The Good Thief |
|
|
List Price: $25.00
Our Price: $15.00
Your Save: $ 10.00 ( 40% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: The Dial Press
Average Customer Rating:  
|
| |
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780385337458
ISBN: 0385337450
Label: The Dial Press
Manufacturer: The Dial Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2008-08-26
Publisher: The Dial Press
Release Date: 2008-08-26
Studio: The Dial Press
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Richly imagined, gothically spooky, and replete with the ingenious storytelling ability of a born novelist, The Good Thief introduces one of the most appealing young heroes in contemporary fiction and ratifies Hannah Tinti as one of our most exciting new talents.
Twelve year-old Ren is missing his left hand. How it was lost is a mystery that Ren has been trying to solve for his entire life, as well as who his parents are, and why he was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys. He longs for a family to call his own and is terrified of the day he will be sent alone into the world.
But then a young man named Benjamin Nab appears, claiming to be Ren’s long-lost brother, and his convincing tale of how Ren lost his hand and his parents persuades the monks at the orphanage to release the boy and to give Ren some hope. But is Benjamin really who he says he is? Journeying through a New England of whaling towns and meadowed farmlands, Ren is introduced to a vibrant world of hardscrabble adventure filled with outrageous scam artists, grave robbers, and petty thieves. If he stays, Ren becomes one of them. If he goes, he’s lost once again. As Ren begins to find clues to his hidden parentage he comes to suspect that Benjamin not only holds the key to his future, but to his past as well.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: great writing boosts an almost-great story
Comment: I finished The Good Thief three days ago, and have been struggling with the review. Objectively I know there's nothing new here, but the writing is so up my alley and the atmosphere of the novel is so well put-together that I want to rave and rave over it.
Tinti's main character is an orphan named Ren. It's not giving too much away to say he's a minor thief, and he's adopted early on in the book by a man whose motives are unclear at first, but quickly show themselves to be "up-to-no-good" sort of motives. It's set in 19th-century New England, and the story has a lovely gothic feel and all sorts of interesting characters.
It is a little predictable in spots, but I felt the great writing and spot-on descriptions made up for that, and it didn't stop me from ripping through this book in two days.
I would definitely recommend The Good Thief to those who enjoy this sort of thing -- you know who you are -- and probably even to those who are on the fence, due to the quality of the writing. In the meantime, I'll be lounging at the bottom of the fence, impatiently waiting for the next thing from Hannah Tinti.
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
