Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Colorful Characters, Gripping Story from a Major Talent, 2 Mar 2009
Twelve-year-old Ren, named after the initials R.E.N. which were in the collar of the clothes he was wearing when he was abandoned at St. Anthony's Catholic orphanage, has always wondered how he lost his right hand and who his parents were. Other boys get adopted, not Ren, for who, after all, wants a deformed boy in New England at a time sometime between the wars, Revolutionary and Civil.
Then one day out of the blue Benjamin Nab shows up claiming to be Ren's brother. The monks let the lad go and all of a sudden Ren's life takes an adventurous turn, for brother ben is a con man, thief, grave robber who will do anything to turn a buck, including exploiting a one handed boy.
This Tom Sayweresque type story had me from page one. Ms. Tinti has filled her pages full of colorful characters, from one-handed Ben, to a roof-dwelling dwarf, to a murderer who survived burial. In fact, just about every character we care about, and we care about a lot of them, is strange, quirky and weird as is the story, but it's one you won't forget. This may be Ms. Tinti's first novel, but I'm sure it won't be her last. She's a major talent, that's for sure.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ill-defined characters and a boring plot, 16 Feb 2009
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.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Wildly far-fetched, 11 May 2009
This is an unusual book: a fairytale Oliver Twist set in New England sometime in the 19th century. It's the story of an orphaned boy called Ren, who was abandoned in an orphanage as a baby. The only clue that he has to his origins are a scrap of clothing initialled R.E.N. He is also missing one hand.
Unexpectedly he is rescued from the orphanage by a con man named Benjamin Nab. Benjamin claims to be his brother, although it quickly emerges that his chief interest in Ren appears to be using him as a prop in many of his scams. Ren is desperate for a family, and as they travel, he makes some highly unusual friends: among them a dwarf who lives on a rooftop, a murderer who was buried alive and a girl with a harelip who makes mousetraps in a factory. Eventually he will also discover the secrets of his past.
I enjoyed the early parts of this novel but as time passed I got fed up with the high sense of unreality. The characters are all distinctive and unusual, but none of them feel even remotely believable. The plot is highly uneven (almost random) and riddled with coincidences. There is also absolutely no sense of place: it's set in New England but I never felt that I could "see" the story unfolding before me.
The Good Thief starts well - full of intrigue, drawing you in immediately. But then it loses its way. It's an easy enough book to read and the action continues at a good pace throughout, but it just left me cold.
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