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    The Painter: A novel
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    The Painter: A novel
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    The Painter: A novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Painter: A novel

    Written by Peter Heller

    Narrated by Mark Deakins

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Peter Heller, the celebrated author of the breakout best seller The Dog Stars, returns with an achingly beautiful, wildly suspenseful second novel about an artist trying to outrun his past.

    Jim Stegner has seen his share of violence and loss. Years ago he shot a man in a bar. His marriage disintegrated. He grieved the one thing he loved. In the wake of tragedy, Jim, a well-known expressionist painter, abandoned the art scene of Santa Fe to start fresh in the valleys of rural Colorado. Now he spends his days painting and fly-fishing, trying to find a way to live with the dark impulses that sometimes overtake him. He works with a lovely model. His paintings fetch excellent prices. But one afternoon, on a dirt road, Jim comes across a man beating a small horse, and a brutal encounter rips his quiet life wide open. Fleeing Colorado, chased by men set on retribution, Jim returns to New Mexico, tormented by his own relentless conscience.

    A stunning, savage novel of art and violence, love and grief, The Painter is the story of a man who longs to transcend the shadows in his heart, a man intent on using the losses he has suffered to create a meaningful life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 6, 2014
    ISBN9780804190442
    Unavailable
    The Painter: A novel
    Author

    Peter Heller

    Dr Peter Heller is Head of the Department of Qualification at the Institute of Solar Research, German Aerospace Center, Germany.

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    Reviews for The Painter

    3.5/5

    250 ratings35 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The painter of the title is Jim Stegner, a successful Santa Fe artist, and truly an angry man. He’s stuck in the anger phase of the grieving process and for good reason. His teenage daughter was murdered. But Jim is really a nice guy - talented, friendly, and thoughtful. The kind of guy you'd like to have for a neighbor. He paints and fly-fishes and both activities help to get him through his days. After moving to the small town of Paonia, Colorado, Jim witnesses a hunting guide beating a little strawberry roan mare who was refusing to load in a trailer. As Jim confronts the hunter, it doesn’t take much analyzing to realize that in seeing that helpless horse, Jim feels the pain and anguish of being unable to save his daughter and keep her safe. And that’s all of the plot I’m willing to give away.The story moves along like a mystery/ thriller, only in this case, the reader knows who did what. The mystery lies in whether or not they will get caught. And by whom. Heller is a poet as well as a writer of both non-fiction and fiction and it shows in the cadence of his prose. Sometimes the story threatened to get lost in all that beautiful language but the sudden shifts back to action propelled the story forward. Interestingly, Heller comes from a family of artists and sculptors, and the character of Jim Stegner is modeled on his friend, New Mexico artist, Jim Wagner
    • 4/5
      New Mexican artist Jim Stegner has been released from prison after serving time for shooting a pedophile who threatened his daughter. His daughter has been murdered while he was away, and his marriage is over, and he's moved to rural Colorado to try to find quiet and space to paint, fish, and recover. But an encounter with a hunting guide beating a small horse brings out the violence in him again, and he finds himself harassed by both the law and vengeful relatives. He still finds beauty in his work and surroundings and he continues to paint and fish, even starting a new relationship with his model, all the while worrying about whether he's a violent man by nature and whether he's going to be arrested or murdered himself. Thoughtful and gentle, the book is more a character study than anything else. I was initially wondering if I could read a whole novel about an artist's appreciation of the world around him when WHAM!, the violence made its entrance. Still, this is definitely not traditional suspense, although the threat hanging over Jim's future is ever-present. I did find myself pulled along, thinking it equally likely that he might go to prison, be murdered, or even get off completely. And there is an ending that makes sense, but then the book abruptly ends, before the ending can be really explored. I thought to myself that maybe the writer took to heart too seriously the artist's thoughts on when to put aside a work as complete and not continue to "improve" it. In this case, the writer should have kept going just a little longer.
    • 4/5
      For being a simple man with simple interests, Jim Stegler is a complicated soul, living a renegade life off the grid as a self-taught painter. Jim's passions include fly fishing, painting, smoking cheroots, and having sex, pretty much in that order. His art is very well received and the demand for his paintings is high, much to the delight of his dealer, who tolerates a great deal from Jim to ensure that he keeps painting. After he rescues a horse being beaten by a sadistic owner, Jim's violent actions place him squarely in the middle of a cat and mouse game with dangerous forces. As an artist, however, Jim's actions and conflicts emerge as themes in his art, leading those who know him well and others obsessed with his celebrity to ponder if he is guilty of what he is ultimately accused.As with The Dog Stars, I fell in love with Jim's inner voice and dialogue. Reading Heller's work is like living inside another person, albeit in this case, someone not entirely likable. This is a dark book and will appeal to men more than women due to the crudeness of the storyline. However, I did enjoy it and was eager to see what Jim's art would ultimately reveal about him.
    • 5/5
      Peter Heller writes in such a unique style; it makes me love reading his physical books. He has an incredible ability to suck me into the story, especially the main character’s life. It doesn’t matter how inappropriate the behavior, he tells the MC’s story in such a way that I can only feel empathy. The story of the painter is filled with grief and sadness; how poorly he coped with those emotions. He’s very insightful as he learns about himself and his blind, immediate response to physical threats. The painter is a raw character with plenty of flaws and a man who only dreams of a simple life.
    • 3/5
      Alternating discussion of art, natural beauty and fly fishing with very tense violent episodes this novel certainly holds one's attention. The protagonist is a large somewhat unstable alcoholic with an explosive temper and, consequently, we are not sure what to expect. I had to put it down a few times so as not to disturb my wa.
    • 2/5
      I enjoy reading books by Colorado authors, set in Colorado. I like the familiarity of places and cultures. However this one didn’t resonate with me. It has a very simple writing style, but the story of a rural painter who becomes a vigilante and has a broken life ... with the justified(?) killings earning him fame ... just wasn’t an enjoyable read for me.
    • 4/5
      Amazing writer! One of the best around. Loved "The Dog Stars" and now this... Art, fly fishing, love, grief, violence, extraordianry grief - it's all there and told in a raw, exquisite language. Can't wait for whatever he writes next.
    • 3/5
      A "cowboy" painter with poor anger management skills fly fishes his way to redemption. The writing is nice but the plot is a little bit on the absurd side of plausibility.
    • 3/5
      adult fiction/suspense. Painter/fisherman/murderer? more like. And surfer. I enjoyed this one ok, and I liked The Dog Stars, but I'm thinking if Heller writes another fiction, he may want to stray from his macho-yet-sensitive narrator a bit.
    • 2/5
      I enjoy reading books by Colorado authors, set in Colorado. I like the familiarity of places and cultures. However this one didn’t resonate with me. It has a very simple writing style, but the story of a rural painter who becomes a vigilante and has a broken life ... with the justified(?) killings earning him fame ... just wasn’t an enjoyable read for me.
    • 5/5
      Jim Stegner is in his mid-40s, a painter and a fly-fisherman. He is a gifted artist but keeping his life from falling apart, is a constant task. He shot a man in a bar and did time, he has staggered through two failed marriages, lost his daughter and has issues with alcohol. Just when it seems, Jim has pulled it together, he gets entangled with a couple nasty hunting guides and more chaos ensues.Set in the modern west, Colorado and New Mexico, this is a beautifully written story of a man struggling with past demons and burgeoning ones. It is the perfect mix of the rugged and the lyrical and Heller has proven, here with his second novel, (after the terrific [The Dog Stars]) that he is a major talent and I am looking forward to where he takes us next.
    • 5/5
      An amazing book! To listen to it narrated by Mark Deakins no doubt made it more enjoyable than if I had read it. I'm afraid the many fly fishing facts at the beginning would have otherwise bored me, a non-fisherperson, to sleep. The narrator added a sexy smoothness to the listening experience, no matter what he was saying. But the prose on its own, with a multitude of vivid and evocative descriptions of nature, was luminous and clear as the Colorado sky under which the story unfolds. Contrast that to the story, which was gritty and turbulent. Jim Stegner, the painter, is a damaged man with a disturbing violent streak that he struggles to control, yet often fails. His art seems to feed off the various times in his life when he inflicted damage or experienced grief from the violence of others. Despite his boyhood in a trailer park, or because of it, Jim has become quite successful. I couldn't get enough of this character who, despite his very serious shortcomings, was very endearing to me in a twisted sort of way. I think I have a litte crush on Jim Stegner, a bad boy with good intentions. And a big crush on Mark Deakins.
    • 4/5
      Very good; little bit of a twist at the end sorted it out nicely. a little wordy about painting and fishing but that was compensated by good characters and timely action scenes.
    • 3/5
      Ouch----I listened to the audio and was glad that I could speed it up. I just could not get myself around Jim to really "like" him. Although the painting explanations ---how deep the painter could get into his work-- were somewhat fascinating--after a while, it was just too much. And Jim----just plain ridiculously crazy, or what? Yes, a very "exciting" book to listen to for the most part because the action parts appeared frequently and sort of held the story line together as you wondered, "what NEXT???"
    • 2/5
      the story of a big (and I mean that literally and figuratively) man's man - 'pretty famous' artist by day painting ducks in heat, family portraits, gunshots to heads psychopath-assassin fisherman by night. Handsome, well built and trying to do the good things other people are too stupid to do.......

      For someone who loved 'The Dog Stars' - I am beyond disappointed in a book of implausible silly cliches and little more.......If I had to read that he was going to have another cheroot I was going to throw the book out - cigarettes smell like life? How big was the other guy - pretty big because I'm 6'......but he was wide too. How's your x doing - she was a playboy playmate right? How much did your rod cost - that's a long one and really expensive. Paints a picture of a gun blast - and then a picture of the rich Santa Fe kids in mere minutes they absolutely love - he's like a dad to them...

      I'll shelve this under schmaltzy romantic fiction
    • 5/5
      The first Peter Heller book I read was Kook. I liked the idea behind the book, it being about the author learning to surf. The writing was very easy and and the story was good. Based on that I bought his next book The Dog Stars. The writing in that book was very good but I never came close to connecting to the story. Now comes his most recent book The Painter, which like The Dog Stars came with rave reviews. He was one for one with me and so when I saw it on sale at Barnes and Noble, I bought it.Wow, what a great book. A perfect lazing on the deck summer book. The writing is top notch; lyrical and descriptive at times, stark and cold at other times. Think early to middle James Lee Burke without the politics. The story is about a painter and how he deals with love, loss, death, and heartache, always head on oftentimes to his own detriment. The locations of the story, Southern Colorado and Santa Fe and Taos New Mexico are brought to life beautifully. As is this broken, damaged, and sometimes violent man. Easily one of the best books I have read in a long time.
    • 1/5
      So disappointed that the author of the wonderful The Dog Stars stooped to trying to make us believe that beautiful young women with big breasts can't resist old men. Who also look like Santa Claus. And who happen to be murderers. Shelve The Painter in the fantasy section.
    • 4/5
      This is Peter Heller's 2nd novel. I truly enjoyed his first "The Dog Stars" and recommend that. "The Painter" is not at that level but is pretty good for a 2nd novel. The novel takes place in western Colorado and the Santa Fe area. Heller does a good job of evoking the beauty of the area. Jim Stegner, the lead character, is a painter of some renown and an avid fisherman( a little too much fishing description in this book). His problem is a past that consists of bad marriages, drinking, gambling, and a tragedy. His rage is always there and surfaces in an incident that drives the action of the book. Although I did not rate this book that high, it was a page turner with an interesting plot. Not all of the characters were believable and with all plot driven novels, you can pick apart some of the action but overall this worked. This is a good book but I would first read "The Dog Stars".
    • 5/5
      Great book. Well written and interesting. I liked the characters. It was an unexpected story.
    • 5/5
      Like the protagonist, Jim Stegner, the author is an artist. Peter Heller doesn't paint on a canvas, but his poetic words create a vivid picture in the mind. One can hear the rushing water of a mountain stream as Jim finds peace in the art of fly fishing. He craves peace after the violent death of his teenage daughter and two divorces in quick succession. He buys a mountain cabin in Colorado and settles in to a life of painting and fishing. Although Jim feels calm on the inside, there is grief and anger below the surface bubbling over until it erupts. So begins the adventure part of the story. If you read The Dog Stars, you will find the same superb writing and more wonderful descriptions of the lesser traveled parts of Colorado. The only similarity in these stories, however, are in the main characters finding their worlds turned upside down and trying to keep their moral compass when situations demanded harsh behaviors that went against their natural inclinations. Both of Heller's books are highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      When I first started this book I had some trouble getting into it. What kept me reading were the wonderful words and beautiful descriptions of scenery and wildlife and the compelling, but complicated persona that is the character Jim Stegner. This is a novel of contrasts, dark and gritty alongside beauty and peace.Jim is a haunted man, a man at war, not in some other country, but within his own self. He seeks peace in painting and fly fishing and there are many descriptions of both. He is haunted by his Mother's death when he was a teenager and before he had a chance to tell her he loved her and by his fifteen yr.old daughters murder. Now a painter whose paintings sell quite well, he is living the life of a recluse in Colorado. He paints and fished to forget and also to remember. He is a smart man, one who reads novels and quotes from his favorite poets. Yet within his psyche lives darkness and as once before an incident for which he served jail time, a situation will find him again losing control. Will the darkness once again control his life, or will he find peace and acceptance within himself? As the tension mounts and the new trouble threatens his peace, freedom and life, his paintings get better and better, come faster and faster. This will confront him with another moral dilemma. Told in a first person narrative, this is an amazing book about a man's quest for redemption. Using nature and painting to exercise his demons, a man wanting peace but his very nature makes this less than impossible. A book to be patient with and to feel the emotional impact of this character. He could be anyone of us.
    • 5/5
      My heart broke throughout this book for this broken man trying to redeem himself from his past. This is a man who knows the value of beauty - the beauty of nature and the beauty of artistic creation. But violence and misfortune stalk him in his quest for serenity.So beautifully written, this novel will both entrance you with its poetry while it has you sitting on the edge of your seat with its suspense. I wish I had just a few moments of Mr. Heller's talent so I could write a review that's fitting to his wondrous book. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This book could have had several other titles, The Fisherman, The Vigilante, The Sensitive Assassin, all of which would have described the principal character. He has out of body experiences both painting and fishing in a symbolic sense as he loses himself in these passions but he is also a very damaged man caused principally by the death of his daughter and has a hair trigger temper when it comes to correcting evils he perceives which gets him into a lot of trouble. My main problem with the novel is that I never really liked this guy because of all his hypersensitivity about everything around him. Many of his painting have chickens in them - No Van Gogh!
    • 3/5
      Beautiful writing but the cowboy artiste main character was so...done. Contrived? I don't know. But it just didn't work for me.
    • 2/5
      Hard for me to rate this one. In the beginning I was turned off by the descriptive narrative. Too much for me. I am a person that like a grab you story line. Then I got into the story line but it never really grabbed me. I liked it just fine but didn't love it.
    • 3/5
      The title character and narrator of Peter Heller's novel The Painter is Jim Stegner, an American impressionist artist of growing repute whose work is in demand and whose career is reaching a plateau, even if his personal life is not. Jim is a man's man (in some circles his nickname is Hemingway), a beefy, bearded, twice divorced, bull-in-a-china-shop type who typically acts first and thinks about consequences later. His blunt manner and impulsive temperament have landed him in trouble more than once and caused him to behave in ways he later regrets. Case in point: his daughter Alce was killed trying to procure drugs shortly after he cut her off, telling her he wasn't giving her money to feed her drug habit. Case in point: he ended up in jail after shooting (not fatally) a notorious child molester in a bar. Convicted for the shooting, he has been released from prison, given up booze and gambling and--in an attempt to simplify things, avoid temptation and forget his past mistakes--moved to a remote Colorado valley where he intends to concentrate on painting and fishing. But life for Jim Stegner is never simple, and when, while driving to his favourite fishing spot, he comes across a local man, Dell Siminoe, mercilessly beating a horse, without thinking he intervenes. It turns out that Dell Siminoe epitomizes two things that Jim cannot abide: cruelty and stupidity. And shortly after their initial confrontation the two men encounter one another again, alone and at night, and Dell ends up dead. Jim spends the remainder of the novel evading both the law and Dell's vengeful relatives, second-guessing himself, producing a series of disturbing paintings that reflect his guilt-stricken conscience, and vowing to take better care of himself and those he loves. Much of the book has the feel of a thriller and features chase scenes, gun battles, tense confrontations and police detectives trying fit together fragments of evidence in order to make a case against Jim. Jim also spends a lot of time alone, and the narrative slows down greatly when he is driving or standing in a stream with his fishing rod or at his easel. To a certain extent we try to keep up with what's happening and guess what's coming next. But about three quarters of the way through the reader might suspect he's read this passage before. Not that he has, but there is a fair amount of situational duplication. Without a doubt the novel is longer than it needs to be. And yet the writing is fresh and startling and often elegant, especially when Jim is standing under the stars contemplating the natural world. Jim's angst over rash actions that continue to land him in hot water is believable and we sympathize with his struggle to be a better person and to take responsibility. But he can be long winded and sometimes repeats himself. There is also an implausible white-hat-black-hat simplicity to the novel's morality: the Siminoes are criminals and their pursuit of Jim in the name of vengeance seems motivated by something purely evil, and Heller's attempt at the end to give them depth and complexity seems tacked on and fails to convince. Still, The Painter is compelling more often than not and even though the novel's considerable momentum is frequently undermined, Jim Stegner's voice is captivating and entertaining. In Jim Stegner, Peter Heller has given us an everyman struggling to resist his own worst impulses. We can all sympathize with that.
    • 5/5
      The painter of the title is Jim Stegner, a successful Santa Fe artist, and truly an angry man. He?s stuck in the anger phase of the grieving process and for good reason. His teenage daughter was murdered. But Jim is really a nice guy - talented, friendly, and thoughtful. The kind of guy you'd like to have for a neighbor. He paints and fly-fishes and both activities help to get him through his days. After moving to the small town of Paonia, Colorado, Jim witnesses a hunting guide beating a little strawberry roan mare who was refusing to load in a trailer. As Jim confronts the hunter, it doesn?t take much analyzing to realize that in seeing that helpless horse, Jim feels the pain and anguish of being unable to save his daughter and keep her safe. And that?s all of the plot I?m willing to give away.The story moves along like a mystery/ thriller, only in this case, the reader knows who did what. The mystery lies in whether or not they will get caught. And by whom. Heller is a poet as well as a writer of both non-fiction and fiction and it shows in the cadence of his prose. Sometimes the story threatened to get lost in all that beautiful language but the sudden shifts back to action propelled the story forward. Interestingly, Heller comes from a family of artists and sculptors, and the character of Jim Stegner is modeled on his friend, New Mexico artist, Jim Wagner
    • 5/5
      In The Painter, a very highly recommended novel by Peter Heller the main character, Jim Stegner, is an enigma. He is a highly successful artist, a painter, who needs his art for personal therapy as much as for personal expression. Jim is a grieving father, an avid fly fisherman, a lover of women, animals, and nature. He is a recovering alcoholic, and has failed at both his marriages. He is also a felon who has served time for his inability to control his temper. Sometimes, when Jim encounters something that just isn't right, he is prone to falling into a “a red blindness” of uncontrollable rage.

      Jim is out of prison and his beloved daughter is dead. Jim is painting, trying to overcome his pain and the guilt he feels, thinking he could have prevented it. He paints. He fly fishes. He tries to forget or find some peace/redemption in his creativity while knowing he also harbors a darker side. "I know. I stand out here now in the wind watching the clouds mass and I know. That Steve in his greed is feeding me and will kill my art if I let him. That my daughter died for nothing. That I better go fishing before my thoughts start to spiral. "(Location 362)

      When Jim is heading out to fish he encounters a cruel man who beats a scared horse nearly to dead.
      "She’s frozen in a paralysis of terror. When I touch her shoulder the quiver and tremor spread outward from the sweatsoaked hide, spread up and back like something seismic. She flinches away from my hand but doesn’t step. As if her hooves, small hooves, shiny and black, newly shod, are glued to the dirt. The lead rope hanging from her halter. I almost cannot contain—the rage and the tenderness together like a boiling weather front. I stand beside her and breathe. The two of us just stand there." (Location 474)

      Jim punches the man and saves the horse, but this one act sets into motion a whole string of events with stakes that escalate with every page.
      "I think of Guernica, the painting. The knife in the horse. A story I read once by one of the Russians, maybe Chekhov, a man beating a horse. How seeing it happen is so much worse. A big man wreaking his anger on a tied horse who cannot even beg."(Location 537)

      Jim is a tortured character, but a complete person. There is a duality to his personality that is captured perfectly. Anyone with an artistic bent will understand and empathize with him. Jim is also an avid fly fisherman and outdoorsman which encompasses a whole different sphere of personalities. I appreciate how Heller manages to capture one man, one imperfect man, with all his flaws, foibles, and gifts, and presents him, flaws and all, to us in a complicated package and then allows us to slowly unwrap and expose the real man.

      The Painter works on several levels. It is a character study, a novel of suspense, the story of a man dealing with his overwhelming grief, a suffering artist trying to paint his way through his emotions, and a man trying to sabotage his life while simultaneously trying to save himself.

      I admire Heller's writing style. He perfectly captures a person's inner thoughts, inner dialogue as Jim assesses the situations and people he is thrust into contact with during this turbulent time. For example:
      "Steady hazel eyes, a smile. A man you could trust. To lock you up forever." (Location 1191) and "I say blurred, because it was hard to see him sharply through the cloud of good cheer he brought with him the way Pig-Pen brings his dust." (Location 2625)

      It's not always an easy novel to read. It has language and there is some violence and adult situations, You will find yourself wanting Jim to find another way to handle things. But you are also going to appreciate reading about his creative process and what he is thinking, what inspires him, as he paints.
      It is also a novel that captures the setting equally well.

      Heller has written another brilliant novel.

      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Knopf Doubleday for review purposes.




    • 4/5
      This is a difficult book for me to review. While I was thoroughly engaged by Jim's story, I'm not sure how I really feel about it. Jim is an artist with a troubled past. He's a recovering alcoholic who has suffered painful personal losses. He's made terrible mistakes that have cost him dearly. Simply put, his life is a mess. At a close friends encouragement, he's taking a break from his studio in Sante Fe and escaping to the peaceful Colorado mountains to simply paint, fish, and "be still."

      Pfft...right.

      When things went wrong, they went so spectacularly wrong that it became a bit unrealistic for me. Jim switched back and forth between the poor tortured soul and the conniving anti-hero during the story so many times that I couldn't decide if I was supposed to cheer for him, or hope that he got caught.

      Then again, I did like listening to his thoughts while he was fishing peacefully, reflecting on better times, or focusing on the nature around him. I also liked when he talked about art...any art...not just his own. I especially enjoyed this:

      "The reason people are so moved by art and why artists tend to take it all so seriously is that if they are real and true they come to the painting with everything they know and feel and love, and all the things they don’t know, and some of the things they hope, and they are honest about them all and put them on the canvas. What can be more serious? What more really can be at stake except life itself, which is why maybe artists are always equating the two and driving everybody crazy by insisting that art is life. Well. Cut us some slack.”Cool, huh?

      So, yes. There were one or two gems in the book.

      I also liked the ending very much. It was very thought provoking. Unfortunately, in between the little gems of wisdom and a very intelligent ending, there were so many lies, and WAY too much "woe-is-me, I feel guilty." Usually, when one feels guilty and they can do something about it? Well.

      So, I'm glad that I read the book, but I've never felt so conflicted before about a character. Perhaps that was the whole point. Life is always in a state of flux, life is messy, etc. Maybe I liked this more than I thought...

      Yes, I gave it four stars.
    • 4/5
      Jim Stegner is a 45 year old recovering alcoholic, a convicted felon, running from the reality of his life. He has had two unsuccessful marriages. His daughter from his first marriage was murdered when she was 14 years old during a marijuana buy that went wrong. Nothing he can do, no amount of acting out his anger and frustration, will bring her back. Sometimes, in his imagination, he has conversations with himself, with something like an alter ego, and also he listens to his daughter’s advice when she seems to appear, at times, in some mystical spiritual form to him, like that of a white owl, or in her own body image to comfort him when he seems to be at wit’s end. He believes he has failed his daughter, and he is haunted by the painful memory of their last exchange. He is a painter with a fine reputation, but he is not a happy man. Although he seems sensitive and compassionate, he tends to have violent encounters with strangers, and sometimes, has an uncontrollable temper. When he becomes a suspect in a murder investigation, the world, peculiarly, takes special note of him, and his work increases in value and is in higher demand. He uses his painting and his love for fishing as therapy to try and keep his life on track. His violent behavior is almost like an addiction, as his gambling and alcoholism were, in the past. He has to constantly fight to control his emotions. Jim has to search his soul and find himself again so he can begin to live without the burden of his painful memories. The story will sometimes keep you on the edge of your seat and sometimes drop you flat on your back. Although it is well written, there were times when there was simply too much unnecessary detail. Essentially, Jim has committed murder. The family is seeking revenge, hunting him down wherever he goes. How do they always track him without a tracking device? It isn’t explained. Written in a lighthearted manner, even though the subject matter is really not funny, the book moves quickly along.