Summary

The Painter is the Peter Heller's second novel, which follows the struggles of artist and fisherman Jim Stegner. The story begins four months after Stegner's purchase of a retreat home in western Colorado where he hopes to find peace and paint.

Book One is introduced with the basic artist's catalog description of a painting: "Mayhem," oil on linen, 40 x 50 inches, collection of the artist." There are then several first-person statements of life situations the un-named narrator "never imagined," contrasting childhood expectations versus what he ended up becoming. He never thought he'd shoot a man, or be a father, or be a painter. He then goes on to contrast himself with his father, who was a logger, and very gentle. He never imagined his daughter would be so much like his mother, whom she never met.

The narrator remembers an afternoon at...