Theft: A Love Story
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Product Description
Ali Smith, Sunday Telegraph
'A funny, gorgeous steal of a book.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"'A funny, gorgeous steal of a book.' Ali Smith, Sunday Telegraph 'It is a rudely brilliant, infuriatingly beautiful, belligerently profane work of art.' Patrick Ness, Guardian 'The best novel I've read all year.' Melanie McGrath, Evening Standard"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Peter Carey's "Theft: A Love Story" is a literary tour-de-force, a brilliant book, a witty spoof on the art world, a tale of two brothers and a story about love, a story taking us from Australia to Japan and to New York, to sum it up: a magnificent book.
How often do you find yourself multiply re-reading sentences, phrases, even pages- not for the sake of understanding it, but out of sheer joy of re-enjoying the just-read phrases, sentences and pages. Not all too often, I would think. Peter Carey's writing is so exuberantly enjoyable, that there is actually no way avoiding multiple re-reading, enjoying the prose melt on your tongue. Scenes, sentences, phrases, which I just wanted to read to my friends, but where to start, each and every page is just full of excerpts you want to share with others.
"Theft: A Love Story" is the tale of two brothers, one of them a previously well known painter, now taking care of his art dealer's offbeat located home, also taking care of his huge and "slow" brother Hugh. It's a tale of love too, of brotherly love- they just don't seem to be able to live with each other, but obviously can't live without each other either. The story is told in turn (chapterwise) by the two brothers, and although both are rather huffy, grumpy characters (brothers all the way), who both really seem to have a ball verbally whacking each other, it is, due to master ventriloquist Peter Carey's intriguing prose, easy to recognize, whose narrative we are reading at that moment. Of course, the "Love Story" mentioned as un undertitle is the love story of Marlene (who walks into the lives of Michael and Hugh one rainy night, starting off the story there) and Michael. "Theft" is also a story of an art fraud, of mischief, even of murder, but never (at least I don't recall) have frauds and thieves been more overtly likeable than Peter Carey's characters in this novel.
"Theft: A Love Story" is sheer enjoyment, a literary masterpiece, a gem of a novel. One of the novels, which leaves you (though sad- for having finished reading it) with a big big smile, happy for having been fortunate to have read this book.
How often do you find yourself multiply re-reading sentences, phrases, even pages- not for the sake of understanding it, but out of sheer joy of re-enjoying the just-read phrases, sentences and pages. Not all too often, I would think. Peter Carey's writing is so exuberantly enjoyable, that there is actually no way avoiding multiple re-reading, enjoying the prose melt on your tongue. Scenes, sentences, phrases, which I just wanted to read to my friends, but where to start, each and every page is just full of excerpts you want to share with others.
"Theft: A Love Story" is the tale of two brothers, one of them a previously well known painter, now taking care of his art dealer's offbeat located home, also taking care of his huge and "slow" brother Hugh. It's a tale of love too, of brotherly love- they just don't seem to be able to live with each other, but obviously can't live without each other either. The story is told in turn (chapterwise) by the two brothers, and although both are rather huffy, grumpy characters (brothers all the way), who both really seem to have a ball verbally whacking each other, it is, due to master ventriloquist Peter Carey's intriguing prose, easy to recognize, whose narrative we are reading at that moment. Of course, the "Love Story" mentioned as un undertitle is the love story of Marlene (who walks into the lives of Michael and Hugh one rainy night, starting off the story there) and Michael. "Theft" is also a story of an art fraud, of mischief, even of murder, but never (at least I don't recall) have frauds and thieves been more overtly likeable than Peter Carey's characters in this novel.
"Theft: A Love Story" is sheer enjoyment, a literary masterpiece, a gem of a novel. One of the novels, which leaves you (though sad- for having finished reading it) with a big big smile, happy for having been fortunate to have read this book.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Carey does well in creating two distinct voices for Butcher and his brother and really does a great job in conveying their personalities. Butcher is a selfish, self-centred man, fully focused on creating his work and bitter that he is no longer in fashion and thereby unable to command high prices. Hugh is an idiot-savant (at times, too savant for my liking) and with a tendency to TALK IN CAPITALS at odd times in his narration. In reality, the story is about the relationship between these two men - the resentment that Butcher feels for having to look after his damaged brother and the resentment that Hugh feels for never being allowed to do what he wants to do - and is explored through a plot concerning the theft of a painting by Leibovitz (Butcher's favourite artist and the person whose work inspired him to paint in the first place).
We meet Butcher and Hugh in the small outback town of Bellingen, where they're living in a house belonging to Butcher's patron, Jean-Paul, maintaining it for him whilst Butcher paints. Into their life crashes Marlene, a woman Butcher assumes is American, trying to get to Butcher's neighbour, Dozy (who owns the Leibowitz painting) in order to authenticate it. When the painting later goes missing, it's Butcher who is suspected of the crime and he's forced to return to Sydney, where he again meets up with Marlene and when she tells him she can help revitalise his career with a show in Tokyo, they become lovers and embark on a journey that takes them to Tokyo and Manhattan. On the way, Butcher and Hugh learn more about the Leibowitz family and Marlene's connection to them and also the dark scam at the heart of the story.
Carey is a lyrical writer and he excels at setting scenes and creating a sense of place. However, compared with the richness of the Butcher and Hugh characters, I felt that Marlene was too slight and trite a character to be truly believable and really wanted to know more about her and her relationship with Olivier than what we get on the page. Ultimately, Butcher was too bitter and unpleasant a character for me to feel drawn to, but I did feel tremendous sympathy for Hugh, albeit there were times when I'd have liked to see Carey play down the savant quality and show him as a simpler human being. Also, I felt that the plot hinged on a huge improbability (one that I'm not going to give away because I don't want to spoil it), but it was a fact that really irritated me because I'd been hoping for a more fulfilling pay off to the scam than what we're given.
We meet Butcher and Hugh in the small outback town of Bellingen, where they're living in a house belonging to Butcher's patron, Jean-Paul, maintaining it for him whilst Butcher paints. Into their life crashes Marlene, a woman Butcher assumes is American, trying to get to Butcher's neighbour, Dozy (who owns the Leibowitz painting) in order to authenticate it. When the painting later goes missing, it's Butcher who is suspected of the crime and he's forced to return to Sydney, where he again meets up with Marlene and when she tells him she can help revitalise his career with a show in Tokyo, they become lovers and embark on a journey that takes them to Tokyo and Manhattan. On the way, Butcher and Hugh learn more about the Leibowitz family and Marlene's connection to them and also the dark scam at the heart of the story.
Carey is a lyrical writer and he excels at setting scenes and creating a sense of place. However, compared with the richness of the Butcher and Hugh characters, I felt that Marlene was too slight and trite a character to be truly believable and really wanted to know more about her and her relationship with Olivier than what we get on the page. Ultimately, Butcher was too bitter and unpleasant a character for me to feel drawn to, but I did feel tremendous sympathy for Hugh, albeit there were times when I'd have liked to see Carey play down the savant quality and show him as a simpler human being. Also, I felt that the plot hinged on a huge improbability (one that I'm not going to give away because I don't want to spoil it), but it was a fact that really irritated me because I'd been hoping for a more fulfilling pay off to the scam than what we're given.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book won't disappoint those who have read My Life as a Fake, also by Peter Carey, though it does lack the depth and complexity of the earlier book. It's a gripping and entertaining read and there is an unexpected tenderness which rises to the surface between the f-words! The "disreputable goings-on", as an earlier generation would have called them, are narrated in the first person by two brothers, a tough-voiced but ultimately touching duet which is perhaps the true love story of the sub-title.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
13%
I hate not finishing a book. I'm not sure I've ever read so little of a book, 13%, before abandoning it. Read more
Published 10 months ago by SJJ
Compelling read
I found this book beautifully written, extremely moving and completely absorbing. I found it very hard to put down, and with a toddler in the house it wasn't easy to find the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Molliemouse
theft a love story
I felt as though i should enjoy this book, all the elements appeared to be there - but i didnt. I just found it a little unforgiving and couldnt really get to care about the... Read more
Published 23 months ago by sarah adams
The droit moral
Very rarely do I get to the end of a book and want to start reading it all over again - I did here. This is a wonderfully entertaining novel - funny, tender, witty, clever and... Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
A gripping insight into the contemporary art world
One soon adapted to the device of chapters being alternately narrated by one of two brothers (this device has been used before in e.g. Read more
Published on 24 April 2009 by Victor Coles
What a great theft of expectations
I decided to read Theft A Love Story partly as a way of introducing myself to the work of Peter Carey. Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2008 by Herman Norford
I tried...
I give this book two stars instead of one because I could not bring myself to finish it. I hate not finishing a book once I start it, especially one such as 'THEFT' that I was so... Read more
Published on 14 May 2008 by DevJohn01
I must be missing something....
This was my first Peter Carey and if it wasn't on my reading group list I would never have chosen it. Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2008 by Juliet Platt
Theft: A Love Story - a thriller, a good read
A really good read and not necessarily for ex pat Aussies. I loved the thriller element and didn't want to put it down - classic Carey, not up there necessarily with Oscar and... Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2007 by Sharon K Low
Excellent - didn't want to put the book down
This is the second novel I have read by Peter Carey (My Life as a Fake was my induction) and I couldn't put it down. Read more
Published on 18 April 2007 by Corrinne Milsom-Mann
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