reading_queerly_ 's review for:

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

4.0

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A cast of characters with shared POVs throughout the novel come together to heist rare Chinese artifacts stolen during the looting of Beijing and now residing in prominent museums across the US and Europe. While the allure of the heist certainly is what draws the group together, the rest of the novel is mainly character-focused rather than plot-driven, as the characters struggle with relationships among themselves and what the heist means to them as Asian Americans. It may have already been said by a lot by reviewers, but this book truly isn't what I was expecting. It's not a thriller or jam-packed with action from start to finish like other typical heist novels, and it is refreshing that it isn't. Rather, the novel is a great meditation on who art actually belongs to and the meaning of homeland.