Contents
Part Two — Chapter Twenty
Overview
Theo visits Jean-Felix’s gallery storage and studies Alicia’s key works: her mother’s fatal crash, Gabriel as a crucified Jesus with a rifle painted before the murder, and a vicious nude of Lydia. In Alcestis, Theo notices maggots in a fruit bowl. Jean-Felix claims Alicia hated her father and suggests Theo give her paints, but can’t recall the doctor’s name. Theo questions Jean-Felix’s professed love for Alicia.
Summary
Theo follows Jean-Felix into a storage room where Jean-Felix reveals three of Alicia’s paintings. The first depicts the car crash that killed Alicia’s mother, with her mother’s spirit rising like a yellow-winged bird—unsettling rather than joyous to Theo.
The second painting is Gabriel portrayed as a crucified Jesus, complete with a crown of thorns and a rifle strapped to his torso. Painted about a month before the murder, it suggests Gabriel and the gun were on Alicia’s mind in advance, unsettling Theo with Gabriel’s reproachful stare.
The third is a larger, cruel nude of Lydia Rose, Alicia’s aunt, monstrously exaggerated. Theo understands why Lydia felt humiliated. After rewrapping these, Jean-Felix shows Theo Alcestis. Theo studies Alicia’s unreadable expression and then notices maggots on red apples in a background fruit bowl, a detail he had missed.
Discussing Alicia’s past, Theo asks about her suicide attempt. Jean-Felix says Alicia “went to pieces” after her father’s hanging but insists she hated, not loved, her father; he speculates guilt might have driven the attempt. The contradiction troubles Theo. A call interrupts, and Jean-Felix resumes with a casual, promiscuous air that puts Theo off.
Theo asks about a doctor Alicia saw around the suicide attempt; Jean-Felix vaguely recalls someone but cannot name him. He advises Theo to give Alicia paint and brushes, saying she will only “talk” through art. As Theo leaves, he senses Jean-Felix loved Alicia’s art more than Alicia herself, noting that a man truly in love would not have abandoned her at the Grove.
Who Appears
- Theo FaberNarrator-therapist; examines Alicia’s paintings, probes her past, and questions Jean-Felix’s motives and memory.
- Jean-Felix MartinGallerist; shows Alicia’s works, claims she hated her father, can’t recall her doctor, urges letting her paint.
- Alicia BerensonSubject of the art; depicted in Alcestis with hidden maggots; painted Gabriel-as-Jesus and a cruel nude of Lydia.
- Gabriel BerensonAlicia’s murdered husband; appears in a pre-murder painting as a crucified Jesus with a rifle.
- Lydia RoseAlicia’s aunt; target of a humiliating nude portrait that signals Alicia’s hostility.