I loved hearing responses from my friends when I told them the title of the story I was reading was "Nipple Jesus." Even a fictional story about a picture of Christ made of boobs gets people talking.
It took me a little while to understand the reasoning behind the creation of the picture. After understanding that it was meant as a provocation piece, I realized that Hornby is really doing the same thing to the reader. Think about it: If you proposed this type of art to anyone you are bound to get some kind of reaction, negative or positive. I think that Hornby did a really great job of showing that art is what you make of it (through Dave's perspective) and that no matter what you create, someone else is going to hate it. Think of Dave's feelings on the onion at the end, it might not be as controversial but he still has strong disdain for it.
The ending was kind of anti-climatic and I was disappointed. We got the reaction from the people, resulting in a smashed portrait of Nipple Jesus but then there was confrontation between Dave and Martha that ended with Dave showing no more interest on the topic. This might be Hornby's way of showing that controversy over provocative art dies down after time but it didn't play into his beginning theme of wanting the rise out of others.
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