The Painter by Peter Heller (a Borzoi Book published by Alfr

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Smokey
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The Painter by Peter Heller (a Borzoi Book published by Alfr

Post by Smokey »

The Painter by Peter Heller is so many good things it is almost overwhelming.

Simply, it is about an artist, Jim, who lives in rural Colorado. He fishes and paints and sells his work through a gallery in Taos, New Mexico, where he used to live. He is a divorced, former alcoholic, who is mourning his daughter's death, who shot a man in New Mexico, who rescues a horse, and who is a person of interest in a murder investigation.

More complexly, it is a lyrical, thought provoking contemplation of the nature of good and evil and life. It is a glimpse into the mind and emotions of an artist, a man who loves nature and animals and poetry, a man who is, perhaps, bad. Or is it?

Heller's descriptions of what it is like to be, to think, to feel like an artist are wonderful, and they are very close to how artists I know have tried to explain they feel. His descriptions of sex have an ethereal quality I feel is often missing in all too many books, which too often appear to include sexual scenes because it is an expected part of a formula, which demands the same physical details over and over.

The character, Jim, tells his story in first person narrative, that is compelling in how it links nature with thought and experiences. He analyzes himself, his paintings, and other people. But the book is never boring. He explains the meaning of his paintings -- which can change as he thinks about them -- and makes me want to see them all, in addition to reading about them. Jim is a well crafted character, one of those rare ones, who seems real in fact as well as in fiction.

The book is also suspenseful. Jim is in danger in more ways than one. The awareness that danger lingers and pursues him may merely be a suggestion sometimes, but it is always there.

Perhaps the greatest success of the book it that it makes the read think and feel about many things. One of these things has to do with people, and whether someone might do bad things, but remain a good person. Or is it that simple?

I highly, absolutely, positively recommend this book.
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