Peter Heller - The Painter

“And then I think, J, just keep it fucking simple. You think too goddamn much. Just shoot the fucker and let the chips fall.”

My pulse hammering now. Alce . Just the name, no other thought.

He stared at me.

“I think it’s better like this. Maybe I walk away. Not too far. You can be one of my projects. Like a hobby. We’ll see how you come along. We will never ever be very far apart. You took away my family and you’re gonna carry around a piece of hell wherever you go. More of the hell to add to the one you already got inside you. Shit yeah, I see it. Like a house fire you can see through the front windows, before the whole shittin place goes up in flames.”

He reached across and shoved the automatic into a Cordura holster sewed to the side of his own rucksack and turned away, turned back.

“Get you another Sage. They’re having a sale down at Leroy’s. You already got that fancy Winston rod, huh? But it ain’t the same, is it? Not like the old standby.”

He hitched his thumbs into the pack straps, tugged one tighter and turned in to the willows.

“Hey. Hey!”

He stopped, looked back.

“I—”

He stared hard, like he was rethinking whether to shoot me.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

He stared at me.

“I know,” I said. “I took your family away. I know about things you can never put back.”

I wiped my own face with my sleeve. “I fucking know.”

I got off my knees and straightened slowly. A gust of wind blew willow leaves onto the stones of the bank.

“What do you want me to do?” I said.

His blue eyes were very still. He looked as if he were barely breathing.

“I’ll do anything you want. Do you want me to go down to the courthouse? Turn myself in?”

He turned full around and looked at me hard, his imagination tightening the screws. I heard the current ripping along the rocks, the wind. The canyon was in full shadow now, it was that time of day, the cusp. Then I saw a sharp light move in his eyes.

“Something with kids,” he said. “You do something for some lost kids. Or old folks, I don’t give a shit. You bust your ass.”

He met my eyes. “For the rest of your fucked up life,” he said. “I mean it. Like a goddamn saint. And then one day I still might wake up in the morning and decide to shoot you in the fucking head. Goddamn you.”

I started to say Okay and he shrugged the pack higher and turned his back and disappeared into the trees.

I walked to the bank and stripped off the waders and emptied them on the stones. I sat on a rock and let the feeling come back to my legs. I sat for a long time as the canyon filled with dusk. I let his words sift. Something had just happened and I wasn’t sure what. I put the wading boots back on and picked up the rucksack and walked downstream to the truck.

Many dear friends and family gave generously to the making of this book. Kim Yan was, as always, my first reader, and I am deeply grateful. Lisa Jones, Helen Thorpe, Rebecca Rowe, David Grinspoon and Donna Gershten gave crucial, passionate input, as did Nathan Fischer, Pete Beveridge and Caro Heller. Leslie Heller kept the idea alive for many years. Sascha Steinway and Mark Lough were immensely helpful all along. Lawrence Norfolk gave me a brilliant notion. Jeff Streeter, Jason Hicks and Max Marquez lent generously of their expertise, as they have in the past. And Eric Aho and Jay Mead read closely and gave the best advice. Thanks also to Louise Quayle and Matthew Snyder for their wonderful work.

This book would not have been written without the stewardship, intellect and integrity of David Halpern. Nor would it exist without the inspiration and brilliance of Jenny Jackson, who is a truly great editor.

What a pleasure and a privilege. Thank you all.

Peter Helleris 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 longtime contributor to NPR, Heller is a contributing editor at Outside magazine, Men’s Journal and National Geographic Adventure and a regular contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek . He is also the author of several non-fiction books, including Kook , The Whale Warriors and Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet’s Tsangpo River . He lives in Denver, Colorado.

The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of The Painter , best-selling author Peter Heller’s hauntingly beautiful novel about a reclusive artist who is forced to face his demons after a violent encounter in a small Colorado town.

From the author of the acclaimed novel The Dog Stars comes The Painter , a stunning and suspenseful novel about a man trying to create a good life in the wake of loss and violence.

Celebrated painter Jim Stegner has finally reached a place of equilibrium. Years after serving time in jail for shooting a man in a bar, he leads a quiet life in the hills of the Colorado valley. His days are dictated by simple routines—he no longer drinks, preferring to spend his evenings fly-fishing; he enjoys the company of his effervescent muse; and he works prolifically, allowing him financial stability. In an instant, this peacefulness shatters when Jim witnesses a horrific roadside beating of a horse. Unable to stand idly by, Jim jumps out of his truck and gets into a bloody scuffle with the attacker, breaking his nose. That man, Dell, is a local legend of the worst kind, a hunter whose reputation of cruelty precedes him. The brutality of the incident sticks with Jim, and his rage builds. Jim struggles with the reemergence of this violent side of his personality, all while trying to evade both the police and Dell’s family. The only thing that keeps him sane is painting, a source of comfort and emotional release.

As the situation escalates, Jim retreats to Santa Fe, where, at the urging of his art dealer, he is commissioned to paint an uninspired yet lucrative piece. It is there in Santa Fe that he comes face-to-face with his demons, ultimately reconciling his public and private personas among the vestiges of painful memories. With crisp prose and striking imagery, The Painter is a vigorously suspenseful examination of grief, memory, and the process of creation, both of art and of self, when life’s stability is challenged.

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 Jim’s treatment of women? Discuss Jim’s 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 Jim’s 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 Alce’s death? How did it help to create a more sympathetic character?