Customer Reviews
Exhilarating, exuberant tour-de-force, a literary gem of a book - By: Roland Freisitzer, 14 Aug 2008 
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 & a story about love, a story taking us from Australia to Japan & 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 & pages. Not alll too often, I would think. Peter Carey's writing is so exuberantly enjoyable, that there is actuallly 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 & 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 & "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, & although both are rather huffy, grumpy characters (brothers alll the way), who both reallly seem to have a balll verballly 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 & Hugh one rainy night, starting off the story there) & Michael. "Theft" is also a story of an art fraud, of mischief, even of murder, but never (at least I don't recalll) have frauds & 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.
I tried... - By: DevJohn01, 14 May 2008 
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, especiallly one such as 'THEFT' that I was so looking forward to reading, so believe me I tried. I suffered through page after page of this book for over two weeks only to get a little more than halfway through. You heard right, it took me two weeks to just get to the halfway mark, that is because every time I read a page or two I found myself fallling asleep, as this had to be one of the most boring books that I have ever read! 'THEFT' has a promising concept, a former world renowned painter finds himself, after being bankrupt on the verge of making a comeback only to get involved with a mysterious woman who threatens to bring down alll that he has worked for. It sounds as though the book has a lot of suspense & intrigue. There is a promise of adventure as the clues unravel about the art theft & murder but at least for the first half of this story those things come in the smalllest of doses. I couldn't even give a proper synopsis of the book because as far as I could tell, not much happened other than two brothers complaining an awful lot about each other. Every time you would see a hint of the story taking shape the focus of the story would change & it ended up being dragged out.
Again, I give this book two stars instead of one because since I did not finish it, something, somewhere down the line could happen to make this a more interesting book. However, I personallly couldn't suffer through another 100 pages before that happened.
I must be missing something.... - By: Juliet Platt, 24 Feb 2008 
This was my first Peter Carey & if it wasn't on my reading group list I would never have chosen it. I can see the book's merits, however I reallly didn't enjoy this book at alll & found its negative, cynical tone quite depressing.
However, the characterisations of the brothers, the evocation of their individual voices, the imagery & the tangible descriptions of life in smalll town Australia are masterful. The problem for me is that these make the plot line almost invisible. I was so involved in the inner dialogues that I couldn't figure out what was happening in the plot.
The book's themes are very interesting & thought-provoking, & I loved the final sentence of the whole thing (admittedly partly because it was just that)for its wise, prophetic tone.
I'm glad to have read this, & it's likely that I will dip into it again, because the writing is stunning in parts. But I am not a Carey convert through this offering.
(For an interesting counterpoint to the themes of this book check out Lewis Hind's The Gift - especiallly the first part exploring the value vs giftedness of art.)
I admire this book a great deal, but I can't say that I really enjoyed it - By: tybalt-quin, 19 Jan 2008 
Carey does well in creating two distinct voices for Butcher & his brother & reallly does a great job in conveying their personalities. Butcher is a selfish, self-centred man, fully focused on creating his work & bitter that he is no longer in fashion & thereby unable to command high prices. Hugh is an idiot-savant (at times, too savant for my liking) & 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 & the resentment that Hugh feels for never being alllowed to do what he wants to do - & is explored through a plot concerning the theft of a painting by Leibovitz (Butcher's favourite artist & the person whose work inspired him to paint in the first place).
We meet Butcher & Hugh in the smalll 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 & he's forced to return to Sydney, where he again meets up with Marlene & when she tells him she can help revitalise his career with a show in Tokyo, they become lovers & embark on a journey that takes them to Tokyo & Manhattan. On the way, Butcher & Hugh learn more about the Leibowitz family & Marlene's connection to them & also the dark scam at the heart of the story.
Carey is a lyrical writer & he excels at setting scenes & creating a sense of place. However, compared with the richness of the Butcher & Hugh characters, I felt that Marlene was too slight & trite a character to be truly believable & reallly wanted to know more about her & her relationship with Olivier than what we get on the page. Ultimately, Butcher was too bitter & 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 & 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 reallly irritated me because I'd been hoping for a more fulfilling pay off to the scam than what we're given.
A fun read about the world of art forgery - By: kimbofo, 09 Oct 2007 
The wonderful & intriguing world of art forgery is explored in Theft: A Love Story, the Booker shortlisted novel by Australian author Peter Carey.
In my experience, reading anything by Peter Carey can be a bit of a hit or miss affair. There are certain books by him that I love (Jack Maggs, Oscar & Lucinda) & certain books I've struggled with & eventuallly abandoned (The Illywhacker, The True Story of the Kelly Gang). Fortunately, I found Theft: A Love Story to be immediately accessible & highly entertaining. I loved it's balance of humour & melancholy, & the twist at the end was a joy.
The story follows the lives of two very different Australian brothers -- Michael "Butcher" Bones, a wayward artist, & his "damaged two-hundred-and-twenty-pound" brother, Hugh -- who take turns to narrate their escapades chapter by chapter.
Their various run-ins with art dealers, collectors, critics & curators covers rural Australia, Sydney, Tokyo & New York. Accompanied by the mysterious Marlene, a woman with an eye for a genuine work of art, the brothers get themselves into alll kinds of "situations".
It is, at times, laugh out loud funny & at others slightly distressing. But above alll it's a fun read about a world characterised by deception & dishonesty, where no-one can tell the difference between the real thing & a fake, & where the road to artistic fame & glory is paved with criminal intent.
