The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
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Book Reviews of The Good Thief
Book Review: Excellent Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed this book so much. It has a winding, plot twisting path that kept me up all night reading. The characters are diverse and colorful. I would highly reccommend it.Book Review: Good 'un!
Summary: 5 Stars
I couldn't resist this tale of the trials and adventures of the 19th-century orphan boy in New England. My oh my, it's a good `un.Book Review: One of My All-Time Favorite books
Summary: 5 Stars
There's so much to say about this book, but I'll leave it at this: it's one of the top ten books I've read in my life. Buy it!Book Review: A kinder, gentler Oliver Twist.
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
While Hannah Tinti's "The Good Thief" is engaging, there can be no denying the feeling that there is a distinct resemblence to Charles Dicken's "Oliver Twist."
Like Oliver, Tinti's protagonist, Ren, is an orphan. Unlike the cruel realities of an English workhouse that Oliver spent the first years of his life during the Industrial Revolution, Ren is raised in 1800's New England by relatively kind Catholic priests, whose orphanage is both accidental and secondary to their wine making. Ren gets his name from what was stiched on the collar of his clothing when he was shoved through the door where babies are abandoned and arrived with his left hand missing but already professionally treated. Because of that, even when the occasional person comes along to possibly adopt one of the orphan boys, even when chosen, the disability is pointed out by the priests, causing farmers looking for able bodied sons to withdraw their offer of adoption. Overall, however, his life is good - he has enough food, is being schooled, is generally liked by the other orphans though the occasional skirmish happens, gets baths and haircuts twice a month by the sister Monastary nuns, who also take away the abandoned girl babies to be raised at their Convent. Aside for required grape stamping for the wine and occasional deserved beatings for, among other things, a bit of kleptomania, Ren is well treated and is an intelligent and quick witted boy.
One day a man comes along looking at the children, not only at their faces, but their arms. Upon finding Ren's stump, he announces to the priests that Ren is his long lost brother, even producing paperwork and an elaborate story about how Ren was lost. Ren is rightfully uncertain to the veracity of the claim but an adoption was better than the eventual fate of orphans who become of age at the monastary, conscription to the army. A reader might wonder why Ren fears this fate when it seems fairly obvious that a one-handed teenager will not make for a good soldier.
Benjamin Nab, Ren's adopter, confirms Ren's suspicions by almost immediately telling the boy to not ask questions about family and threatening his life if he did not remain silent and do as he is told. This is quickly followed by a late night con-job of claiming Ren is his exhausted son and another convoluted tale to convince a farmer's family, one who had only recently rejected Ren for another boy after discovering his disability, into sharing their supper and bunking down for the night in the barn. Before Ren can process it, he and Benjamin get up early to not only steal the farmer's horse and wagon, but also their cow.
This is obviously where Tinti's Ren mirrors Oliver Twist's meeting of the Artful Dodger and his induction into thiefhood. At this point, the reader might begin wondering who exactly is the 'good thief' of this story, for Benjamin Nab, his grumpy partner who was a former school teacher, and Ren are all relatively good people who also happen to be relatively good thieves. There is no doubt that once again this is a kinder, gentler version of Oliver Twist as there is no threatening elements in this small group, no Ben Sykes, no prostitutes, not even the shunning of Fagin's counterpart of Benjamin Nab. If anything, Benjamin presents a pleasant image and demeanor that is engaging, unlike the persecuted Jewish Fagin.
After wintering in the city, it is decided to move along to the country for a variety of reasons. They end up in a small village where they rent a room from a deaf, lip-reading, and screaming (because of her late in life deafness making it hard to modulate her voice) landlady. It is at this point that the novel begins to obtain any of the gritty realism of Oliver Twist, focused mainly on the difficulties of grave robbing. It is also where Ren begins to discover the truth of his origins.
The book is well written, somewhat colorful, and has interestingly layered characters. Despite the obvious "Oliver Twist" parallels, it is engaging enough to want to continue reading and to discover the full background of Ren and the other characters. While there are slight discrepancies here and there, they are mild enough to overlook as a whole, and the book can be easily enjoyed by both those who have read "Oliver Twist" and those who have not. The other interesting point about this novel is the title. As previously mentioned, who exactly is the 'good thief?' In the end, in my opinion, it is left up to the reader.
Book Review: A colorful, vivid, and exciting mystery/adventure
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
SUMMARY: A very interesting and unusual adventure story of self-discovery which I enjoyed a lot, but it might not be for everyone.
I'd like to tell you about the writing and the story, without spoiling the plot. I'll start by quoting one sentence in the book:
"At times he felt like he was reading fragments of his own dreams, reassembled into words that pulled at his heart, as if there were a string tied somewhere inside his chest that ran down into the book and attached itself to the characters, drawing him through the pages."
72 pages into the story, the author is describing the experience of the protagonist (a 12-year-old orphan boy) in reading a novel for his first time. I thought it sounded like the author revealing her goals as a writer -- and, if so, she succeeded. The imagery is vivid enough to pull me in, the plot is colorful, and the characters are real enough to care about.
The review comments in the book make comparisons to Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. I won't attempt to compare the writing styles of these classic authors with this current author, but this is an adventure story set at the beginning of the industrial area in New England told from the perspective of a boy who is coming of age and discovering who he is, reminiscent of some of the classic authors' stories.
The story is set in New England - towns called Granston and North Umbrage, which could perhaps be plays on Cranston RI and Uxbridge MA - but the towns are ficticious. It is a dark story with characters like a boy who is missing his left hand, grave robbers, a dead man in a purple suit, a young woman with a harelip (this old term is used in the book, appropriately for its time period), a woman who always YELLS IN UPPER CASE, all trying to survive in bleak circumstances, sometimes through grim enterprise.
As I read it, especially as I was half-way through, I started to wonder just where the story was going. She threw out a lot of plot threads and characters throughout, but surprisingly in Part 3 she wove it all together and tied it up very well. Every thread and every important character was part of the finale, so pay attention. Even having many important characters, there was character development and growth, and yet it's not a long book.
With an older boy on a journey of self-discovery and learning about his past; with him being an orphan; with him having a scar that he feels at significant times; and with other things that I won't spill... I could not help but find a few comparisons to Harry Potter. But Harry Potter, being aimed more at a younger audience, is about good and evil, and mostly it is black and white. The Good Thief explores many shades of gray, and seems to be aimed at an adult audience. Those children who read Harry Potter could certainly handle this book, but be aware that there are a couple of mildly sexual scenes here.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot, and found it to be a compelling read with a satisfying ending. I read it over the course of several days, so I can't say I could not put it down. I have given it four stars because I liked it very much, but I reserve five stars for classics or ideas that blew me away. Still, I am sure I will remember this story for a long time, which is more than I can say for many books published these days.