Meeting Report: August 2022

The DCBC met on Sunday, August 28, 2022 to discuss August's book: Portrait of a Thief, by Grace D. Li (selected by Ashley).

Attendees were: Ashley, Miriam, Jessy, Sarah, Paige, and Lauren. 

“This was how it always went. Museums overlooked colonialism, conquest, a history of blood, until it was laid in front of them, until violence was met with violence.”

― Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief

Portrait of a Thief is a wannabe literary heist novel in which five Chinese-American university students are enlisted by a wealthy CEO in China to steal back the five remaining zodiac heads from the Old Summer Palace in exchange for an irresistible $50 million. They ineptly plan and execute only two of the five heists (how they managed that many defies comprehension) before walking into a situation on their third where they know they are going to be caught.

“How to make this life their own, how to love a country that had never belonged to them.”

― Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief

For a heist novel, Portrait of a Thief is absurd, but without the awareness of its absurdity. Bumbling college students trying to pull off five art heists with no clue how to do it and even failing their way to success a couple of times had the potential to be really funny if the author had leaned into the absurdity, but this book takes itself far too seriously for that. Because there are serious themes of diaspora and cultural identity and the meaning of art and the impact of colonialism to be discussed, none of which, for a work of literary fiction, ever get examined to a satisfactory point.

“What's wrong with wanting everything?

Nothing, as long as you know how to get it.”

― Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief

Too many irrelevant descriptions of the sky. Too much overprivileged young adult angst. Not enough plausible heistiness, depth of thought or plot, or differentiable characters. This was an interesting premise, but which ultimately and disappointingly fell flat. Portrait of a Thief attempts to grapple with concepts of art, power, colonialism, etc. but doesn't quite get beyond surface level, probably because there was a sky that needed to be gazed at with indefinable yearning.

The Verdict:

Taken from the average DCBC member ratings on Goodreads who had marked the book as read and rated at the time of this writing:

Portrait of a Thief: 2.0 stars

Thank you to Ashley for hosting, and to all of the attendees for such a lively discussion!

Next Month: September 2022: Comfort Me with Apples, by Catherynne Valente (selected by Miriam)

And always, the full book list for this cycle can be found here.

Reading Retreat Report!

From July 20-22, we had what is hopefully our first annual summer reading retreat! Attendees were Miriam, Sarah, and Jessy. We hope that more people will be able to join next year! We had a delightful cabin in Pinetop-Lakeside, and we got to read among the trees.

It was so nice to get to read with no interruptions, and to get to talk about books with each other as we went.

We also took turns cooking vegan meals. Here's a full account:

Day 1
We arrived in the late afternoon. After an excursion to Safeway, we spent a few hours reading.
Miriam finished Certain Dark Things, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Sarah finished Mort, by Terry Pratchett AND Comfort Me with Apples, by Cat Valente (our September book!). Jessy was working on a book, but it was also her turn to cook. She made some tasty vegan sausages with roasted vegetables!

Day 2
This was our full day of reading (no driving) and we made the most of it! We started with some yummy french toast, and tofu scramble, courtesy of Sarah.

Miriam finished The Bodyguard, by Katherine Center and also The Hacienda, by Isabel Cañas. Sarah finished Ring Shout, by P. Djèlí Clark. Jessy finished The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Miriam made lunch, which was soyrizo tacos with refried beans!

That evening, we headed to a restaurant for dinner.

Day 3
This was our last morning reading in the trees! We had to check out of our cabin at 10am, so we had leftovers for breakfast and then read until the last possible second before heading out. Sarah finished The Kiss Quotient,by Helen Hoang and Jessy finished They Never Learn,by Layne Fargo. Miriam had sore eyes from reading 500 pages on the previous day, so she didn't finish any books. On our way home, we stopped in Globe for lunch and some thrifting. Over all, this was a fun little retreat and we hope to do it again next year! We also hope more of our members will be able to join us!

Book Ratings

The following are the star ratings for each book completed by one of us on this retreat. In the case that more than one of us had read the book, the rating is the average from among those people.
Certain Dark Things: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mort: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.5)
Comfort Me with Apples: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.75 and we can't wait to talk about this one in September because it's WEIRD)
The Bodyguard: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Hacienda: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ring Shout: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Kiss Quotient: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.5)
They Never Learn: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️