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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pales,
By A Customer
This review is from: A World of Thieves: A Novel (Hardcover)
As a big fan of Blake I was surely disappointed that he's covering the same ground as in the past and covered it better in the past. The same relationships exist between the characters, their careers and their women as in Red Grass River. The action passages offer some bright spots (loved the prison break), but they appear between cliche scenes and his desire to show you he's done his homework on all things 1920's (the egg in the radiator, song titles, ginger jake etc.) but what bothers me most is this piece just doesn't seem to have any soul. Here's to hoping the next one has some.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sadly, this one disappoints,
By
This review is from: A World of Thieves: A Novel (Hardcover)
I'm a big James Carlos Blake fan and it is painful to have to give A World of Thieves a mixed review. If this book had been written by another author and I had not read Red Grass River, I certainly would be singing the praises of this book. However, I know that Blake can do much better and really all he has done with this book is rewrite Red Grass River, moving the setting from the Everglades to Angola Prison in Louisianna and West Texas.If you are new to Blake, do yourself a favor and read Red Grass River or In the Rogue Blood and wait until this one comes out in paperback. I think Blake does a tremendous job in recreating the underbelly of past American eras. His characters tend to be people living on the edge, pushed to violence by the forces of society. Rugged individualists. People who will kill savagely without missing a beat. But also people who have a tender heart towards their families and even complete strangers. One minute the protagonist is holding up a mom and pop grocery--the next he is helping an old man change a tire along the side of a hot dusty Texas highway. There are no easy answers or platitudes in Blake's books. Violence usually begets violence. And if you need happy, conventional endings, look elsewhere. But if you like to turn over a rock and see what's crawling underneath, then I can highly recommend Blake's work.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A swashbuckler set in the late '20's,
By
This review is from: A World of Thieves: A Novel (Hardcover)
Instead of horses, they use cars and instead of swords, they have guns, but this picaresque novel harkens back to the swashbucklers of the past. It is a tale of a young man, his twin uncles and their life as armed robbers in the southwest of the 1920's. All of the characters are interesting: the youthful protagonist Sonny with worldliness that belies his years and whose "nature" makes him an armed robber; the twins Russell and Buck who served honorably in the Great War, but chose robbery for the thrills (and the money); the women, whores, molls and accomplices; the "professional" criminals; and the implacable, violent pursuer. Some of these are stock characters, the criminals are all rather likeable and the prison guards sadistic, but the author handles then with a deftness that is never dull. The book is full of period touches and is probably an accurate picture of the time and place. The only shame is that the heroes are criminals whose activities cost innocent people their lives. There is no justification for the crimes other than that it is what the La Salle boys want to do and that it is easier than working for the things they want. As one character opines, "Robbery is supposed to be risky. Otherwise everyone would do it." Sonny, Buck and Russell are charming, brave and funny, but they ARE criminals not noble fighters against tyranny. But, hey, it's a novel not a social science tract. This is a book meant for film and the scriptwriters wouldn't need to change a thing. It was an enjoyable read, full of great scenes, memorable if not admirable characters, an evocation of a brief turbulent and violent time now quickly fading from memory. Well done, Mr. Blake!
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