Woman on Fire

“Lesson one: It’s not about the attack–it’s about the people. Readers don’t want stats; they want faces.”

This quote reflects one of the first of many “rules” of journalism that Dan conveys to Jules, but it also has metafictional qualities. The sentence could be changed to, “Readers don’t want stats about Nazi-looted art, they want characters with whom they can sympathize and empathize to learn about it.” Thus, in a way, the narrator is setting out the goal of the novel through the dialogue of one of its characters.

“Stealing from someone who stole the art is not a crime but payback.”

This quote represents perhaps one of the trickiest aspects of Ownership Rights and Nazi-Looted Art. It corresponds with the age-old philosophical conundrum of whether stealing from a thief is still considered stealing. It is not a question with any discernible answer, but the novel takes that problem and attempts to show one possible solution from many.

“Even though she saw that degenerate art exhibit at thirteen years old with her mother, she now fully comprehends the sheer magnitude of the Nazis’ relentless mission to destroy the avant-garde, particularly painters.”

This quote represents the introduction to one of the novel’s primary themes, which is Ownership Rights and with Nazi-Looted Art. Jules’s statement extends to the public in that many are familiar with the notion of Nazi-looted art, but the extent to which the Nazis stole and sold artwork. The novel attempts to shed light on that extent through its use of characters paralleling real-life events.