Review: Vivien Horler

Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi (Fontana)

Theo of Golden is a novel about an old Portuguese man who comes to stay in Golden, a small college town in the southern US state of Georgia. He makes friends and spreads love.

There’s a bit of a mystery – who is this old man who seems to go through life without a surname, and why did he come to Golden? There is some violence, not too much. Mainly it is a story about love and wonder and beauty and companionship.

There were times, especially at the beginning, when I found the novel less than compelling. And yet I kept reading, and I’m so glad I did.

We know from the off that Theo is wealthy. He arrives in Golden, where spring is just emerging, having flown from an icy New York City aboard a private jet.

Like all the places where he has lived – the Douro in Portugal of his childhood, the Paris of his glory days, New York City and others – Golden has a river and Theo soon finds solace is walking its banks and sitting on a bench where he can watch the sunset, something he tries to do every day without fail.

On his first day in Golden he goes for a walk through the centre of town, early, when everywhere but a coffee shop and a diner are still closed. He has no destination in mind, and whenever he sees something interesting “and he was a man very easily interested”, he pauses and lingers until his curiosity is satisfied.

He wanders into the coffee shop and immediately suspects he will become a regular, “if the coffee is as rich as the ambiance”.

It turns out to be. Then Theo’s eye is caught by scores of artworks, pencil and charcoal portraits, of people of different ages, races and expressions, all rendered “with a richness of detail and delicacy”.

Theo is intrigued, and is told the portraits are mainly of townspeople and coffee shop customers, all drawn by Asher Glissen, an artist born and bred in Golden. They are all for sale, and when one is sold, Asher provides another.

Shep, the coffee shop proprietor, tells Theo he had hoped displaying the portraits would provide Asher with regular sales, but it hasn’t really worked out like that. Shep says he loves having them on his walls, but wishes someone would come and buy the lot of them.

Walking back to his hotel Theo thinks of the portraits, “of the homes that would be beautified and the lives that would be enriched by their presence. And of the artist who would be encouraged by their sale.”

Then Theo has an idea. What if he were to buy the portraits, one at a time, and present them to their subjects?

With the help of a local attorney, Theo finds addresses for all the people sketched, and then writes them a letter, saying he has bought their picture, and wants to present it to them as a gift. He proposes a meeting on a bench near the fountain in the middle of town, where he will hand over the portrait.

When the first letter reaches Minette Prentiss,  a young chartered accountant, there is some consternation. Who is this man and what is he after? Eventually she and her husband decide she will keep the appointment, but her husband, a court prosecutor, will hover nearby, just in case.

On the day in question, Minette discovers that Theo is very easy to talk to, so that she ends up feeling she has made a friend. Theo feels the same way.

And so, one portrait at a time, Theo makes friends in Golden, and hears people’s life stories. In cases of need – such as the little girl who was partially disabled in a car accident that killed her mother – Theo steps in with material help.

In a brief time Theo cannot walk down the main street without repeatedly stopping to chat to his new friends. As he gets to know the people of Golden and hear their stories, so do we.

We also hear a little of Theo’s own story, growing up in a rural community in Portugal where his father worked in the vineyards where port is made, and of the major tragedy of his life – the death of his young daughter in a car accident.

But we have to read to the end of the book to find out what really motivates Theo, and the twist in the tale is quite jolting.

Theo of Golden may not be a nail-bitng page-turner but it’s a wonderful story, beautifully written, that inspires the reader to see the goodness in others, and to help where we can.

As an aside – the delightful dedication in this book, to one Cubby Culbertson, gives us an insight into the impish humour that is obviously a trait of the author Allen Levy: ”As a token of gratitude for our long friendship and a reminder, just between us, that you promised to buy a hundred copies of the book if I dedicated it to you. Will that be cash or charge?”