Caught Stealing: A Novel by Charlie Huston
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Book Reviews of Caught Stealing: A Novel
Book Review: Will Leave The Reader Gasping For Air At Times!
Summary: 5 Stars
Charlie Huston is the real deal! If you have not yet discovered him and are attracted to dark, urban noirish, brutally violent novels, then run, don't walk, and secure a Charlie Huston novel. I have read all the Joe Pitt vampire series and have gone back to read the Hank Thompson trilogy which begins with "Caught Stealing." As I have said in previous reviews, Huston is not the easiest author to follow as he writes in a stream of consciousness prose style that does not include who is saying what nor does he use quotation marks. But his stylings are innovative and addictive, his dialogue is highly charged and believable, and he builds characters that you can "see" on the pages. While violence surrounds his characters, it flows from the storyline and is believable and appropriate for the plot and the pacing.
In "Caught Stealing," Hank Thompson is a low profile "everyman" currently serving a stint as a bartender while fighting his own personal demons, including alcohol. He agrees to baby sit his neighbor's cat which opens the door to a series of misadventures that will boggle the reader's mind. Two groups of miscreants are seeking a huge sum of money that Hank's neighbor stole from them. They have reason to believe Hank knows where it is or has access to it. Ultimately the two groups unite, then fragment again as they collectively and individually seek the huge payroll they think Hank has hidden. Hank eventually discovers the "key" to the mess he is in but cannot seem to discover a safe way to extricate himself from the violence prone thugs, including a crooked cop, who are hot on his tail.
Hank has to be the hard luck loser of the year in literature as everything that can go wrong for him, usually does. In short order, he is beaten so severely that a kidney is removed, kidnapped, beaten and threatened again, discovered his girlfriend tortured and murdered, and soon sees most of his remaining friends and acquaintances shot and killed in a killing spree in a local bar gone bad. There are times when this reader was so deeply engrossed in the pain, torment, and suffering Hank was undergoing that I had to stop and put the book down to catch my breath. Equally, the chase scenes and Hank's recurring bad luck will leave the reader gasping for some respite for the poor guy.
I have now read two of the Hank Thompson novels and all the Joe Pitt novels and I can say that Charlie Huston is an author that is now on my must read list. I unequivocally recommend his work to fans of this literary sub genre.
Book Review: RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "AN ONSLAUGHT OF GUTTURAL VISCERAL WRITING!"
Summary: 5 Stars
There are two main areas I want to cover in this review: The first is the author's writing style, and the second is a review of the story.
Charlie Huston writes like an army machine gunner on speed, using words instead of bullets, and his gun is locked on automatic! His non-stop flurry of words, become sentences, become paragraphs, become pages, without you even realizing that time has passed and many pages have been turned. The excitement and impact of his "street-fighter's" jargon cuts to the bone in burgeoning streams of of unrelenting consciousness. WOW!!! I recommend getting your blood pressure checked after reading one of his books!
Now as far as the story goes, the main character is Henry "call me Hank" Thompson. Before Hank's life became ensconced in the bowels of New York in a deadly "cat" and mouse game of intrigue, he grew up in Northern California, and was a Little League and high school baseball player of great renown, with each of his games being watched by Major League scouts. The scuttlebutt was that Hank would skip college and go right to the pro's. But then in a regional championship game while attempting to steal third base, he had a messy collision with the third baseman, that resulted in a bone in Hank's leg sticking straight out from his calf. The pins they stuck in his fibula restricted growth in the bone, and no one even pretended he would ever play again.
From there his life took him to New York, where he wound up being a bartender with a drinking problem (That's the worst kind of bartender to be!) and things went downhill from there. Hank accepted that station in life, and felt things couldn't get any worse, until one day a neighbor was going out of town and asked him to watch his cat. That simple act of human kindness, led to the following: Hank getting beat to an inch of his life by two Russian-like musclemen, having a kidney removed, having two black cowboys kidnap him and threaten to kill him, have a red-headed Asian torture him, have crooked cops try to kill him, and much, much, more... all at a "warp-speed" machine gun like pace, that doesn't stop! I don't want to give anything else away, so if your Doctor says your blood pressure can take it... Buy the book!
Book Review: This Cat Has Nine Lives
Summary: 5 Stars
I didn't know what I was getting into when I picked up this book. The title, "Caught Stealing," at first suggested a crime story; however, it was immediately clear that the subject of baseball is the string that gets the main character, Hank, through what is an extremely rough ten days in late September, 2000. And yes, there is crime involved. A lot of crime.
This story is VERY well written. The writing is straightforward, conversational and quick. Even without the use of quotation marks or dialog attributions, I had no trouble following it. The writing is what got me to sit through seemingly endless gratuitous violence and the prolific use of the "f-word," (which actually doesn't bother me). I believed this is indeed how each of the characters, Hank, his shaky neighbor, the rotten cop, all the thugs, and Hank's co-horts at the bar where he worked until the first beating got the best of him, spoke this way. In other words, the use of voice is dead-on. Audible. Further, it made me glad I don't hang around in such circles. I don't think Hank ever expected to find himself in this situation either, which makes him all the more likable. We sympathize with him from the start because of his lost dream of being a major league baseball player and then, because of the death of his friend, who died in a car accident when Hank was behind the wheel. It also doesn't hurt that he continually checks in with his parents. In spite of the reeking, bleeding, killing character he becomes, Charlie Huston has the reader rooting for him until the end.
The baseball theme--and a fan's addiction to `his' team--is a clever ploy. (It ties in nicely with Hank's addiction to alcohol.) Bottom line: I simply had to keep turning pages to find out Hank's next move and whether or not his "adopted" cat, Bud, would make it through the ordeal as well. Ultimately, it seems the cat gets the most respect.
Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.
Book Review: Heir to Jim Thompson
Summary: 5 Stars
If you liked Jim Thompson's "The Killer Inside Me" and wondered where the heirs are, Charlie Huston's your man. "Caught Stealing" is the awesome start of an awesome pulp/noir trilogy starring Hank Thompson (hmm, "Thompson," coincidence?)
I actually read these books in the wrong order, stumbling across "A Dangerous Man" first and liking it so well that I sought out the first two. For maximum reading enjoyment, start with "Caught Stealing," then "Six Bad Things," then "A Dangerous Man." Though "Six ..." is the weaker of the three, it's to Huston's credit that he sustains the thing through three books and kept this reader wanting more all the way through. The books are a train ride: Once you get on, you do not want to get off, and it's best to have several hours set aside, such as a long flight, because once you start with Huston you're not going to want to stop. He's that good.
The books are liberally -- and I do mean liberally -- spiced with profanity, violence and drug use so if these things offend, choose something else.
The reviewer who called Huston "a poor man's Cormac McCarthy" is right on. While not so similar to the border trilogy, Huston's books get darn close to the standard of McCarthy's "No Country For Old Men," which is another outstanding read for fans of this genre.
Hank Thompson is a violent killer and a singularly sympathetic character and that's part of Huston's achievement. So is the narrative -- not a wrong move, not a bad piece of dialog, not an errant sentence ... it's just spot on. Oh, yeah, and it's also hilarious at times, laugh-out-loud funny. And, somehow, credibility is not stretched -- it's all so strangely plausible, under the circumstances.
This book, and its sequels, get the highest compliment I can give a book: I would happily read it again.
Book Review: A Bedtime Story for Sam Peckinpah and Quintin Tarantino
Summary: 5 Stars
Hank Thompson, a once California high school baseball star destined for the "bigs", is permanently sidelined in a stolen base gone bad, and now, some ten years later, is tending bar in New York City. Part time alcoholic and full time slacker - albeit a lovable slacker - Hank does a neighbor a small favor and as a result finds his previously ordinary life spinning wildly out of control through a .44 Magnum-sized case of mistaken identity. Hank, whose biggest previous concern was a remedy for sore feet and the fate of his San Francisco Giants, is now the target of a motley crew of Russian gangsters, assorted New York freaks, and dirty cops.
Give first-time author Charlie Huston lots of credit: his irreverent, hip, and uncensored delivery assaults the reader relentlessly and without apology. A poor man's Cormac McCarthy, Huston dispatches the goods with none of the poetry but all of the impact; a visceral personal tour of one man's worst nightmare. Huston's gradual transformation of Hank from the basically docile ordinary guy to a stone cold killer is jolting, and guaranteed to trash any plans for the weekend you may have had. And despite his found talent for violence, you'll find yourself still rooting for Hank who, as the mayhem surrounding him mounts, his most pressing issue remains the outcome of baseball's regular season.
Brutal, blunt, and gritty, Huston's "Caught Stealing" satisfies the deepest addictions of the pop thriller junkie. The first in a trilogy, "Stealing" was followed by the equally outrageous "Six Bad Things", and is scheduled to conclude with "A Dangerous Man" next year. If you're anything like me, you'll be anxiously waiting for Huston to wrap up Hank's crazed odyssey of blood lust and baseball.