I don't mind telling you, protagonists who do risky things always make me uneasy, although without their foolish behavior there'd probably be no story. In her debut novel, Sara Read takes her title character — Johanna Porter, divorced mom — and turns her into an art thief. At a party at a gallery, Johanna boldly, blatantly slices a portrait out of a frame, rolls it up and walks away.
That contraband portrait reverberates through the rest of the novel, impossible to forget, not allowing the reader to relax.
Johanna was once an artist, lauded and successful. As a young woman, she fell into a romance with a much older artist, who used her as his model and muse and who, when she left him, torpedoed her career. The party that she attends is for him; the portrait that she steals is of herself. You can hardly blame her, even as you are silently begging her to bring it back. No good can come of this.
"Johanna Porter Is Not Sorry" is not exactly a romcom — there's rom but not much com; it's a fast read with a strong message about women learning to stand on their own, and powerful men who do as they please. A side thread about a character grappling with addiction is less satisfying and probably not necessary. But that might just be because we are busy watching Johanna fall in love, begin to paint again and start to get her life together — but all the while that portrait is rolled up, hidden, pulsating away like Poe's telltale heart.
Laurie Hertzel is the Star Tribune's senior editor for books.
Johanna Porter Is Not Sorry
By: Sara Read.
Publisher: Graydon House, 320 pages, $17.99.
