The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.79 You Save: $21.21 (85%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Good Thief
Book Review: A Prisoner to the Circumstances of Life
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
In the life of the runty one-handed boy Ren--the main character of the book--the prospects of a hopeful future are dim. He is a lonely orphan with only two real friends, living in a monastery/orphanage and being raised by stern but caring monks. With only one hand, he's unlikely to be adopted by the occasional farm family that periodically adopts young boys to live and work as sons on the farm. And he dreads the fate of being enlisted in the army when he grows too old to stay in the monastery. But everything changes when a young man unexpectedly singles him out for adoption, and further explains that he's Ren's brother! Nervously but excitedly accepting this new turn in his life, Ren leaves the monastery to be caught up into a world of adult criminals.
Ren's would-be brother Benjamin Nab turns out to be a scam-artist and thief, eager to use the pitiable young boy to advance his schemes. With little to hope for that is better than this newfound companionship, Ren tries to make the best of his circumstances. All the while events turn darker and the crimes turn more gruesome, as Benjamin and his partner Tom find grave-robbing to be a more profitable endeavour. Yet Ren cannot forget the lessons of his Christian upbringing in the Catholic monastery. Amid a world where there seems to be no right or wrong, only what's expedient--he struggles to retain his conscience and sense of goodwill.
A curious cast of characters and an ever-deepening storyline keeps the novel moving at a lively pace. However, parents may want to consider and review the content of the book before giving it to younger readers. There are a large number of jarring and graphic scenes throughout the book that might not be appropriate for young children. As the setting of the novel moves to the New England town of North Umbrage, where most of the action takes place, the scenes become darker and more gruesome. The combination of grave-robbery and encounters with cold-blooded murder lends itself to some stark content.
With those considerations in mind, the story does weave a mysterious world in the bleak town of North Umbrage, a place secluded in lies and secrets, which may hold the clues to Ren's lost past. Perhaps it is young Ren's struggle to retain his innocence and how that impacts the other characters in the book, that makes it such a captivating read.
Book Review: A Boy In Search of Meaning
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
"Ren had always thought of days in a physical sense, like the clock face in Father John's study - a sun and a moon divided in two, morning and night. Now, he understood that there was no precise moment where evening crossed over into morning - that there was never a brand new day." (p. 203)
Such is the nature of Ren's journey. Ren is a one-handed orphan of about 12 living in a Catholic orphanage, until a stranger named Benjamin McNabb shows up to claim him. McNabb says that Ren is his long lost brother. What Benjamin doesn't disclose is that he is one half of a criminal enterprise. Benjamin needs an accomplice, and Ren needs a family. Both try to shape the other to fit their own needs, without realizing that maybe, neither party is quite up to the task.
At root, The Good Thief is a sort of character study exploring the nature of Ren's ensuing inner-conflict to find out who he was, is, and should become. Against the backdrop of 19th Century Catholic New England, we watch Ren learn how to be a criminal, figure out who he can (and can't) trust, and ultimately, try to find a comfortable place for himself.
Hannah Tinti's prose tends to at times border on the fantastical in a way reminiscent of John Irving. (Tinti seems incapable or unwilling to write a character that is not fantastically odd and quirky.) At first, this makes for a strange read but Tinti has enough literary skill to make the extraordinary seem necessary after a while (by the time we meet the dwarf who lives in the old woman's attic, such literary liberties seem natural).
While this book is billed as being something of a "mystery" in which Ren's past is gradually uncovered, this is a misnomer. While this is part of it - we do find out how Ren wound up in an orphanage and how we came to lose a hand - but it is a small part that doesn't get going until the book's close. The book does indeed have forward motion, but it is of a more "literary" sort. The forward motion is brought about by the internal struggle of a boy who is both trying to find himself and trying not to lose himself.
Will Ren be able to find the meaning he is looking for amidst a gang of thieves? Is there really no such thing as the "brand new day" that Ren once believed in? Sometimes, answers are best found in the place you least want to look.
Book Review: And now for something completely... unique.
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Ren has spent the last eleven years of his life at Saint Anthony's along with dozens of other orphaned boys. He has watched other boys come and go, adopted and taken in by families with farms or sent off to the army when they're too old to stay. Passed over because of his missing left hand, Ren will remain until he too is conscripted. Until the day Benjamin Nab comes along, spinning a tale of brotherhood.
In the company of his big brother, young Ren begins an adventure into the world of New England in days when Indians are feared, twins are considered unlucky and grave robbers can turn a profit selling fresh corpses to training hospitals. So begin the curious escapades of The Good Thief. Carried by expertly crafted characters, from the Machiavellian Benjamin Nab, his drunkard partner Tom and the hungry-eyed Dr. Milton, to the murderous giant Dolly, the deaf landlady Mrs. Sands and silver-tongued Silas McGinty, Ren's story is populated by questions about the people around him. Is Benjamin really Ren's brother? Why did Silas McGinty's sister try to drown herself? How did Dolly come to be buried alive? It is these questions that will keep the reader entranced from cover to cover.
Admittedly, I wouldn't have just picked this one up off the shelf and had to read it based on the blurb alone. In fact, once I got it I wasn't really sure I was interested in reading it. But as soon as I picked it up I couldn't put it down. Every annoying little fact was a clue to something, I'd know the answers to my questions as soon as they popped up but I had to read on and know I was right. In this it was not only entertaining, but gratifying to read. I found myself really hoping things would work out for Ren and his many friends. If strong characterization is what interests you as the reader this book certainly has it.
While I can't see this quite becoming a classic I think this would be an excellent classroom read for highschoolers. There's plenty of violence and suspence but it's clean enough I at times found myself almost thinking this would be tween appropriate were it not for a few mentions of prostitutes and some of the heavier violence. It's certainly not for everyone, the grave robbery bits were a bit grisly but one must consider the era being written about and the medical and dental practices of the day.
Book Review: The Good Thief
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I was pleasantly surprised by this book to the extent that i read it at one sitting and was unable to put it down even past midnight! It has a strong resemblance to Dickens' work - specifically Oliver Twist. There are hints of other great works of literature here - Ren's story of his father's adventures hints of the tales of Beowulf battling sea monsters and swimming across oceans. Dolly, the innocent giant who murders so casually brings to mind Of Mice and Men.
A running theme throughout the novel is the desecration of the Human Body - dead or alive. Dissections, Amputations and the desecration of graves are commonplace in our little hero's life. Our protagonist, Ren, was mutilated soon after birth and was left at an orphanage with an amputated hand. His life is difficult at the orphanage but the priests running the orphanage are not painted in the black and white tones Dickens used; there is some sympathy for Ren - especially for the lack of his right hand. But his transgressions are punished as swiftly as the other boys and he is well aware that no one will adopt a cripple. That is until the day Benjamin Nab shows up at the orphanage and claims him as a long lost brother.
A gullible Ren goes from being a believing catholic orphan to a quick loss of his naivete. In the care of Ben he participates in petty thievery, scams, grave robbery and sees violence that he would never have imagined. But a thread of hope runs through the book. Ren cannot leave behind the morals that the priests have tried to teach him although he is soon in very immoral company. Beyond a sympathy for his amputated limb Ren finds that people can be genuinely fond of him and need him. He finds people to love and who love him in return. The book is populated with characters with physical abnormalities: from an amputee, to a giant, to a dwarf to a girl known only by her deformity - the harelip. The mystery of Ren's birth is slowly revealed to us. The story is a dark one with a fair amount of violence but it is worth the read.
I did feel that the story remained unfinished and there was not complete closure at the end of the book. Ren's reunion with his father is too short and leaves the reader with too many questions. The author seemed to rush through the finish and the last chapeter left many questions unanswered.
Book Review: The Good Thief
Summary: 4 Stars
I think that one of the biggest drawbacks that this book will face is the constant comparison to Dickens' body of work especially Oliver Twist. I see the similarities and I understand why people are making those comparisons but I think this is a very different book than Dickens would have written. Tinti is no Dickens, nor should she strive to be. Dickens is a great writer and Tinti is not too shabby herself.
The story is set in 19th century America and begins with Ren, a young boy growing up in an orphanage. The monks who run the home are a bit neglectful but treat the boys well enough. One day Ren is adopted by a goodlooking and charming young man, Benjamin Nab, who somehow convinces the monks that he is Ren's older brother. Nab weaves a fantastical tale of how they got separated and paints himself in a heroic light. But to no one's surprise once he gets Ren away from the orphanage, we find that he is nothing that he has represented himself to be. The long and tall of it is that he is a grifter who seems mostly interested in making a buck by almost any means necessary, both legal and illegal.
Ren begins his new life with Nab and finds that it is nothing that he expected when he dreamed of being adopted. When Ren envisioned his life away from the orphanage, he thought he would get a happy life with a mother and father who loved him and gave him plenty to eat but what he gets with Nab is a life of tricking people out of their money and possessions, with his missing hand serving as a tool for sympathy. But despite Nab's obvious poor qualities as a father figure, he is not at all an unlikable character. He is obviously charming and is shrouded in mystery that makes you want to know more.
In one of Nab's many efforts to make money, he decides to become a grave robber. During this escapade, we meet Dolly. Dolly is a corpse that is dug up but then mysteriously becomes animated. I found the resurrected murderer Dolly to be a bit of an odd character and not in a good way. I felt that his presence brought in an unnecessary supernatural element to a story that was doing well on its own. He is a cross between a zombie and a robot. I think he was an unnecessary addition that did not do much toward moving the story along.
There is nothing in this story that is terribly original. Things get tied up a little too neatly and the end was a bit trite. But I still found it to be an entertaining story with many interesting characters.