Reading Well: The Painter by Peter Heller

{This is the first in an occasional series, inspired by the concise brilliance of @TheMovies With PopPop. I am often reluctant to review books, as I don’t want to speak ill of future peers (he said, hopefully). That makes this one an easy place to start. Will always include both a review and a section of what I, in my own writing, would like to take away from the work.}

Peter Heller‘s The Painter is, simply, the best thing I’ve read in a long time.

It tells the story of Jim Stegner, the painter of the title, who is passionate about two-and-a-half things: painting, fishing, and (some of the time, some) women. The book is a stunning work of first person narrative, and the artistry involved in how you discover the bits and pieces of Stegner’s past is startling: you know quickly that he almost killed a man, served some time in prison, is twice-divorced, and has a daughter who died.

The backbone of the book explores how all of that happened, how that ties together with his current life, his ongoing issues with rage (which once again lead him into serious trouble), his creative process, and his wrestling with what the death of his daughter means.

Lots of time is spent fly fishing, in a far less lyrical vein than A River Runs Through It, but to a similar effect, where you don’t need to love to fish to love the writing. As much time is spent painting, and the titles of his paintings–which form chapter headings of a sort–serve as a shorthand for the narrative.

I tore through the book in about a week: cried at moments, laughed at others. I recommend even more highly than his prior book, Dog Stars, which is the most literary post-apocalyptic piece I’ve ever come across (yes, that includes both The Road and Justin Cronin’s vampire series). Dog Stars stunned me with its lyricism, The Painter is several strokes of the brush better.

{Explicit language, violence, and sex. Recommended for mature teens+ more due to the emotional complexity and seriousness of the themes than the explicitness, but that, too.}

#WhatIWishICouldDo

There is so much.

I think the total habitation of voice is the big thing: Stegner’s point of view never wavers in its constancy and yet the other characters in the book are fully fleshed out. That’s so hard to do. It helps that his PoV is similar to the main character of Dog Stars and to Heller himself, as far as I can tell. But still, to hold tight inside his head that way takes such discipline … also, much love for the most effective use of one-word sentences I’ve seen in quite some time. Well.