PORTRAIT OF A THIEF by Grace D. Li
- Publisher: Tiny Reparations Books, April 5th 2022
- Genre: Thriller
- Format: eARC
- Page Count: 384 pages
Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.
★★★★★
I love this book with my whole heart.
Prior to reading Portrait of a Thief, I had heard other readers rave about Li’s writing. But no amount of praise had prepared me for this level of gorgeousness.
Li writes in a way that makes my heart weep, the sheer power and rhythm and emotions her sentences carry. She captured the yearnings of the future, relationships, and connections with a familiar land that is too far away in the best way possible.
I love everything about the crew: Will, Irene, Alex, Lily, Daniel. The story hits all the diasporic feels of sometimes belonging in two places, sometimes neither, like you are not enough for the land even though you are. The five of them are strong yet vulnerable, ambitious in life, and carry the heavy weight of familial expectations as first- and second-generation immigrants. A full cast of Chinese Americans, each with their own complexities and dreams. And, of course, I loved seeing the sapphics living their best lives, the first time I saw two diasporic queer Asians falling for each other in fiction. I thought about the cast every waking hour days after finishing, and even now, as I write the review weeks later, trying and failing to do this book justice, my heart still aches for them. I don’t often fall for fictional characters, but Li has made me love all five of the crew.
Portrait of a Thief is less about thieving and heist and more about big dreams and family, diaspora and colonialism. It made me rethink my relationship with my homeland, my family, myself, and it also showed me what it is like to dream big again and live. The book means more to me than I could have possibly imagined before picking it up, and it is surely something that I would revisit again and again for the years to come.
a little background
this is the tiger will chen stole before the book started:
then he casually tossed it to daniel liang…
also, if you don’t know about the 12 zodiac animal heads (in bronze) that used to be in 圓明園 (old summer palace), it might be helpful to google them before reading. 🙂
the gang <3<3<3:
- will chen (21): harvard art history major
- irene chen (~20): will’s sister, duke public policy major
- alex huang (21): will’s friend who he went on two dates with, mit dropout, silicon valley software engineer
- lily wu (~20): irene’s roommate, duke mechanical engineering major
- daniel liang: the chens’ childhood friend of 10y, immigrated to the us at ~12yo from beijing, premed at ucla
You can read my non-spoilery live tweeting thread here:
content warnings: trespassing, pandemic (covid), alcohol (recreational), past loss of parent, racism
I received an advanced digital copy from Tiny Reparations Books via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.
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