Particularize Books Toward Thieves Like Us
| Original Title: | Thieves Like Us |
| ISBN: | 159654578X (ISBN13: 9781596545786) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Edward Anderson
Paperback | Pages: 176 pages Rating: 3.7 | 518 Users | 73 Reviews
Present Based On Books Thieves Like Us
| Title | : | Thieves Like Us |
| Author | : | Edward Anderson |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 176 pages |
| Published | : | May 1st 2008 by Blackmask.com (first published 1937) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Mystery. Noir. Crime. Novels. Literature. American |
Narration As Books Thieves Like Us
Prisons are simply pimples on a corrupt world. The great criminals, I mean the real enemies of man's welfare and peace and happiness, never go near a prison and the dead ones, out in these cemeteries, have the highest tombstones over their heads. Normal men with abnormal tendencies. My God. Is is a wonder people do not smell, their minds are so rotten.
Three small time gangsters manage a daring escape from prison, but they have little choice of making a living outside so they go back to what they know best – robbing banks at gunpoint. Two of them, T-Dub and Chicamaw, are older, hardened criminals, products of the Depression era who see crime as the only way to get ahead in a corrupt society. Their leitmotif is the often repeated phrase that gives the title to the novel:
Them Laws and druggists are thieves just like us. It's getting so a man has to have a gun to make a piece of money.
or,
Them politicians are thieves just like us. Only they got more sense and use their damn tongues instead of a gun.
and so on ... grumbling about doctors, lawyers, shop owners, investors. Basically the whole world is out to get them and they plan to go down fighting the system.
Bowie, the third guy, is younger and easily led astray. Born in the countryside, he fell in with a bunch of bad kids and ended up in prison almost by mistake. His bad judgement is compounded by making friends with T-Dub and Chicamaw, which he follows out of a perverted sense of loyalty and fascination with their rebellious trash talk.
The novel is less a heist thriller and more of a character study – both for the criminal minds and for society in the aftermath of the Great Depression. It is written in the spare style of the period, with a lot of slang thrown in, constant drinking and the occasional poetic flourish.
The story is also firmly established in the noir canon by its fatalism. Bowie is offered a chance at redemption, as he falls in love with the niece of one of his partners. Keechie is his chance to escape this cycle of violence, but Bowie feels duty bound to stand by his criminal buddies. It will probably end up in tears.
I don't guess I could have done anything else except what I have. What will be, will be.
—«»—«»—«»—
This review is shorter than I would have preferred, since I finished the book almost two months ago and was too lazy to put pen to paper immediately. Nevertheless, I consider "Thieves Like Us" a classic of the period, well worth reading by fans of the genre. I also plan to watch both movie versions and compare them with the source material. Too bad Edward Anderson never wrote more books like this one.
Rating Based On Books Thieves Like Us
Ratings: 3.7 From 518 Users | 73 ReviewsCommentary Based On Books Thieves Like Us
Edward Andersons 1937 novel Thieves Like Us tells the story of Bowie Bowers, murderer and bank robber. Bowie breaks out of prison with two companions, and they carry out a series of daring bank robberies. They may not be intellectuals, but theyre not stupid. Theyre smart enough to know that in a corrupt society politicians, police, lawyers and businessmen are all in their various ways just thieves like us. Lying low after a robbery, Bowie meets and falls in love with Keechie. Bowie isThis novel was published in 1937, and it feels like it. In part, I would say that like a lot of semi-early versions of a genre, the rawness and the rough around the edges quality of a novel is such a limiting factor and you can feel it. I spoke in an earlier review how the Alfred Bester novel The Stars My Destination was NOT plagued with this kind of sense of adherence to genre and roughness. This one however is, with some differences at times.So this novel is about a group of bankrobbers, one
My original Thieves Like Us audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.Thieves Like Us was originally published in 1937 and is part of the American Noir of the 1930s and 40s collection. It provided the basis for two films: They Live By Night (1949) and Thieves Like Us (1974).The story focuses on Bowie, Chicamaw, and T-Dub. Bowie, the youngest of them, killed a guy when he was 16. Chicamaw and T-Dub are convicted bank robbers. Following their escape from a chain gang,
The most gracefully written crime novel there is. . .a MUST read for fans of the genre - pick it up at any and all costs.
I'm not sure why more people don't rate this book higher. It's a great gritty noir novel masquerading as a crime novel. You feel the humanity and nobility of the characters, how they are not that far from us, even while you realize these are kidnappers, murderers, and thieves. It perfectly captures the '30s Great Depression era feel and the Robin Hood aura that surrounded many of the serial bank robbers of the time.
Published in 1937, THIEVES LIKE US is half noir, half romance entwined with a violent group of jail break bank robbers on a deadly mission for that elusive big score. Post roaring twenties, that era is very much an influence on the novel with references to prohibition, the allure of bank robbing, and small time gangsters casing small town banks paramount throughout. THIEVES LIKE US follows a band of prison escapees on the run from the law and on the look-out for quick scores. They take down a
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