Steel Toes [Paperback]

Eddie Little (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: L.A. Weekly Books; 1St Edition edition (2001)
• ASIN: B000OTK3JA
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Little loves to break your heart, June 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Steel Toes: A Novel (Paperback)

The late great Eddie Little follows his born-to-lose autobiographical character Bobby Prine to prison and on to further escapades with Syd, Ben, and Billy Bones from Another Day in Paradise. If you liked the former you'll find this a respectable follow-up. Little sketches out his underworld characters, not as fully developed as in Another Day in Paradise, which is the superior book, but still draws you in until you start to care about his adopted family of thieves and junkies. As before, he pulls no punches and makes no excuses for his characters behaviour; it's an unflinching, unapologetic revelation of their world. He demonstrates how their addictions, fears, insecurities, and violent coping mechanisms, constantly undermine their intentions, even their better ones. What I liked about Little's writing was this ability to articulate the root causes of crime and addiction: abuse, ignorance, and the eternal cycle of violence, without his characters being victims of anything other than their own choices. He gets in his licks, makes a few points about thrill seeking and the dangers of addiction, but always with his eyes wide open, and with redemption just out of reach, for Bobby Prine, and it most unfortunately seems, for Eddie Little himself.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the last, and that's saying plenty, March 5, 2002

By 

Crime Guy (Mobile AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steel Toes: A Novel (Hardcover)

No kidding, Eddie's first [Another Day in Paradise] is fantastic. Having said that, I think his latest is even better. The voice is more refined, where it's still all tough, but with more focus. And I found a lot more hope in this one. Rock on, Eddie!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Steel Toes showcases Little's development, January 20, 2002

By 

Eric Evans (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steel Toes: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you liked Another Day in Paradise, then Steel Toes is a must-read. Eddie Little is a modern day Beat writer who takes on gritty reality and serves it up raw. This guy writes from the heart, his tales are gripping, intense, and they take one into an underworld that few have experienced. I found the characters in this novel more developed and more real than in the first novel; particularly enthralling is the portrayal of the hit men in Steel Toes. As homicidal maniacs who profit from their sickness, the hit men come to life as real people, carrying the weight of the sickness but also capable of human emotions, love, friendship, while still you know in the back of your head that they make their living by taking the lives of others. An awesome experience to look inside their lives and that of the other characters in Steel Toes. I've no doubt that Eddie Little shaped these characters from real-life acquaintances, the characters are too compelling, too deep to have been concocted from his imagination. My only complaint is that Eddie Little can't write novels as fast as I can read them!