Wish You Were Here

Art as a recurring motif is used to support more than one theme that the book addresses. The story begins with an anecdote of Diana and her father painting a ceiling, and this establishes the parabolic trajectory that the story will eventually take. Similarly, the theme of adaptation and evolution for survival is highlighted by art in multiple places. In pre-pandemic New York, Diana works at Sotheby’s, where art is how she earns a living. Similarly, on Isabela, art helps her survive; she bonds with Beatriz by making and talking about art together, and she uses her skill for portraiture to barter and procure resources at the local market. Once back in New York, a changed Diana eventually moves into the practice of art therapy.

Art is further used to serve the theme of love through the history of the fictional Toulouse-Latrec painting. From its creation to its latest owner, it follows a trail of lovers who come together despite unconventional circumstances and eventually tragic endings; its provenance is that of “devotion so fierce, it scorches the earth with tragedy and lays waste to those who experience it” (102). This is mirrored in the many romantic relationships in the book—Gabriel and Luz, Beatriz and Ana Maria, Gabriel, and Diana, and eventually Diana and Finn as well.

Specific objects of art also serve as important points of connection in the different non-romantic relationships in the story. Diana’s letters on postcards help forge an initial bond with Beatriz, as the girl offers to post them for Diana. The Toulouse-Latrec painting is what brings Diana and Kitomi together, and Kitomi’s eventual decision to not sell it also symbolically closes the door on Diana’s future in the art business. Finally, it is a photograph that initially serves as a singular happy memory that Diana has of her mother from her childhood, and which eventually helps Diana understand the place that she held in her mother’s life after all.