Finished: The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel physical copy

This was Melissa’s book club pick for this round. I had heard of the book a couple of times in passing but had not seen many reviews or comments on it. It definitely was not on my TBR list. I’m not a huge fan of non-fiction, but I was pleasantly surprised! The story was fast paced and kept me intrigued the whole way. There were some points that seemed redundant but it’s just because he steals a lot of similar shit from similar places! There weren’t a ton of surprises in the book, but the couple that were there SHOCKED me!

Throughout the book I kept wondering how the people in Stéphane’s life let him get away with the things that he did, like nobody called him on his bad behavior. Would the people in my life let me continue to be a blight on society? I’m pretty sure someone would say something. Someone would tell me to stop being as asshole and freeloading off my mom. His poor mom. At what point as a parent do you call enough enough? She knew, she had to know. But why not kick him out? Make him get a job? Was she sad that for all intents and purposes he was a loser? I mean, I’ll love my son no matter what, but…I don’t know, he’s only 3 and he still pees on me in his sleep so…

It’s a true story so there aren’t really any spoilers but spoiler alert, every time he stuck something in his pants or under his jacket or threw a priceless piece of art out the window I just kept thinking, “like seriously do you have no shame?” Even after he got caught, the way that people continued to back him and stand in his corner had me questioning “would my people be as die hard for me if I committed the level of criminal activities that he did?“ 

The book was okay. Would I have picked it? No. Is it the first book I would recommend? Again, no. But it does seem to earn me some clout when I’m talking to artsy teachers, and it is an interesting tidbit of history to have in my back pocket, so there’s that!