Art

Throughout the novel, Makkai makes references to art, which are held up as examples of how art can both document a crisis and memorialize its victims. In this case, art--in the form of photography, art exhibits, and paintings--remind viewers of the lives of their creators and subjects, who would otherwise be forgotten and lost. The principle examples of these art forms include Richard’s photographs of the boys, the video installation at the end of the novel, and Ranko Novak’s paintings.

By including Richard Campo, a character who eventually becomes a famous photographer and artist, Makkai calls attention to the role that photography and the production of art can play in recalling and re-animating the past. Richard Campo’s presence in the novel means that there is constant documentation of what the group of friends were doing and what they were like in the 1980s...