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Suzanne Alkaitis
Lucas Alkaitis is the deceased older brother of Jonathan Alkaitis. Jonathan was only a child when Lucas died of a drug overdose, and the death affects him throughout his life. Lucas was a painter and knew Olivia Collins when they were both struggling artists in New York City in the 1950s, though neither liked each other very much. Shortly before Lucas’s death, he and Olivia pose for portraits for each other. Without Lucas’s permission, Olivia paints a portrait that exposes Lucas’s bruised arms (evidence of Lucas’s drug addiction), which infuriates Lucas when he sees it displayed at one of Olivia’s shows. It’s at this show that Olivia meets a young Jonathan Alkaitis. Forty years later, there’s a retrospective exhibition of 1950s artists, and Olivia’s portrait of Lucas sells for a large sum of money. Against all odds, Olivia ends up investing the money she earns from the sale with Jonathan Alkaitis, who is now a wealthy New York financier.
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Lucas Alkaitis Character Timeline in The Glass Hotel
The timeline below shows where the character Lucas Alkaitis appears in The Glass Hotel. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: Olivia
...1958, when Olivia is a young artist living in Manhattan. Olivia buzzes her way into Lucas’s studio by simply saying “it’s me,” into the buzzer. Lucas Alkaitis is an artist “on...
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When Olivia arrives at Lucas’s studio, she tells him she’d like to model for him. Lucas is pleased and offers...
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...studio painting her friend, Renata, who makes up ghost stories to pass the time. Suddenly, Lucas arrives at the studio, apparently having changed his mind about posing. Olivia finishes with Renata...
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Five months later, at the opening of Olivia’s show, Lucas corners her, irate, and calls her a “liar,” though, in only 10 months, he will...
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Lucas’s funeral was small, in Greenburgh, where his family lived. Olivia hadn’t known about his death...
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...some strange fateful connection, the man with whom Monica invests her savings is Jonathan Alkaitis, Lucas’s brother. Olivia tells Jonathan who she is when she calls him, and, to her surprise,...
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Chapter 12: The Counterlife
...of the ghosts he’s been forced to see. Why can he not see Suzanne or Lucas? Alkaitis realizes he’s in his counterlife more than he is in reality—that the world has...
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Alkaitis’s memory is from the last summer Lucas was alive, when Alkaitis was 14. Lucas had come home from the city to attend...
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