Minutes October 2007 Book: Theft by Peter Carey

Theft: A Love Story
by Peter Carey
(chosen by Fairlie)







At one of the bookclubs I went to during my year in Perth, one of the ladies bemoaned the fact that most of the books we had read that year were a little depressing in their content. "I'd just like to do a love story," she said.

The very next day, I saw a review for the newly released Theft, a book which is sub-titled "A Love Story". That caught my eye, and when I realised that the plot of the book was centred around a case of art fraud, and was written by Peter Carey (who also wrote Oscar & Lucinda which I really enjoyed), I was sold.

Like the main character in Theft, Peter Carey was born in 1943, in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. His parents had a General Motors dealership. He attended Geelong Grammar School, and studied briefly at Monash University, but left after failing his first year science exams. He then worked as a copywriter in advertising agencies in Melbourne and London. He started writing in 1964. He moved to Sydney in 1974 where he continued copyrighting. His first collection of surreal short stories, War Crimes, was published in 1979.

In 1990/1991 he moved to New York, with his wife, Alison Summers, a theatre director, and his sons, to teach creative writing at University of New York. He still lives in New York, and still teaches Creative Writing at New York University. He is now divorced and his ex-wife has accused him of using this book to attack her and distort the story of their marriage breakdown. Carey does, however, refute this claim strongly.

(general biographical details from here)

Description of Theft from Random House website:

'I don't know if my story is grand enough to be a tragedy, although a lot of shitty stuff did happen. It is certainly a love story but that did not begin until midway through the shitty stuff, by which time I had not only lost my 8-year-old son, but also my house and studio in Sydney where I had once been as famous as a painter could expect in his own backyard.'

So begins Peter Carey's highly charged, recklessly funny new novel. Narrated by artist Butcher Bones and his 'damaged 220 lb brother' Hugh, it recounts their adventures and troubles after Butcher's plummeting prices and spiralling drink problem force them to retreat from Sydney to northern New South Wales. Here the formerly famous artist is reduced to acting as caretaker for his patron and nurse to his idiot-savant brother. Then mysterious American beauty Marlene turns up one stormy night, clad in a pair of Manolo Blahniks. Claiming that the brothers' neighbour owns an original Jacques Liebovitz, she sets in motion a chain of events that could be the making or ruin of them all.A truly brilliant novel - an act of fantastic writing bravura from Peter Carey, in which he once again displays his extraordinary flair for language - THEFT is a love poem of a completely unexpected kind. Ranging from the rural wilds of Australia to Manhattan via Sydney and Tokyo and exploring the ideas of art, fraud, responsibility and redemption, this is a dark, thought-provoking and stirring story that will also make you laugh out loud.

What we discussed about the book:

• What is the purpose of the dual-narrative format of the book? Which narrator is more credible? Why do both narrators address the reader directly?
• The use of capitalisation in Hugh's narrative. How did that add to the voice of the character? How did the quote at the beginning of the book about the use of capital letters contribute to our understanding?
• What form of disability did Hugh have? Do we need to know that information for our reading of the book?
• Does the dust-jacket consist of a photo of the Twin Towers? If so, what is the reason for this choice?
• The final line of the book, "How do you know how much to pay if you don't know what it's worth?" How many different parts of the story could this have applied to?
• The concept of manipulating an artist's 'worth' by creating an artificial market - i.e. the sell-out show in Japan. How does that affect an artist's sense of self-worth?
• What was the "love story"? Was it brotherly love? Romantic love? Lustful love? Love of the art?
• How do the concepts of dishonesty, fakery and forgery apply to more in this story than just the art fraud?
• Why is there a note about the typsetting at the back of the book?
• Does this book push the language to somewhere new?

Then we were sidetracked into:

• How does the concept of "droit moral" work? See Wikipedia entry for quick overview.
• Do you need to have a knowledge of the art world to be able to get the most from this book?
• Would the main character, Butcher, really have gone to prison in Australia for stealing his paintings back from his ex-wife?

And in other news, we discussed:

• How much is reasonable in a divorce settlement?
• Are A-line dresses and baby-doll dresses EVER flattering on anyone other than tall, willowy, young models?
• The curse of insomnia.
• The expectation of being "busy" - i.e when someone asks you how you are, you are almost expected to reply, "I'm busy." The clever ladies over at Do You Speak-a My Language have a post on exactly this subject.

Ratings
Average: 7.0
Range: 5 to 9.5

Next book: The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles by Elizabeth Stead.