Customer Reviews

The Good Thief

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(69)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've always had a soft spot for literature and films that deal with orphans on grand adventures (film-wise my favorites are probably The Devil's Backbone and The City of Lost Children) and "The Good Thief" is definitely on par with the best of the best in the genre. Our hero is Ren, a fairly withdrawn orphan who is missing his left hand- he's not aware of how- who longs for a caring family of his own. His life in a Catholic orphanage/monastery is not easy, as expected, but also not tragic. It would be easy for the author to make it a maudlin tale of a young deformed boy under the rule of abusive priests- instead Tinti paints every character with empathy along with pathos.

When a young man named Benjamin arrives at the orphanage and picks Ren out of a line-up with a story of them being brothers, Ren's hope overrules his suspicions. Benjamin weaves a tale of a father who lived a high adventure and the tragic (but exciting) circumstances that took their parents away. However, Ren quickly discovers Benjamin is a skilled liar, and instead of being taken to a warm homestead they quickly fall into a pattern of theft, law breaking and compulsive lies.

From page one the story pulled me in with an almost old-fashioned kind of storytelling. Every character is deeply flawed but never wholly a villian, and the way Ren is almost immediately surrounded by a motley cast of characters feels natural. Everytime some awful event happened to Ren I was torn between wanting to cry out "Oh c'mon, give the kid a break!" and turning the pages even faster to find out how he'd use his bravery and natural intelligence to survive it.

There are twists to the story, twists that felt like the weird machinations in life rather than manipulated fictional climaxes. Tinti leaves no loose ends, but every small ending felt natural and earned. The book has been compared to Dickens and I think that's a fair comparison, though Tinti has found a beautiful way of using centuries of storytelling to weave a tale that somehow feels both comfortably worn and very modern and unique. For those who enjoy well-told tales and dark adventures with a big, beating heart in the center- I can't recommend "The Good Thief" enough.

12-year old Ren lives at an orphanage in what is likely New England in a undefined 19th-century time period probably before the Civil War. Like most of the boys at the orphanage, Ren was abandoned as a baby. The only trace of his heritage are the clothes in which he was wrapped, the collar of which bore the initials R.E.N - hence his name. Adding to the mystery is the fact that he is missing a hand.

It's easy enough to "adopt" the boys -- money changing hands and a somewhat convincing story is enough for the Brothers who run the place -- but Ren's missing hand has kept him from finding the home he desperately wants until a young man named Benjamin Nab, who claims to be his long-lost brother, whisks him away.

But Nab is a con man, not Ren's brother at all. The missing hand first becomes a means by which Nab and his partner Tom can fleece the well-meaning and unsuspecting. Despite his good heart, however, Ren's time in the hardscrabble orphanage has also made him a good thief. He becomes a willing accomplice in Benjamin and Tom's increasingly desperate schemes until he meets two people who help him redefine the meaning of "family."

"The Good Thief" is a beautifully written book, lyrical in parts. Tinti does a fine job describing just how hard life could be for the poor and dispossessed, children especially. The smallest things - a shiny rock, a long-broken toy, a book - take on huge meaning for Ren and so for us. There is a lot to like in the way the book is written.

What makes "The Good Thief" disappointing is its ultimately farfetched plot. Like "Smilla's Sense of Snow" for example, "Thief" is wonderfully set up in the first half, only to careen out of control towards the end. A bizarre villain in a company town run amock rob Ren - and the reader - of what could have been a very satisfying and thoughtful ending.

I was initially intrigued by the premise of The Good Thief; an orphan with a missing hand, a mysterious past, and an historical New England setting seemed like a solid combination. At first, I thought I'd found a solid first novel, and one that had a lot to offer the over-crowded young adult fiction section.

But The Good Thief isn't a young adult novel - or is it? I waffled back and forth between the evidence: a simplistic, almost fable-like writing style, a young child protagonist, and a bit of adventure and even mysticism thrown in suggested that this book would be best enjoyed by the YA crowd. Suggestive content and a lack of character development (strong characters are often the strength of YA novels) and a convoluted plot suggest otherwise. Frankly, it's as though Tinti simply couldn't make up her mind as to what kind of novel she wanted to write, and her editors did her a serious disservice by not guiding her onto one path or the other. This would have been a perfectly delightful YA book, but some of Tinti's choices make it seem like she was deliberately avoiding that path, and the story really suffers for it.

Perhaps most perplexing is the plot; at times bordering on random, readers may sense Tinti's desire to branch into magical realism, but she's never brave enough to fully make the plunge. She makes a few historical errors (e.g., twins weren't killed in 1800's New England, and tarring and feathering was often fatal and typically disfiguring), and her setting never feels quite believable. One gets the sense that the fault is not so much with the novelist, but with the editor; some guidance here and there would have made this a much tighter novel, and eliminated distracting errors.

Tinti is not only working with rich material ("resurrection men" and orphans are just plain fun to read about), but she also delves into more heady subjects, like what it means to be good. If you suspend your disbelief and power through when the plot starts to feel a bit over the top, there's enough talent and ability here to make for a fun read.

I didn't enjoy this book. I was reading it for a book club, so I finished it, but it was with only mild interest.

This novel recounts the wandering of a group of semi-successful thieves as they beg, cheat, borrow, and steal their way through 19th century New England. Ren, the crippled boy hero, is saved from the orphanage by a con artist, Benjamin, claiming to be his relative. Ren quickly discovers Benjamin's story is a sham, but he doesn't really care. They meet up with more thieves, crazy dentists, assassins, and grave-robbing doctors as they settle into an old mining town with a sinister factory. The story meanders along from there.

This book succeeds wildly at being a picaresque novel: good-natured low-lifes journeying through the dregs of society, getting by on their wits, encountering bizarre people, and having strange adventures. Picaresque. But that very quality betrays the author's beginnings in short story writing. The novel reads like a short story - a bunch of disparate tales collected together with the thin threads of a vague theme. The story wanders aimlessly. That seems to be the point, until it is loosely tied together at the climax of the book. Most novels have at least a tenuous structure or sketch to guide the reader along on a narrative path. This book doesn't.

You may be thinking, "Well, that's great, it's a book that keeps you guessing, keeps you reading!" Unfortunately, the book only seems to keep you guessing because the author too was unsure of where it was all going. The book has a climax by virtue only of the author's desire to be finished.

The characterization was sketchy, and the characters only mildly likable. I'm sure the author was going for 'quirky', but what we got were vaguely outline shadows of people. Fill-in-the-blank reading.

All-in-all, this novel was bland and inoffensive, shallow and uncomplicated. It's hard to have strong feelings about it either way, because it did not endeavor to arouse any feelings from its reader. It's also difficult to guess at what age group this was aimed. At times the tale reads like a children's adventure story. At others, the author is describing penises (I stopped counting after 3). The lack of defined audience doesn't make it 'timeless' or 'a grand adventure for all ages'. It is merely further indication of the novel's indecisiveness. Skip it and find something with more depth.

It only takes a few points to make a novel worth reading... characters you care about, a well-described setting, and some kind of interesting conflict. Unfortunately, "The Good Thief" has none of these. The characters are poorly developed and I assume we are supposed to develop sympathy for them because of their missing hand or their "harelip" (an offensive term the author continually uses to describe one character). The setting is confused as it isn't clear when the story takes place. We are told that shotguns are common which would place it in the period after the Civil War but one character is described as being a member of the American Society of Dental Surgeons, an organization the ceased to exist in 1856. But another character is described as wearing a powdered wig which would place it even earlier. The idea that orphans who are not adopted are drafted into an army where they have little future seems even more absurd for anytime in 19th century New England outside of the Civil War. But the greatest defect is that nothing really happens. The characters wander around a poorly described New England and occasionally steal something.

There is a basis for a good story somewhere in the book. The idea of an orphan being adopted by a con-man, thief in order to help him steal is not a bad idea for a story. But this book simply fails to make anything out of the story. The writing simply lacks the excitement or even the descriptive language that could take this story somewhere. Perhaps I am not the target audience for this book but I found it a difficult struggle to get through and can not recommend it.

What I enjoyed about The Good Thief is the author's ability to create imaginative and interesting characters, and an extraordinary plot to match. This book reminded me of kind of a dark fairy tale of some sort; it seems to have the tone of a simple tale, but there are some strong situations (violence, robberies, etc) that might make this hard to market as a young adult's book. Maybe it falls somewhere in between young adult and adult.

While Tinti is simple in her prose, she has a masterful ability at storytelling, and creating interest in our young protagonist, Ren, who lives as an orphan at a monastery until a stranger named Benjamin Nab comes and takes him. Benjamin is a master con man, and can weave a tall tale with the best of the many thieves and liars that Ren meets. While Ren longs for a family, and to know his family's identity, he seems to be cut out for the world that Benjamin leads him into--a world with murderers, thieves, double-crossers and cut-throats. Not to say Ren has those characteristics, but he seems to like the thrill the many escapades and adventures that his "brother" leads him into. Still, Ren seems to have a good head on his shoulders, and remembers his upbringing from the brothers at the church. Benjamin takes him to meet his partner in crime, Tom, a former school teacher who has a taste for liquor and petty crime. From here, the three have many an adventure, digging up bodies for money, scamming people for money, and finding means to live. What is interesting about Benjamin and Tom is that while they are common criminals, they seem to have their limits, and they do have compassion for Ren. Eventually the trio meets up with Dolly, an admitted killer, who forms an odd friendship with young Ren. On one of their scam jobs, they meet Mrs. Sands, a paternal figure to Ren, but someone who has the bold personality to deal with the likes of Benjamin and Tom. Eventually, the team of robbers find themselves on the wrong side of their grave digging schemes, and from here there is a desperate attempt at escape, with even more shady and ruthless characters along the way.

This is a fun read, something that has elements of fantasy and adventure in it. Eccentric characters make this an interesting read. If there is one part I didn't care for, it was that the ending seemed a little rushed. I think a little more could have been added; it seemed like the story just ended without some questions answered. Still, it is an exhilarating story to read, with Ren having the similarities of a Huckleberry Finn, and the tale having a modern day Robert Louis Stevenson feel to it. It is a quick, easy read, and, while its story might be a little dark, it will still have you engaged from beginning to end.

THE GOOD THIEF -- AMAZON VINE PROGRAM

I truly wanted to like this book -- and I did, to a certain degree. And, please, make that 2.5 stars!!!!

The plot was good -- an eleven year old, one handed boy, Ren, grows up in a Catholic orphanage. He doesn't remember any of his past, where he came from, how he lost his hand, any people.

He gets released into the custody of Benjamin Nab who is a con-artist, thief, liar, grave robber. The adventures begin with a cast of characters from all walks of life.

At first I thought this would also be a good book for young adults, especially boys. The further I got into the book I changed my mind! The book dealt with grave robbing, extracting teeth from the dead, all sorts of ghoulish things! Well, now that I think about it, boys would probably LOVE that! However, all of the just mentioned did fit into the story line and worked for the book.

I found I was skimming the book, not really caring much about the characters or what happened to them. I felt as if something was missing and I kept on reading, hoping I would find that missing jewel but alas! I never did!

I think the plot was good, but went nowhere. This seemed to be a merry-go-round of constant repeated chases in grave yards, alleys, factories.

Ren was a good character, full of good will and kindness even though his life hadn't been such a great one. He was wise beyond his years and seemed very street smart for living such a sheltered life under the influence of priests in an orphanage.

I think this book is in a special genre. While it was good writing, was a good plot, I personally could not get into the book as I had hoped I would. Ms. Tinti is a good author and I will check out any further books from her. There are plenty of other reviewers who loved the book, so this is just probably me and just not a book up my alley. Check it out, as you may love it as others have.

Thank you.

Pam

I really wanted to like this book. I was intrigued by the reviews and open to the experience.

I read this book over the course of two days, and was very disconcerted by it's unrelenting ugliness, despair, hopelessness, and horror. Despite the cover and the fact that the protagonist is a child, please be aware that this book is NOT appropriate for kids (unless you want your kids to read a vile scene in which a character cuts off a man's hand and then uses it to eat soup with while Ren--who has an amputated hand-- watches helplessly, characters who dig up and sell rotting corpses, and a cover-to-cover parade of pointless cruelty and ugliness). Need more reason not to read this book to your kids? You may not want to have to explain the incest reference, or what Benjamin means when he says that he put his hands under the skirts of BOTH elderly Mrs. Sands and a teen girl "to make them happy" (after 12 year old Ren witnesses these events). Ren comes to consider a completely remorseless killer (of dozens of people by the end of the book) a friend, simply because he has absolutely noone he can trust (the killer, incidentally, is dug up after having been buried alive-- an example of the endless convoluted and improbable horrifying details in the book). I am pretty appalled that anyone would think this is an appropriate book to read to or give a child.

Most of the characters in this book are BOTH utterly unbelievable and extremely unpleasant (although to be fair, some are only unbelievable OR unpleasant). Almost all of the characters are in a state of extreme moral decay-- the author paints a world of chronic cruelty, widespread lack of caring or empathy for others, and real horror and helplessness. Many characters with disabilities are little more than caricatures who disparaged, devalued, and belittled by the author (a deaf woman who screams every word, a dwarf who is helpless, a girl with a harelip who is considered unloveable). I question whether or not the author has ever even met a deaf person, after the ridiculous portrait she paints of Mrs. Sands. The main character is also consistently devalued and even treated as worthless due to his amputated hand. Little of this is in service of historical accuracy; instead, it feels like a carnival of stereotypes thrown together haphazardly for effect.

I am an open-minded person who loves all sorts of books. But I found this book to be grindingly, grindingly depressing and pointless. I kept reading in the hope that it would somehow improve/that there would be a point to all the awful stuff. In the final pages a twist "explains" a bit, and we have a small amount of hope that a few of the characters may have improved circumstances in their futures. But overall I felt almost abused by the author-- I can't find a better way to put how I felt after finishing it. This book had so much potential, but the constant sick (sometimes stomach-churning) twists and overall nihilism destroyed it for me.

****Those who have read the book will understand me when I say that the fate of the horse sums up this book in a nutshell for me. Pointless cruelty, ugliness, and pain.

I'm torn by this book. It was a fun read, but good heavens, I expected more. Sadly, I think the over-the-top praise by such luminaries as Junot Diaz and Dan Chaon do the book no favors. They simply raise the reader's expectations beyond the novel's capacity.

Here's the problem: the narrative is entertaining--(a bit Dickens, a bit Robert Louis Stevenson, although in flavor only, the quality does not withstand comparison)--but the ending is far too contrived and tidy, too neat by far for there to be any real resonance; and the characters are too predictable and even, dare I say, stereotypical. I understand this sort of thing worked nicely for Mr. Dickens, but times have changed and frankly, it feels imitative and unsatisfying here, at least to this reader.

As well, the writing needed a good editor...for example, the prose is bogged down by far too many connecting verbs: "....and a tin that was labeled Molasses." "The small man chose a jar that was yellowish orange." These two examples are in consecutive sentences on a page I picked at random. Couldn't any decent editor have changed these to "...a tin labeled Molasses." and "The small man chose a yellowish orange jar." This sort of sloppy writing kept snapping me out of the story. Similarly, one character shouts all her dialogue and we are ever-reminded of this because every word she utters IS RENDERED IN CAPS. It become tiresome quickly, as does the (only) character who speaks in phonetics, e.g. "They musta done it fah warmth, she kept saying. They musta found each othah, in tha dahk." It makes the prose sound amateurish, and really, I think Ms. Tinti is a better writer than she's exhibiting here.

For all these, perhaps overly critical nitpicks, I repeat that I found the book entertaining. The perfect novel for an afternoon in the hammock. So enjoy, by all means, and perhaps, like me, you'll look forward to seeing what Ms. Tinti does next. There's enormous potential here.

I picked this book up randomly at the library and devoured it. There was not a dull page within and not one wasted word - a fault in which too many authors engage. The setting and time was well defined with action rather than endless description. The characters were rich and the outrageous events within the story were well presented in a believable way. This action packed adventure is a must read for anyone, young or old, who likes a good story. And who doesn't?