The Painter by Peter Heller (English) Paperback Book

Description: The Painter by Peter Heller NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the national bestselling author of The River and The Dog Stars comes a "carefully composed story about one mans downward turning life in the American West" (The Boston Globe).After having shot a man in a Santa Fe bar, the famous artist Jim Stegner served his time and has since struggled to manage the dark impulses that sometimes overtake him. Now he lives a quiet life ... until the day that he comes across a hunting guide beating a small horse, and a brutal act of new violence rips his quiet life right open. Pursued by men dead set on retribution, Jim is left with no choice but to return to New Mexico and the high-profile life he left behind, where hell reckon with past deeds and the dark shadows in his own heart. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Peter Heller is the best-selling author of The Dog Stars. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop in both fiction and poetry. An award-winning adventure writer and a longtime contributor to NPR, Heller is a contributing editor at Outside magazine, Mens Journal, and National Geographic Adventure, and a regular contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek. He is also the author of several nonfiction books, including Kook, The Whale Warriors, and Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibets Tsangpo River. He lives in Denver, Colorado. Review An Oprah.com "Must-Read" Book "Breathtakingly good. . . A darkly suspenseful page turner." —The Richmond Times-Dispatch "Suspense with literary chops. . . . A brilliant page-turner about an artist with a dark streak." —Readers Digest "A moving story about love, celebrity, and the redemptive power of art." —The New York Times Book Review "Heart-thumping . . . culminating in an ingeniously played final twist." —The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "A taut tale of anger, revenge and inspiration." —Dallas Morning News "Amazing. . . . The contrast between serene nature and extreme action made The Dog Stars such a sensation. Heller uses it again well in The Painter." —The Miami Herald"[A] carefully composed story about one mans downward turning life in the American West. . . . Beautiful near-visionary descriptions." —The Boston Globe "[Hellers] stories are of a classic type: unusual men, the kind we can identify with even if were not painters or pilots, thrust into unusual, even tragic situations. Yet at heart, these men are not so different than those we know." —Santa Fe New Mexican "The Colorado and New Mexico landscapes evoked in The Painter give the novel a deeper than usual sense of place." —The New York Times "More than a little wondrous. . . . [Hellers] writing is strong and sure, at turns fizzy and sensual, dark and brooding, as filled with love as it is with suspense. This is stuff youll taste in the back of your throat and feel at your nerves ends." —Jackson Free Press "Jim Stegner may be a mess of a man, but its fascinating watching Heller plumb his broken soul." —Salt Lake City Weekly "Offers modern twists on the ancient themes of family, duty, revenge, and justice. . . . Heller creates in Stegner a . . . flawed, reflective, and fully realized protagonist." —Outside Magazine"The Painter achieves the rare alchemy that makes it simultaneously an intellectually provocative literary novel and a pace-quickening thriller. . . . Compulsively readable . . . Heller gives you everything you could hope for in a great summer novel." —Nashville Scene"Whether you read this novel for the plot or appreciate it for poetic insights into the human condition, either way, youll be glad you did." —Wichita Public Radio"The ghost of [Hemingway] drifts through the novel, in style and subject matter. Heller, however, has his own voice." —The Columbus Dispatch "At times suspenseful, at times melancholy, at times spiritual, but always engrossing." —Library Journal (starred) "A good book about being bad. . . .The Painter is a dark relative of David James Duncans The River. . . . Vividly American. . . . Tremendously ambitious, a well-landed punch on the side of rugged masculinity." —Washington Independent Review of Books "[A] masterful novel, in which love (parental and romantic), artistic vision, guilt, grief, and spine-chilling danger propel a suspenseful plot." —Publishers Weekly (starred)"Hellers writing is sure-footed and rip-roaring, star-bright and laced with dark yearning, coalescing in an ever-escalating, ravishing, grandly engrossing and satisfying tale of righteousness and revenge, artistic fervor and moral ambiguity." —Booklist (starred) Review Quote Praise for The Painter : "An entertaining setup... The brawls and chase scenes have an edge-of-your-seatness that kept me turning the pages swiftly . . . When Jim takes to the mountains or streams, an un unwound lyricism takes over, Heller at his best . . . He has a keen, worshipful eye when describing the natural world: a trout hooked, a wave surfed . . . Striking . . . [A] moving story about love, celebrity, and the redemptive power of art." -- Benjamin Percy, The New York Times Book Review "The 45-year-old painter Jim Stegner, the title character of Peter Hellers second novel, is a Renaissance man of the American West. He reads T. S. Eliot and listens to Tom Waits. . . He also has a bad habit, when his temper flares, of shooting at people and braining them with rocks. . . Jims life changes decisively when he comes upon a blustery stranger abusing a small horse. Suspenseful scenes with the local authorities and vigilantes of various stripes propel the novel. Mr. Hellers . . . close attention to the natural world serves his fiction well. The Colorado and New Mexico landscapes evoked in The Painter give the novel a deeper than usual sense of place." -- John Williamson, The New York Times "Hellers first fictional outing was The Dog Stars , a breakout post apocalyptic tale. His new book opens in rural Colorado where painter Jim Stegner -- failed husband, grieving father and barroom murderer -- is trying to glue his life back together when trouble strikes again." -- Toronto Star "Hellers prose style . . . works brilliantly at allowing readers inside Stegners head to capture his often jagged thoughts. And Heller also does a wonderful job of evoking the process by which Stegner creates his paintings--a kind of furious inspiration that even he cant always understand--and the different kind of release he finds in his beloved pastime of fly-fishing. . . The Painter is a strikingly complex character study, one that parcels out information about the details of Stegners back story while never building to an obvious cathartic revelation. Jim Stegner may be a mess of a man, but its fascinating watching Heller plumb his broken soul." Scott Renshaw, Salt Lake City Weekly "Looking for suspense with literary chops? Peter Heller (whose last book was the breakout bestseller The Dog Stars ) is back with a brilliant page-turner about an artist with a dark streak . . . Hellers gorgeous prose and the moral complexity of his narrator make this a standout." -- Dawn Raffel, Readers Digest " The Painter is simply fine and more than a little wondrous. Astute readers will allow the prose to get under their skin and just go with it. Like Stegner paints, dont think, just read. More than once, my mind turned to daydreams and soft memory, only to be jerked back to witness a fish dying, gasping for air, or a bullet shattering a window . . . Heller rarely missteps. No character devolves to caricature. His writing is strong and sure, at turns fizzy and sensual, dark and brooding, as filled with love as it is with suspense. This is stuff youll taste in the back of your throat and feel at your nerves ends." --Jackson Free Press "The settings he moves through during his time in Santa Fe are as recognizable as if they were pulled from a postcard . . . Hellers novel also paints a recognizable picture of the local art scene and the art world in general . . . Hellers men are manly -- theyre fisherman, theyre comfortable with firearms, they lust after women -- but they arent the clichéd macho types you might expect . . . Thats whats unfamiliar in Hellers fiction, the unusual situations, the sense of being shadowed and stalked, and the gunplay thats common to both novels. In this sense, the stories are of a classic type: unusual men, the kind we can identify with even if were not painters or pilots, thrust into unusual, even tragic situations. Yet at heart, these men are not so different than those we know." -- Santa Fe New Mexican " The Painter achieves the rare alchemy that makes it simultaneously an intellectually provocative literary novel and a pace-quickening thriller. . . The novel alternates between adrenaline-fueled fight-and-chase scenes, striking images of the Western landscape and vivid descriptions of the artistic process and of Stegners paintings themselves, which come to life in Hellers exacting language. . . Compulsively readable . . . Heller gives you everything you could hope for in a great summer novel: a driving plot with murder, vengeance and justice; love and love-making between fascinating, attractive peop≤ an insiders guide to the art world and the lives of famous painters; and an endearing protagonists journey toward epiphany and redemption." -- Nashville Scene "The complexity of Peter Hellers characters, specifically Stegner, and his ability to integrate art with violence, poetry with addiction, and nature with deep introspection, makes The Painter an absolutely vibrant read. . . He is a Hemingway-esque character - outdoorsy, tough, alcoholic - but with a softer side . . . Hellers poetic language slows the narrative and gives it a quiet, peaceful feel, in between bursts of intense plot development that keep the story moving . . . Humanity, redemption, and forgiveness lie at the heart of the story . . . a thoughtful and deeply satisfying read. I recommend The Painter to people who appreciate the outdoors, to people who could spend twenty minutes contemplating one painting in an art museum, and to people who prefer gray spaces to black and white." --Elena Spagnolie, BookBrowse "Meet Jim Stegner: mid-40s, a fly-fisherman, painter and killer. He is the masculine protagonist in Peter Hellers new novel, The Painter . The opening line is masterful and captures our attention--45-year-old Jim reflects, I never imagined I would kill a man. From then on, Heller holds us until the very last sentence . . . Rock solid prose . . . Whether you read this novel for the plot or appreciate it for poetic insights into the human condition, either way, youll be glad you did." -- Wichita Public Radio "Breathtakingly good new novel . . . A darkly suspenseful page turner. . . The book seems ripe-fruit ready for a film director looking for a literary thriller that doesnt stint on the car chases and shootouts, even if he makes them a little more creative than garden-variety thrillers manage. . . The books greatest accomplishments might lie in its quiet moments, particularly the fly-fishing scenes in which Stegner -- like many of Ernest Hemingways characters -- seems to find a peace that is otherwise unobtainable. . . Hellers laconic prose soars." --Doug Childers, The Richmond Times-Dispatch "[A] carefully composed story about one mans downward turning life in the American West . . . beautiful near-visionary descriptions . . . I read with great fascination." --Alan Cheuse, The Boston Globe "Following on the heels of his blockbuster post-apocalyptic novel The Dog Stars , Peter Heller descends into the murky realm of art, fame and murder in The Painter . Again Heller uses a charming first-person, fly-fishing narrator, this time to recount a taut tale of anger, revenge and inspiration . . . All the drama unfolds in the stunning landscapes of Colorado and New Mexico, which Heller portrays masterfully. . . One of the true charms of the novel is Hellers ability to describe Stegners art, to make it vivid and real, and to place us in the head of an artist who feels himself both out of control and at the peak of his abilities . . . Its a suspenseful, compelling read throughout, and ultimately, that redemption is well-earned." -- Dallas Morning News "Heller . . . goes full speed ahead in The Painter. He catapults Stegner into attack mode in the first chapter, setting a pace that never lets up . . . With all the elements in place, Heller pulls the reader along at tremendous speeds, intercutting action and amazing descriptions of Stegner as he paints . . . Heller . . . draws Stegners surroundings in powerful, high-energy prose as, once again, he goes out with his rod and reel . . . Peaceful. Until it isnt. This contrast between serene nature and extreme action made The Dog Stars such a sensation. Heller uses it again well in The Painter ." --Kit Reed, Miami Herald "A story of one mans canvas and his second chance to repaint the future . . . [The] writing style . . . employs deeply reflective internal dialogue that is fortified by its rhythm and strength . . . While we cannot escape our past, we do retain the power to change our future." --Kacy Muir, The Times Leader "Offers modern twists on the ancient themes of family, duty, revenge, and justice . . . most anticipated. . . Heller creates in Stegner a more flawed, reflective, and fully realized protagonist than the pining loner at the center of his first novel." --Bruce Barcott, Outside Magazine "Second novels are the test of a writer. Some novelists repeat themselves with diminishing returns; others strike out into unknown territory without an adequate map. Fortunately, Peter Heller belongs to a third group -- those who stay grounded in what they know while expanding into previously unexplored terrain... The ghost of [Hemingway] drifts through the novel, in style and subject matter. Heller, however, has his own voice. Like The Dog Stars , The Painter is written in short, lyrica Description for Reading Group Guide The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading groups discussion of The Painter, best-selling author Peter Hellers hauntingly beautiful novel about a reclusive artist who is forced to face his demons after a violent encounter in a small Colorado town. Discussion Question for Reading Group Guide 1. The Painter opens several years before the rest of the narrative, in the bar where Jim fired the shot that changed the course of his life. Why do you think the author chose to open on this moment? How did it color your reading experience? Your perception of Jim? 2. An Ocean of Women is a painting born out of a comment made by Irmina. What was your interpretation of this painting? How does it relate to Jims treatment of women? Discuss Jims relationships with the following characters: Irmina, Sofia, Celia, Cristine. What similarities, if any, exist in how he treats each of these women? What does he admire about the women? 3. Discuss Jims relationship with Sofia. Why do you think he hesitates before initiating a physical relationship with her? In what ways is she a foil for his character? 4. The first-person narrative of The Painter allows for a slow reveal of information about Jim and his past. How did this piecemeal revelation add tension to the discussion of Alces death? How did it help to create a more sympathetic character? 5. Expressionism, as an artistic movement, is characterized by a preference for subjectivity over realism. Why do you think the author chooses to have Jim paint in this style? How do the concepts of realism versus subjectivity factor into the larger narrative concerns of The Painter? 6. In the beginning of the novel, Bob advises Jim to "be good." These words are echoed throughout the novel, particularly as Jim wrestles with his self-image in the face of his increasingly violent behavior. Discuss the difference between being good and goodness as described by Jim on page 303. Is Jim a "good" person? What characters, if any, are "good" or display innate "goodness"? 7. On page 74, Jim describes how he "disappear[s]" in awe when viewing certain paintings and certain scenes of nature. Discuss the choice of wording. How do both art and nature provide a means of escapism for Jim throughout the novel? 8. Explore Jims relationship with Irmina. How does he rely on her for emotional support throughout the novel? How does she provide guidance for him? 9. Jim is a mostly self-taught painter. Discuss the moment when he realized that he wanted to paint. How did his experiences in childhood and adolescence influence his decision? 10. Trace the events that cause Jims violent side to emerge throughout the novel. What, if anything, do these events have in common? 11. Discuss the significance of the painting of the horse and crow. Why do you think the painting has "changed" in his absence after he assaults Celias ex-boyfriend? (page 216) 12. Jim paints for himself, but also needs to paint as a means of economic stability. By the end of the novel, do you think he is more accepting of the relationship between creator and consumer, or do the events in Santa Fe harden him toward the interaction? 13. Discuss the "flash flood" as described on pages 289 to 292. Explore its symbolism in the narrative and the development of Jim as a character. Why do you think he signaled Jason? Was it an instinctual or merciful act? 14. Jims relationship with his art dealer, Steve, is fraught with tension. How did you view their relationship? Is it one of mutual respect? Of economic necessity? Do you think Steve is intimidated by Jims violent past? 15. When Jim goes to Santa Fe, he finds himself in the center of a media maelstrom, carefully constructed by Steve. Discuss Jims reaction to becoming a public figure. Why do you think he is most chagrined by the "blogger?"(page 320) 16. How does Jims guilt over his actions--both over Alce and his violent behavior--manifest throughout the novel? How does he take to the canvas to mitigate his pain? 17. As you were reading, did you think Jason was going to kill Jim in the last scene of the book? Why do you think he spared his life? 18. Jim inhabits many roles throughout the novel: artist, father, spouse, lover, fisherman, criminal, celebrity. Which role makes him happiest? Which brings about the most conflict in his life? Excerpt from Book BOOK ONE Mayhem OIL ON LINEN 40 x 50 INCHES COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST I never imagined I would shoot a man. Or be a father. Or live so far from the sea. As a child, you imagine your life sometimes, how it will be. I never thought I would be a painter. That I might make a world and walk into it and forget myself. That art would be something I would not have any way of not doing. My own father was a logger, very gentle, who never fought with anyone. I could not have imagined that my daughter would be beautiful and strong like my mother. Whom she would never meet. Or that one afternoon at the Boxcar in Taos I would be drinking Jim Beam with a beer back and Lauder Simms would be at the next stool nursing a vodka tonic, probably his fourth or fifth, slurping the drink in a way that made ants run over my neck, his wet eyes glancing over again and again. The fucker who had skated on a certain conviction for raping a twelve year old girl in his movie theater downtown, looking at me now, saying, "Jim, your daughter is coming up nice, I like seeing her down at the theater." "Come again?" "Long legged like her mom, I mean not too skinny." "What?" "I dont mean too skinny, Jim. I mean just--" His leer, lips wet with tonic. "Shes real interested in movies. Everything movies. Im gonna train her up to be my little projectionist--" I never imagined something like that could be reflex, without thought: pulling out the .41 magnum, raising it to the man half turned on the stool, pulling the trigger. Point blank. The concussion inside the windowless room. Or how everything explodes like the inside of a dream and how Johnny, my friend, came lunging over the bar, over my arm, to keep me from pulling the trigger again. Who saved my life in a sense because the man who should have died never did. How the shot echoed for hours inside the bar, inside my head. Echoed for years. I painted that moment, the explosion of colors, the faces. How regret is corrosive, but one of the things it does not touch is that afternoon, not ever. CHAPTER ONE I An Ocean of Women OIL ON CANVAS 52 x 48 INCHES My house is three miles south of town. There are forty acres of wheatgrass and sage, a ditch with a hedgerow of cottonwoods and willows, a small pond with a dock. The back fence gives on to the West Elk Mountains. Right there. They are rugged and they rise up just past the back of my place, from sage into juniper woods, then oak brush, then steep slopes of black timber, spruce and fir, and outcrops of rock and swaths of aspen clinging to the shoulders of the ridges. If I walk a few miles south, up around the flank of Mount Lamborn, I am in the Wilderness, which runs all the way to the Curecanti above Gunnison, and across to Crested Butte. From the little ramada I look south to all those mountains and east to the massif of Mount Gunnison. All rock and timber now in August. Theres snow up there all but a few months a year. They tell me that some years the snow never vanishes. Id like to see that. If I step out in front of the small house and look west it is softer and drier that direction: the gently stepping uplift of Black Mesa where the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River cuts through; other desert mesas; the Uncompahgre Plateau out beyond it all, hazy and blue. This is my new home. Its kind of overwhelming how beautiful. And little Paonia, funny name for a village out here, some old misspelling of Peony. Nestled down in all this high rough country like a train set. The North Fork of the Gunnison runs through it, a winding of giant leafy cottonwoods and orchards, farms, vineyards. A good place I guess to make a field of peace, to gather and breathe. Thing is I dont feel like just breathing. Sofia pulls up in the Subaru she calls Triceratops. Its that old. I can hear the rusted out muffler up on the county road, caterwauling like a Harley, hear the drop in tone as it turns down the steep gravel driveway. The downshift in the dip and dinosaur roar as it climbs again to the house. Makes every entrance very dramatic, which she is. She is twenty-eight. An age of drama. She reminds me of a chicken in the way she is top-heavy, looks like she should topple over. I mean her trim body is small enough to support breasts the size of tangerines and she is grapefruit. It is not that she is out of proportion, its exaggerated proportion which I guess fascinates me. I asked her to model for me five minutes after meeting her. That was about three months ago. We were standing in line in the tiny hippy coffee shop--Blue Moon, what else?--the only place in town with an espresso machine. She was wearing a short knit top and she had strong arms, scarred along the forearms the way someone who has worked outside is scarred, and a slightly crooked nose, somehow Latin. She looked like a fighter, like me. Sofia noticed the paint splattered on my cap, hands, khaki pants. "Artist," she said. It wasnt a question. Her brown eyes which were flecked with green roved over my head, clothes, and I realized she was cataloguing the colors in the spatters. "Exuberant," she said. "Primitive. Outsider--in quotes." "Youre kidding." "I went to RISD for a year but dropped out." Then her eyes went to the flies stuck in the cap. "Artist fisherman," she said. "Cool." She asked how long Id been here, I said two weeks, she said, "Welcome. Sofia," and stuck out her hand. I said I needed models. She cocked her head and measured me with one eye. Held it way past politeness. "Nude?" "Sure." "How much?" Shrug. "Twenty bucks an hour?" "Im trying to decide if you are a creep. Youre not a violent felon are you?" "Yes. I am." A smile trembled across her face. "Really?" I nodded. "Wow. Whatd you do?" "I shot a man in a bar. Youre not going to back out the door like in a horror movie are you?" She laughed. "I was thinking about it." "My second wife did that when she found out." She was laughing uninhibited. People in line were smiling at her. "Youre married?" "Not anymore. She ran off down the road." "Ill do it," she said. "For twenty-five. Danger pay." Took her a while to rein in her mirth. "Nude modeling for a violent killer convict. That is a first. Twenty-five, right?" I nodded. "I didnt kill the guy, I just shot him. I was a little high and to the left." She was laughing again and I knew that I had made a friend. Now she shoved open the door like she always did, like she was doing some SWAT breach entry. Tumbled into the room. "Morning." "Hey." "Your muffler is getting worse." "Really? Tops is balking at extinction. Poor guy." She sat on a stool at the long butcher block counter that separates the kitchen in this one big room. I pushed aside a bunch of sketch paper and charcoal and the fly-tying vise where Id been tying up some Stegner Killers, invented by yours truly, which the trout couldnt seem to resist the past couple of weeks. I set a mug of coffee on the counter between us, poured myself another. "What are we doing today?" "An Ocean of Women. Something Ive been thinking about." "An ocean? Just me?" "On my way up here from Santa Fe a good friend told me I cant always swim in an ocean of women. I saw it. Me swimming, all the women, the fish. I thought we could give it a try." "Forget it." I set down my mug. "Really? No?" "Just kidding. Fuck, Jim, you ask a lot of a girl." "Want an egg with chilies?" Shook her head. "You just have to make like an ocean. Just once." She cocked her head the way she does, fixed me with an eye. The light from the south windows brushed a peppering of faint acne pits on her temple and it somehow drew attention to the smoothness of her cheek and neck. "Stormy or calm?" she said. I shrugged. She leaned forward on the counter, her breasts roosting happily in her little button top. "How about choppy and disturbed? Dugar told me yesterday he wants to move to Big Sur." Dugar was her hippy boyfriend. "Im like how fucking corny. Plus nobody lives there anymore, its so damn expensive. He read a bunch of Henry Miller. Are you a teenager? I said. You like read a novel and want to move there?" She stuck out her mug and I refilled it. "It wasnt a novel it was a memoir, he says. Jeez. He says he is a poet but between you and me his poems are sophomoric. Lately, since hes read up on Big Sur, they are all about sea elephants which he has never seen. I have and they are not prepossessing, know what I mean? They would never even move if they didnt have to eat. I said there is no fucking way Im moving to Big Sur with the sea elephants, or even the Castroville, which is like the closest place a normal person could afford to live. I mean, do you want to live in the artichoke capital of the world? Be grateful for what youve got right now, where you are right now. Then I unleash the twins." I am laughing now. "Thats not fair, is it?" Details ISBN0804170150 Author Peter Heller Short Title PAINTER Pages 384 Language English ISBN-10 0804170150 ISBN-13 9780804170154 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY 813.6 Residence Denver, CO, US Series Vintage Contemporaries Year 2015 Publication Date 2015-03-03 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2015-03-03 NZ Release Date 2015-03-03 US Release Date 2015-03-03 UK Release Date 2015-03-03 Place of Publication New York Publisher Random House USA Inc Imprint Vintage Books Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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