trait, and also their major or something. they all had the same relationship with their culture and yearning to be closer, despite the differences in their background. personally, i think there’s more than one way to relate to your culture as a member of the diaspora but, continuously, we saw only one. the book says each of them are looking for connections to it, so what efforts have they made in the past before jumping straight to international art theft?? will could’ve been interesting if he went into art, specifically chinese art, as a way of connection, but instead mf just liked art and happened upon this. boring. uninteresting. i would rather have read an article.
on the topic of the wlw relationship, i am so disappointed. i was reading and realizing oh my goddd. this is not a good book. but i was ALSO like at least there’s the wlw <3 i love die girlies!! and then it just came out of NOWHERE?? like alex and irene dont even like each other. irene is straight up mean, being like oh you’re fucking useless, why are you even here. all you are to me is my brother’s ex. and alex is rightfully like dude wtf? and suddenly, at the end, they’re into each other. like where did that come from? where is the chemistry? it’s not that the author doesn’t know how to show people being into each other, because lily and will were PAINFULLY OBVIOUS, i was suffering through their flirting, but for alex and irene she was just like “now kiss”. who said comparison is the thief of joy. it’s expecting your anticipated reads to be good.
the plot is crazyy to me. and by crazy i mean unbelievable. there’s no situation in life where i would be able to train my suspension of disbelief enough to enjoy this book. firstly, the author said she researched for the book by watching ocean’s eleven..? and apparently liked that so much, she made her characters do it too. actually, that makes a lot of sense. that’s probably why it was so bad.
my favourite part was the part with daniel’s dad that i already mentioned above. what is happening.
the ending was also infuriating. it’s like nothing the characters did actually mattered. the solution to all things in books that haven’t been plotted that well is a PR scandal, obviously. firstly, does anyone who cares about museums not know that a lot of the artifacts were stolen? i feel like repatriation is a big conversation in the museum sphere, it’s just that they don’t care. i don’t understand how simply revealing that they’re oops! all stolen! and the museums knew is good enough to cause enough of a scandal that they’ll immediately repatriate the art. like girl… you think the museums don’t know? who thinks the museums don’t know?? i don’t think museum curators, historians, or archaeologists are that stupid. i think people know. logically, it doesn’t even make sense that all these super important artifacts and arts were just “”gifted”” when you KNOW about a country’s history of colonialism. be fr with me. who doesn’t know.
now the writing style. i hated it. at first i was like oh, this is kind of pretty. but you can’t have things be pretty in the EXACT SAME WAY and expect it to have the same impact the hundredth time. i don’t have that many “it began like this:” in me. i don’t have that many “the practiced knife of her smile” in me. i don’t want to hear about the line of their jaw, the hollow of their throat, etc a hundred million times. at their big age of almost done with university, they should have more descriptors in their minds.
the thing is, the writing style of the book is “quotable”, and i hate “quotable” writing styles. i think all books probably have a section that’s quotable, but that’s different than it being the style. in the former, the intention is to look pretty. in the latter, it’s to tell a story.
it’s also severely repetitive. the amount of times we fell back on the same descriptors, over and over, legitimately made it hard to read the book. i would stop reading and, when i came back, i’d have to reread like, the last 2 pages to make sure that i hadn’t read this part already. have you ever run into something like that??
this is a combination of all the issues in this book, but one of the worst things for me was the fact that the narration would never change throughout the book. the writing was the same, it kept revisiting past events(that happened WITHIN the book, like when they were first recruited by china poly), the characters didn’t change, so even while the plot progressed, the writing didn’t. the story moved without moving. i honestly think the plot went by pretty quickly, but it felt like it dragged soo much because of this.
finally, all the conversations within the book just felt very shallow. i didn’t gain any new insights into colonization and its intersection with art, the diaspora experience, or anything, really. it felt like i could learn everything the book introduced through one or two good articles, which would probably have been better written too! the extent to what the book had to say about colonization and art was basically just colonization bad. repatriation good. which is true, but is that all? a whole book just to say that? what was the point. truly, what was the point.
all i wanted to read was some chinese WLW because i am LONELY and STARVED but, in return, i probably got my worst read of 2024. i could probably say something nonsensical about desire right now, and have it mean more than all this.
this is such a sad review for me to make because the book legitimately sounded so interesting and like something i would really enjoy. you dangle in front of me themes of colonialism in relation to art and ownership, the conflicting feelings that come from being chinese and something else(i’m chinese canadian, so it would feel weird to specify american here LMAO), and also wlw, and then give me such a disappointment. this book proves that an interesting premise does not a good book make.
firstly, i want to address thoughts going into this review. when i was at around 20% into the book, i was like okay. this isn’t… very good. the pacing is kind of… not great and the characters aren’t that distinct. but i was only 20% into the book! so, valiantly, i trod on. after the halfway point, i was like um. this is getting worse than not very good. so i went online to look at some author interviews because i wanted to know what li thought of the book. well, it certainly was not optimistic. throughout the rest of the book, i periodically looked at interviews because i needed to know. i needed to be able to compare. so as you read this, just know that a lot of things i address also are related to things the author said in interviews. i will indicate when i’m doing this, because i don’t want anyone to need to read through a bunch of them just for one review, if you’re reading this massive body of text at all. i’m here instead of studying or going to bed, but look. i don’t get angry anywhere except for books and my province’s horrible horrible politics, so i think i deserve the opportunity to be a fucking hater.
i found this book because i looked specifically for chinese wlw novels, because i am nothing if not starved. within that pitch, there was mention of how this book explores that not all chinese americans are the same. i wondered if it was fair to bring this up because it’s not like the author pitched that, but when i looked at interviews, she also talked about how she wanted to address that not all asians are a monolith, so i think this is a fair point to bring up because, personally, i think that was a monumental failure.
however unfortunate, it was hilarious that i opened a book pitched the way it was to find all the characters at these highly regarded schools — harvard, duke, ucla, mit(formerly), you name it. all the characters are excellent scholars and students, all highly competent at what they’re doing, etc, etc. regardless of what the author claims to want to achieve, there are many traits of the characters that are just based on stereotype. many people of chinese diaspora are all these things, of course, but there’s also so many that… aren’t? when people think of asian people as a monolith, i don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine the traits i listed as part of that monolith of assumption. we’ve likely all heard the whole asians are good at math thing, after all. it’s just the whole model minority thing.
additionally, in spite of these statements, li tends to paint things in broad, broad strokes. for example, saying asian when she means chinese. additionally, assuming many things about the chinese diaspora that everyone is just… expected to understand as part of it? you can’t be like i wanted to portray a wide range of experiences, and then speak as if they’re all the same. one of the worst instances of this i can think of is when
it’s also kind of ironic how the author spent almost no time on the character appearances, besides repeating that they all have high cheekbones or whatever. today i will demonstrate that Asians are not a monolith by making them physically indistinguishable.
the characters all lacked depth, with the exception of daniel, I GUESS, though it’s like comparing the difference between a first grader’s math skills to a second grader’s. he’s better, but it’s not like he’s good. it’s hard for me to elaborate on what makes a character superb to me, compared to just okay, but he was solidly just okay. we danced around his daddy issues so much that i’m STILL not sure what exactly he needed to heal from. so that doesn’t give me hope for everyone else, which is good because i have none!
everyone else can basically be described by One key trait, and also their major or something. they all had the same relationship with their culture and yearning to be closer, despite the differences in their background. personally, i think there’s more than one way to relate to your culture as a member of the diaspora but, continuously, we saw only one. the book says each of them are looking for connections to it, so what efforts have they made in the past before jumping straight to international art theft?? will could’ve been interesting if he went into art, specifically chinese art, as a way of connection, but instead mf just liked art and happened upon this. boring. uninteresting. i would rather have read an article.
on the topic of the wlw relationship, i am so disappointed. i was reading and realizing oh my goddd. this is not a good book. but i was ALSO like at least there’s the wlw <3 i love die girlies!! and then it just came out of NOWHERE?? like alex and irene dont even like each other. irene is straight up mean, being like oh you’re fucking useless, why are you even here. all you are to me is my brother’s ex. and alex is rightfully like dude wtf? and suddenly, at the end, they’re into each other. like where did that come from? where is the chemistry? it’s not that the author doesn’t know how to show people being into each other, because lily and will were PAINFULLY OBVIOUS, i was suffering through their flirting, but for alex and irene she was just like “now kiss”. who said comparison is the thief of joy. it’s expecting your anticipated reads to be good.
the plot is crazyy to me. and by crazy i mean unbelievable. there’s no situation in life where i would be able to train my suspension of disbelief enough to enjoy this book. firstly, the author said she researched for the book by watching ocean’s eleven..? and apparently liked that so much, she made her characters do it too. actually, that makes a lot of sense. that’s probably why it was so bad.
my favourite part was the part with daniel’s dad that i already mentioned above. what is happening.
the ending was also infuriating. it’s like nothing the characters did actually mattered. the solution to all things in books that haven’t been plotted that well is a PR scandal, obviously. firstly, does anyone who cares about museums not know that a lot of the artifacts were stolen? i feel like repatriation is a big conversation in the museum sphere, it’s just that they don’t care. i don’t understand how simply revealing that they’re oops! all stolen! and the museums knew is good enough to cause enough of a scandal that they’ll immediately repatriate the art. like girl… you think the museums don’t know? who thinks the museums don’t know?? i don’t think museum curators, historians, or archaeologists are that stupid. i think people know. logically, it doesn’t even make sense that all these super important artifacts and arts were just “”gifted”” when you KNOW about a country’s history of colonialism. be fr with me. who doesn’t know.
now the writing style. i hated it. at first i was like oh, this is kind of pretty. but you can’t have things be pretty in the EXACT SAME WAY and expect it to have the same impact the hundredth time. i don’t have that many “it began like this:” in me. i don’t have that many “the practiced knife of her smile” in me. i don’t want to hear about the line of their jaw, the hollow of their throat, etc a hundred million times. at their big age of almost done with university, they should have more descriptors in their minds.
the thing is, the writing style of the book is “quotable”, and i hate “quotable” writing styles. i think all books probably have a section that’s quotable, but that’s different than it being the style. in the former, the intention is to look pretty. in the latter, it’s to tell a story.
it’s also severely repetitive. the amount of times we fell back on the same descriptors, over and over, legitimately made it hard to read the book. i would stop reading and, when i came back, i’d have to reread like, the last 2 pages to make sure that i hadn’t read this part already. have you ever run into something like that??
this is a combination of all the issues in this book, but one of the worst things for me was the fact that the narration would never change throughout the book. the writing was the same, it kept revisiting past events(that happened WITHIN the book, like when they were first recruited by china poly), the characters didn’t change, so even while the plot progressed, the writing didn’t. the story moved without moving. i honestly think the plot went by pretty quickly, but it felt like it dragged soo much because of this.
finally, all the conversations within the book just felt very shallow. i didn’t gain any new insights into colonization and its intersection with art, the diaspora experience, or anything, really. it felt like i could learn everything the book introduced through one or two good articles, which would probably have been better written too! the extent to what the book had to say about colonization and art was basically just colonization bad. repatriation good. which is true, but is that all? a whole book just to say that? what was the point. truly, what was the point.
all i wanted to read was some chinese WLW because i am LONELY and STARVED but, in return, i probably got my worst read of 2024. i could probably say something nonsensical about desire right now, and have it mean more than all this.