The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
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Book Reviews of The Good Thief
Book Review: Let it steal you for a while
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Good "period piece" fiction not only transports us to a different time, but it also uncovers the grit and grime of a previous age. Set approximately in the mid-1800s, The Good Thief is the story of a one-handed boy who is adopted by a con artist and thief. The narrative is on a much smaller scale than the jacket copy suggests, but in focusing on the details of New England life and the precariousness of it, the result is rewarding in a different way. Tinti's economy of descriptive language works quite well for the mind's eye, and there is a current of emotion in all the characters that never spills over into the melodrama so often associated with historical fiction. It's populated with endearing scoundrels, ominous cutthroats, and a simple, touching yearning for an easier life.
It takes quite a while for different story threads to be woven together, and a few of the key mysteries are apparent early on. Certain other developments lack impact, and one final character motivation seems more positioned for dramatic effect. Still, the last few chapters are quite poetic, and there's an air of untold and partially told stories throughout that gives the world intriguing substance. The narrative flow never falters, making for an unusually quick read. I look forward to more of Tinti's work, and I think the material here is well suited for a high-caliber film adaptation.
Book Review: Compelling tale of a boy's quest to unravel the mystery of his past
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I picked up The Good Thief intending to read a few pages before bed but was unable to put it down before I finished. A 12-year old orphan at a Catholic orphanage, Ren has spend his whole life trying to unravel the mystery of his missing hand and missing family. Considered unadoptable because of his deformity, Ren had nothing to look forward to but conscription into the Army when he got too old for St. Anthony's- nothing that is until the day Benjamin Nab showed up claiming to be Ren's long-lost brother. Unfortunately, Ren soon learns that Nab's story is just a story; he in fact excels at telling people just what they want to hear.
One on level, this book is an enjoyable adventure story populated with colorful characters and some light humor. Much more compelling are Ren's attempts to unravel the mystery of his past while developing a moral code that is much less flexible than that of his savior. Enough hints of the truth are peppered throughout the story to prevent the reader from crying foul at the denouement (no spoilers here though!) and the action is well paced if sometimes a little over the top.
Both the plot and the writing style are strong; the Good Thief is an enjoyable read I will certainly recommend to friends.
Book Review: A Worthwhile Read
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
_The Good Thief_ is a great book and a fun read. I found it hard to put down, and had to keep telling myself, "Just to the end of this chapter, then you have to stop!"
This book is an odd world of misfits and strangers and dangerous men. The characters are beautiful and bizarre, and sometimes scary, but always imaginatively evoked. Hannah Tinti's descriptions of these people, their thoughts and their surroundings, consistently delighted and surprised me. Sometimes a character would speak in such a poetic way that my belief was strained, but the turn of phrase was so nice that I could let it go and enjoy it.
One of my biggest troubles with modern novels is that, too often, it's hard to care about what happens to the people living in them. But while reading _The Good Thief_, I found myself engrossed, worried and curious about Ren, the main character in this story. Would he survive? Would he be caught? What happened to his hand? Where is his family? Sometimes Tinti raises more questions than she answers, but, for me, that is all part of the fun of reading. I wouldn't have objected to a little deeper character development, but it is what it is, and _The Good Thief_ is a fine novel. I'm glad to have spent a few hours with it.
Book Review: Interesting view of an ugly world.
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
"The Good Thief" is a well written story of a young boy with a talent for thievery trying to understand a world full of far greater evils than his own. What makes the story interesting is how the protagonist, Ren, is able to view the world around him. He is at once too old for his age, but still a child. He is a basically decent person who only finds true companionship and love in the company of con artists and thieves (and one crazy woman who just can't help yelling. Ren is a thinker, but burdened by the superstitions of his time. At each step we get to see a corrupt world through the eyes of a child who is a survivor, but an honorable one.
The characterization is done well and elegantly. There are no detailed descriptions of each character's motivations, but Tinti does a good job of implying everything you need to know to understand her people and the conflicts they face. Her prose is strong, elegant, and enjoyable. To some extent, this book might be more suitable as a short story. However, Tinti's writing moves the reader along quickly enough that the additional material does not distract the reader. Indeed, those parts that are not strictly necessary are still interesting, lending depth to a relatively short work.
Book Review: ... is a good read
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
At first it took me a while to get into this novel, but after the first twenty pages or so, I found myself reading it whenever I had some free time. My initial distraction primarily stemmed from two major issues presented in the first chapters:
- the improbable situation of the main character, and
- the absence of a time referent (I actually *still* do not know when the action of the novel is supposed to take place, but I suspect sometime in the late 19th century?)
But it all works out, I think, in a "good" way, and those bits which I had been concerned about at the beginning of the novel end up being integral to the main plot of the story, evoking surprise and, more than once, admiration for how thought-out the emplotment turns out to be.
The writing did not blow me away, but it's good. Tinti occasionally has the characters reflect on themselves and their environments in a way that seemed, to me, overly sentimental and young (not *immature*, but young) -- but again, even these things have to do with the way the plot has been structured, down to every last detail. It tends to give all the characters what I would call a sense of optimistic fatalism.