The one thing always presented as a work of beauty in this novel is art. Music, painting, dance, dress - they are all part of art. Carl can do beautiful things with his rap music; Claire finds beauty through writing poetry and encouraging her students to write poetry, and Kiki sees overwhelming beauty and inspiration in the art she loves. Even Howard Belsey, the great anti-Rembrandt lecturer, can't help but see something of beauty in Rembrandt's work. He ends the novel with a close-up of the woman Rembrandt loved, a close-up of her skin (one of those portraits is at right). Several of the characters also react strongly to music - such as Jerome's reaction to the concert, where he cried.Art, and the sincere, human efforts that go about creating art or allow people to be inspired, is beautiful.
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