Summer Book

Theo of Golden is not like other inspirational books about the wisdom of elderly people, like 1997’s Tuesdays with Morrie. Theo

has a plot. The story follows Mr. Theo, an 86-year-old man who uses only his first name, through a year in a Southern town called Golden. Theo moves to Golden without knowing a single soul there, and spends the year buying up portraits of its residents done by a local artist and gifting them to their subjects. In this way, he creates a network of friends with enviable quickness.

First, Theo sends a portrait’s subject a handwritten letter on fine paper, promising that he’s “a harmless old man, a widower, a father, a toothless lion with only innocent intentions.” When they come to the prearranged meeting place, they meet a “spry, bright-eyed soul.” (Theo, Levi emphasizes, is not a “relic” or “frail,” despite his age; rather, he’s a “young old” with “vigor” who rents an apartment with three flights of stairs that he loves to climb, even with suitcases.) Through his total, sincere interest and genuine presence, Theo, like a freelance therapist or a wandering priest, guides the portrait subjects into conversation. In the fall of his year in Golden, when Theo pauses his portrait “bestowals” due to weather, he reflects on his experience so far: “All forty-three recipients had been told they were capable of saintliness … All had been given a description of what Theo ‘saw’ when he studied their faces in the frame. Almost all were, or seemed to be, grateful for his generosity and equally grateful that someone wanted to hear their story.”