The Good Thief
by Hannah Tinti
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hannah TintiEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-08-26
ISBN: 0385337450
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: The Dial Press
Book Reviews of The Good Thief
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.
Summary of The Good Thief
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.
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