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| Author | Christopher Bollen |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime fiction |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
Publication date | January 28, 2020 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 400 |
| ISBN | 978-0-06-285388-2 |
A Beautiful Crime is a 2020 crime fiction novel by Christopher Bollen. It is Bollen's fourth novel, following The Destroyers (2017), and was mostly written during his Paris residency in 2018. The novel was first published in the United States by Harper on January 28, 2020.
Set in modern-day Venice, the story centers on boyfriends Nick Brink and Clay Guillory, who devise a plot to sell a collection of forged silver antiques to a wealthy acquaintance from Clay's past. The transaction is successful, but their attempt to escalate the scheme by selling a palazzo that they do not fully own leads to disastrous consequences. Bollen described A Beautiful Crime as his most personal novel to date, and various elements of the plot and characters were inspired by his own life. The novel explores the theme of overtourism and depopulation of Venice, as well as the intersection of greed, morality, and social class.
A Beautiful Crime was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the mystery/thriller category. It received mixed reviews from critics: reviewers generally praised its characterization, exploration of gay romance, and depictions of Venice, but disagreed on the narrative's pace. It has drawn comparisons to novels by Patricia Highsmith, particularly The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Plot
Nicholas "Nick" Brink and his boyfriend Clay Guillory arrive in Venice, leaving behind their lives in New York City. The couple first met two months earlier at the memorial service of Freddy van der Haar, Clay's previous boyfriend who bequeathed to him a collection of silver antiques and his share of a Venetian palazzo nicknamed "Il Dormitorio". After Nick and Clay discovered that the antiques were forgeries, they devised a plan to settle Clay's debts by selling the pieces to Richard West, a wealthy American expatriate who finances cultural conservation projects in Venice. Four years ago, Clay worked as a personal assistant to Richard as a side job during his internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. When he was passed over for a permanent position at the museum, he was devastated to learn that Richard was responsible and has held a grudge against him ever since.
Nick intentionally runs into Richard and poses as an expert silver appraiser while concealing his relationship with Clay. An enthusiastic Richard invites him to a dinner party at his palazzo, which shares a wall with Il Dormitorio. Nick persuades him to make an offer for the van der Haar silver and performs an "appraisal" when Richard borrows the pieces from Clay. Convinced of their value, Richard purchases them for US$750,000. However, Nick begins to worry about how long the money will last and concocts a plan to sell Il Dormitorio to Richard, who has longed to merge it with his own residence. Clay is reluctant because it partly belongs to Freddy's estranged sister Cecilia, but eventually agrees to the scheme. Richard quickly expresses interest and Clay flies to Paris to arrange forged documents identifying him as the sole owner.
Nick visits Richard again, hoping to convince him to go through with the purchase. He is horrified to see Dulles Hawkes, a retired silver appraiser who Richard invited to view his newly purchased antiques. Dulles immediately discerns them as forgeries but plays along with the ruse. He later threatens to divulge the scam unless Nick has sex with him in his hotel that night. Nick is forced to oblige. Afterwards, Dulles continues to blackmail him, insisting that they will have sex again the next day and demanding half of the profits. A panicked Nick follows Dulles to the hotel elevator, which is under repair, and impulsively pushes him down the empty elevator shaft. Dulles dies on impact and Nick flees the scene of the crime.
Clay agrees to sell Il Dormitorio to Richard for four million euros. As he heads to the final meeting to complete the transaction, he is stopped by Richard's assistant Battista, who has discovered that his boss has been anonymously financing a planned tourist development in Mestre. Battista, one of the vocal protestors against the development, feels betrayed, and he tells Clay that the meeting is a trap — Richard tracked down Cecilia, found out about the forged documents, and notified the police. Meanwhile, Richard casually reveals the setup to Nick, still unaware of his relationship with Clay. Enraged, Nick exchanges blows with him and strikes him in the head with a brass doorstop, rendering him indefinitely mute. Clay is suspected in the subsequent investigation but Battista provides an alibi and exposes Richard as the anonymous investor. The attack is ultimately attributed to an unknown protestor. Nick moves to the island of Linosa to avoid scrunity while Clay remains in Venice, though they continue to communicate discreetly. Five months later, Clay makes the trip to Linosa when they decide it is safe for him to do so, and they joyfully reunite.
Background and publication history
A Beautiful Crime is Christopher Bollen's fourth novel, following Lightning People (2011), Orient (2015), and The Destroyers (2017).[1][2] He incorporated aspects of his own life in the plot and characters — for instance, he and Nick both grew up in the state of Ohio, and after college he worked as an intern at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection like Clay.[3][4] The Venetian apartment where Nick stays was modeled after an apartment near Campo Santa Margherita where Bollen lived during his internship.[5] Nick was also based on the character of Daisy Miller from the novella of the same name by Henry James; Bollen described Miller as "lovely but reckless and falls into danger". He chose to feature an interracial relationship between Nick, who is white, and Clay, who is black, to represent "two all-American guys" and to highlight diversity within the LGBT community.[6] The character of Freddy van der Haar was inspired by photographer David Armstrong and had a more prominent role in the original draft.[3]
Bollen has described A Beautiful Crime as his most personal novel to date.[3] He dedicated the book to fellow novelist Edmund White, who he described as "someone who I really admired who blazed the trail for me", citing their shared Cincinnati roots and his works of gay literature. White had previously dedicated his 2016 novel Our Young Man to Bollen.[3][7] In an interview with Vogue Italia, Bollen credited Toto Bergamo Rossi, director of the nonprofit organization Venetian Heritage, with teaching him about Italy's architecture and the Italian language while he was conducting research for the book.[5] He wrote much of A Beautiful Crime while living in a 17th‑century Parisian monastery during a 2018 residency sponsored by the Maison de la Poésie literary center. Clay's brief trip to Paris in the novel was the result of Bollen's promise to Maison de la Poésie that he would set one of the book's chapters in that city.[8][9]
The book was published by Harper as a hardcover on January 28, 2020.[10][11] Harper Perennial published the paperback version on January 12, 2021.[12] Tim Paige narrated the 11-hour audiobook, which was released by Harper Audio. AudioFile's review of the audiobook praised the emotions conveyed by Paige's narration, but characterized his accents for secondary characters as "inconsistent".[13] In Italy, the book was published by Bollati Boringhieri.[5]
Themes
Overtourism
Venice is a popular destination for tourists; in 2019, the city was estimated to have 25 million visitors annually.[14] The impacts of overtourism, including overcrowding, decline in permanent residents, and increase in generated waste, have been widely documented.[14][15][16] A Beautiful Crime explores issues of overtourism and depopulation of Venice, negatively depicting the rise of Airbnb rentals in the city and featuring a scene of residents protesting against foreign investments and chanting "Mi non vado via mi resto!" ("I do not go away, I stay!").[4][17] John Copenhaver, writing for the Lambda Literary Foundation, wrote that the book's "central crime" was not Nick and Clay's schemes, but rather Venice's "siege by tourism and foreign developers", and that the narrative's underlying mystery is actually the identity of those destroying the city, which represents Nick and Clay's vision for their future.[11]
Greed and morality
During a press interview for The Destroyers, Bollen indicated his desire to create gay characters that were "complicated in a different and new way" for his next work.[8] While Nick is introduced as a charming and naive Midwesterner, his greed leads to disastrous consequences, including Dulles's murder. Brian Alessandro of Newsday described Bollen's casting of Nick and Clay as morally ambiguous criminals as "plucking gay characters out of the ghettos of victimhood or sainthood", and that they are ultimately forced to face the consequences of their actions.[2] Even as Nick and Clay commit crimes for money and revenge, they are portrayed in a sympathetic light.[11] Alessandro commented that issues of social class also recur throughout the novel, as their scheme to sell the forgeries to Richard is rooted in a desire for "[u]pward social mobility in this materialistic milieu".[2] In their interactions with Richard, with other characters, and with each other, Bollen highlights the effects of social inequality on their senses of identity and the decisions they make.[1][2]
Reception
A Beautiful Crime has been compared to Patricia Highsmith's novels, particularly The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as works by Alan Hollinghurst.[1][2][17] Bollen acknowledged the comparisons, saying: "I love Ripley, and it's a compliment."[6] The book was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the mystery/thriller category and was named to a list of the top 20 books of 2020 by O, The Oprah Magazine.[18][19] It received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.[10][20]
Kirkus Reviews called the novel a "satisfying exercise in literary crime".[20] Several reviewers, including Alexander Chee of O, The Oprah Magazine and Brian Alessandro of NewsDay, praised the sympathetic characterization of its protagonist as well as Bollen's examination of Clay's Black identity. Alessandro additionally described the novel's exploration of Nick and Clay's relationship as "sincere and deep".[1][2] A reviewer for Publishers Weekly concurred, writing that while the titular crime is the focus of the plot, "the story gains its strength from its look at gay romance".[10]
Critics disagreed on the quality of the narrative's pace: Michael Cart of Booklist described the novel as "deftly paced and plotted",[21] while Randy Rosenthal wrote in Los Angeles Review of Books that it "not only lacks literary artistry, but it also lacks the thrill of a thriller".[4] Rosenthal criticized the pace of the beginning of the novel as too slow, and felt that the plot, characters, and language were not realistic. However, he conceded that he found the plot more engaging towards the end and applauded Bollen's examination of overtourism in Venice.[4] Dennis Drabelle, writing for The Washington Post, similarly questioned Bollen's optimistic portrayal of Nick and Clay's relationship in "the dishonest and brutal world [they] inhabit", but praised the novel's suspense and depictions of Venice.[17]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Chee, Alexander (February 12, 2020). "Christopher Bollen's A Beautiful Crime Is a Cold-Blooded Yet Seductive Novel". O, The Oprah Magazine. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f Alessandro, Brian (January 30, 2020). "'A Beautiful Crime' review: Masterful tale of deception in Venice". Newsday. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Nugent, Mitchell (February 4, 2020). "Christopher Bollen Is Pretty Sure He's Not a Sociopathic Murderer". Interview. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Rosenthal, Randy (March 11, 2020). "A Love Letter to Venice". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Christopher Bollen: l'intervista di Vogue Italia" [Christopher Bollen: interview with Vogue Italia]. Vogue Italia (in Italian). February 16, 2020. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
- ^ a b Burton, Bill (March 26, 2020). "Writing Is No Mystery to Christopher Bollen". The Provincetown Independent. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ Eggleston, Giuliana (July 7, 2016). "Interview: Edmund White". Midwestern Gothic. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
- ^ a b Holmes, J Corbett (January 31, 2018). "The Outbook interview: Christopher Bollen discusses 'The Destroyers,' travel and writing gay characters". The Desert Sun. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
- ^ Wayne, Teddy (February 11, 2020). "Lit Hub Asks: 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers". Literary Hub. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
- ^ a b c "A Beautiful Crime". Publishers Weekly. October 22, 2019. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ a b c Copenhaver, John (May 17, 2020). "Find 'Unlikeable' Characters & Unlikely Points-of-View in these Multi-layered Crime Novels". Lambda Literary Foundation. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ "A Beautiful Crime". HarperCollins. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ "A Beautiful Crime". AudioFile. February 2020. Archived from the original on July 28, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ a b Hardy, Paula (April 30, 2019). "Sinking city: how Venice is managing Europe's worst tourism crisis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 24, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ Barry, Colleen (June 25, 2021). "Venice Rethinks Its Future After Rare UNESCO Warning". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on June 29, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ Horowitz, Jason (August 2, 2017). "Venice, Invaded by Tourists, Risks Becoming 'Disneyland on the Sea'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 23, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ a b c Drabelle, Dennis (January 23, 2020). "'A Beautiful Crime' is a deliciously diabolical suspense tale a la Patricia Highsmith". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 25, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ Pineda, Dorany (March 2, 2021). "Isabel Wilkerson, Jacob Soboroff, Akwaeke Emezi among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 22, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ Haber, Leigh; Hart, Michelle; Cain, Hamilton (November 19, 2020). "These Are the Best Books of 2020, According to O, The Oprah Magazine". O, The Oprah Magazine. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ a b "A Beautiful Crime". Kirkus Reviews. January 28, 2020. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ Cart, Michael (December 1, 2019). "A Beautiful Crime". Booklist. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
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