I Want to Be Theo When I Grow Up
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It seems that people either love or hate this book and I fall in the first camp. I read it and listened to it and am listening to it a second time. Basically, I want to be Theo when I grow up and I am trying to be a kinder person in the aftermath of reading this beautiful fiction.
The basic story is this: A very refined eighty-six-year-old gentleman comes to Golden, Georgia. His name is Theo. Part of his mystique is that he never shares a last name, nor does he elaborate on his reason for being there.
On his first full day in town, he discovers a room full of portraits on display at a local coffee shop, The Chalice. There are ninety-two of them, done in pencil on white paper and framed in black. They are the images of various citizens of Golden all drawn by a local artist. The name of the citizen is penciled in on the back of the frame.
Theo gets the idea to purchase the portraits – one by one – and gift them to the named person. Well, actually, he doesn’t “gift” them as much as he bestows them upon the person after inviting them in a hand-written letter to meet him at 7:00 on a specified evening. The location is very public to make meeting up with a stranger less threatening. They rendezvous out of doors, on a bench beside a fountain, in a busy location near The Chalice.
Theo says in his letter that it will only take a moment to give them the portrait, but that he will have plenty of time to visit if they would like to do so. And in this manner, through the bestowals, he begins to meet, learn all about, and befriend the people of Golden.
I love books in which an odd cast of characters come together to become a family of sorts and that is exactly what happens here. The coffee house owner, the portrait artist, a homeless woman, a janitor and his young daughter, a bookstore owner, an unhappy accountant, an up-and-coming cellist, and a couple others all become part of Theo’s inner circle, his Golden family.
And speaking of loving a book, it was on the second bestowal to a bartender named Junior Perryman that Theo learned a bit of local history and lore. Junior explained that the fountain at which they sat had a nickname. Since the late 1800’s it had been called the Fedder. As Junior told the origin story of the nickname, I fell in love with this book.
Enough said. I won’t give you more details about the Fedder, or about Theo’s last name, or about why he has chosen to come to Golden. Instead, I will give you the pleasure of having this lovely story unfold on its own as you read it.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and that like me, you feel changed for having read it.
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Click here to learn more about Theo of Golden on Amazon.
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If you like my writing, I hope you will check out my new book, Chai on Life. It contains 36 slice-of-life stories ranging in topics from belly fat to Billy Joel. It is available wherever books are sold and on Amazon. There is even a companion journal for you to write the stories of your life.
Chai on Life is available in 3 formats: Hard Back, Kindle, and AudioBook.
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And one last thing! Amazon has named me an Influencer (!!!!) and invited me to open a Storefront. You will find lots of my favorite things there including fun gifts for people who love to read. Check it out!
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