Customer Rating:  
Summary: Dickens style tale
Comment: The author is trying to write a Charles Dickens Gothic tall tale with lots of unsavory characters. There is lots of drama and mystery with orphans, abuse, greed, stealing and murders, as well as a few caring people in between. A good, fast read for the beach, airport or plane. I immediately donated my copy to the local library, as it is not one I will re-read or pass along to friends or family.
Karen
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not perfect adventure
Comment: This book presents a grand adventure in the Dickension tradition, with orphans, thieves, and evildoers of various kinds. It takes place in New England some time in the 19th century, and involves an 11-year-old orphan boy who's missing one hand. The story itself is gripping, the characters complex and interesting, and the writing is excellent. Overall, I enjoyed it very much. However, I do have a couple of complaints. First, some of the imagery and themes were overdone (just how many drowned people does a book need??). And second, some of the plot twists were entirely too coincidental. Still, it's a good story and I recommend it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Ill-defined characters and a boring plot
Comment: It only takes a few points to make a novel worth reading... characters you care about, a well-described setting, and some kind of interesting conflict. Unfortunately, "The Good Thief" has none of these. The characters are poorly developed and I assume we are supposed to develop sympathy for them because of their missing hand or their "harelip" (an offensive term the author continually uses to describe one character). The setting is confused as it isn't clear when the story takes place. We are told that shotguns are common which would place it in the period after the Civil War but one character is described as being a member of the American Society of Dental Surgeons, an organization the ceased to exist in 1856. But another character is described as wearing a powdered wig which would place it even earlier. The idea that orphans who are not adopted are drafted into an army where they have little future seems even more absurd for anytime in 19th century New England outside of the Civil War. But the greatest defect is that nothing really happens. The characters wander around a poorly described New England and occasionally steal something.
There is a basis for a good story somewhere in the book. The idea of an orphan being adopted by a con-man, thief in order to help him steal is not a bad idea for a story. But this book simply fails to make anything out of the story. The writing simply lacks the excitement or even the descriptive language that could take this story somewhere. Perhaps I am not the target audience for this book but I found it a difficult struggle to get through and can not recommend it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a good story
Comment: How do you tell a story? First sentence: "The man arrived after morning prayers." In this first paragraph, we are there with the man, his horse, and the boys. "The man waited, and the boys watched..." The second paragraph drops back to explain: "Men often came for children." There were some boys more likely to be chosen. There were others more likely to be passed over. "Ren was one of them." The third paragraph continues: "He had no memory of a beginning..."
If you want to read a good story, The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti, is the book for you. It is a solid, old-fashioned story-as in, something happens and then something else and then something else. On December 1, it won the 2008 John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize.
In a New York Times review, The Good Thief was described as "an American Dickensian tale with touches of Harry Potterish whimsy, along with a macabre streak of spooky New England history."
I couldn't put it down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An unexpected tale of gothic adventure
Comment: I was pleasantly surprised by this gothic story about a one-handed boy named Ren, who is raised in a Catholic orphanage and adopted by a con artist mere months before his caretakers planned to consign him to the army. Although the monks question why anyone would want to adopt a boy with only one hand, Ren's savior, Benjamin Nab, weaves a convincing tale about Ren being his long lost brother who lost his hand when their family was attacked by indians. Benjamin saved him and placed the infant at the orphanage gates before heading off avenge their slaughtered family, which explains why it's only now that Benjamin has been able to return for the boy. The story isn't true - Benjamin is a con artist, after all - but the monks believe him and Ren's adventures with a dark world of schemes, ruthless mousetrap-manufacturing barons, chimney-dwelling dwarves and black-market doctors begins. He learns to lie and swindle with the best of them, yet never loses sight of his innate goodness, which reveals itself in untimely prayers and even a desire to save the soul of a murder unearthed during a grave digging expedition. Overall this 19th century New England tale is an unexpected and enchanting tale of gothic adventure.
|
