“The Preacher Collects” by Gail Levin felt very different from some of the other things we have read so far. The point of view is first person, and yet the narrator is telling things in such a way that it feels like it is from a third person point of view. The story is very surface level, and feels more like a catalog of events than a story that the reader can feel a part of. There is also very little to no dialogue between characters; the narrator only really focuses on when and what happened in the story. This creates even more disconnect for the reader and the story, making all the other characters feel very one-dimensional.
This does, however, say a lot about the narrator. Though he sees keeping the artwork ‘safe’ as a good thing, he is really stealing from a dying family and selling their things later on. He feels that he needs to be recognized for his efforts when he begins talking to the museum curator, even though she is right in the fact that he stole from the Hopper family. Much like the way the story is told, the narrator is very superficial and interested in what really matters to him. This even applies to noting the death dates of other characters; he is proud of the fact that he outlived everyone else and got the better end of the deal.
It almost gives me a feeling that the narrator is trying to keep us from finding out the truth. The story almost feels like a research article, but when you mentioned that the story is shallow it made me think. Maybe the writer was trying to be shallow? Maybe as if there was a deeper meaning to this painting and they hid behind facts about the artist?