Portrait of a Thief
July 13, 2023
Oh, my heart. I absolutely loved this book.
The highlight for me on this book is the conversations on identity and the pressures of being a child or grandchild of immigrants, where you're just old enough to fully understand the implications of the sacrifices made and how you often feel like you have to repay that sacrifice with your own success, whatever that looks like. I also enjoyed the diverse perspectives on how they feel about China based on their own experiences.
I liked the way that this book addresses the idea of museums who have stolen artifacts from years of imperialism and colonialism, giving a spotlight on the sticky origins of collections and the reluctance to return them back to cultures. I especially loved the phrase that gets brought up many times throughout the novel to describe how the affected cultures feel about it.
And the heists themselves! I do like how realistic they were for a bunch of college aged people, and how each one goes very differently. I appreciate how much improvision often had to happen.
I liked the relationships between our crew - each one had complications even if they hadn't interacted before being brought together. And the relationships between people who had pre-existing relationships before the events of the book added layers of complexity in how they'd often dance around each other. Personally, I enjoyed the full arc between Irene and Alex, although it was incredibly frustrating at times when it got in the way of their working together nicely in the group.
I saw that this book is set to be adapted for the screen and the book definitely reads in a way where I could see it translating nicely, especially the final story arc. I can't wait to watch it.
This book is definitely joining my favorites.
A thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Tiny Reparations Books, and NetGalley for the ARC.
More about Portrait of a Thief here:
Title: Portrait of a Thief
Author: Grace D. Li
History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now.
Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.
His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down.
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, Portrait of a Thief is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary critique of the lingering effects of colonialism.