The Soul Thief

Rating T+ Genre fiction Publisher Pantheon External Links Charles Baxter

I come away from The Soul Thief pleasantly frustrated. I don't know exactly how to explain it. I come away confused, but satisfied. I come away with the feeling that I missed something, but unsure if I really have. But mostly, I come away with having read a terrific novel by an author I was completely unfamiliar with before.

The Soul Thief follows the story of an unnamed protagonist, though he gives himself the name Nathaniel Mason. A graduate student, Nathaniel volunteers at the local charity mission, and finds himself in love with two women -- an attractive but not hyper-intelligent girl, and a lesbian artist who cares for him, just not in "that way." One night at a party, Nathaniel meets Jerome Coolberg, a young man as outrageous as his name would suggest. Coolberg comes off as strange, but harmless. Suddenly, though, things go missing from Nathaniel's apartment, and someone has been going around, telling stories from Nathaniel's life as if they were their own. The only suspect is Coolberg. The ultimate explanation for the question of who's leading whose life is answered, but this is where I find myself confused. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say it left me feeling, as I said, like I'd missed something.

Even if I felt that the ending was a huge flaw (I don't), the quality of the writing alone would redeem the book. Charles Baxter is a novelist in top form. He has a way with words that reads like an eloquent literary work without sounding too heavy-handed. And the novel is short, so even those somewhat afraid of the more literary side of things should have no problem breezing through the plot.

The characters are well-defined, but some of them are well-defined in their oddness, like one of Nathaniel's crushes, Theresa. She treats their relationship as if it's nothing too important (and in fact breaks off another relationship to begin hers with Nathaniel). She seems to cruise through life, just going with whatever pleases her at the moment. I don't know exactly what motivates her, but I want to. There are characters later in the story (who I won't mention in specifics, so as to avoid potential spoilers) that it might have been good to get to know a little better -- but then, when you realize how the book is written, what The Soul Thief really means, it makes sense that we don't learn as much about them -- only one or two big events.

I'm very happy to have read The Soul Thief. It's refreshing to read an unusual story that does not have to break the laws of nature in order to be unusual. Though I still feel like maybe I'm missing something, what I'm missing intrigues me, leaves with that happy sort of frustration that makes me want more.