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thegreatmanda's Reviews (459)
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sweet, solid, dependable rugby romance here. Not a lot was surprising about the plot, and while some parts were touching, I didn’t have the extreme emotional highs and lows of a lot of my recent reads. This one was a fun, quick read and mental palate-cleanser.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls
It tolls for thee
- John Donne
Jacob Fagin, the six-year-old son of his good, smart, kind mother. Fagin, the fifty-one-year-old Jew, friend and father figure to unwanted children and adults alike. Fagin the friend, Fagin the son, Fagin the coward. Jacob Fagin the deeply flawed, haunted, staggeringly real human being. Fagin the thief.
It's a story you know, sort of, if you know Oliver Twist, but it's also a story of who Fagin was before Oliver arrived on the scene, and who he becomes after Oliver departs. It takes the villainous barbarism of Bill Sikes and gives him, against all odds, a beating human heart. Nobody in this story is pure sinner or pure saint, and Allison Epstein renders all of them into fully three-dimensional people, just trying to make their various ways in life.
That life is perhaps Fagin's defining characteristic in his vow to stay alive at any cost. We expect our literary heroes to be selfless, self-sacrificing, but here is a man who is neither. Fagin is honest when it matters, ready to face death when he absolutely must, but not one moment before that. It's a trait any reader might recognize as their own feelings on the subject, and Fagin is no less heroic for it. He does what we all must, born into lives we didn't ask for: Fagin survives.
While Fagin the Thief would be engrossing in any format, Will Watt’s audio performance here is superb. He gives every character a distinct voice and brings the whole cast to life.
Favorite Quotes:
For whom the bell tolls
It tolls for thee
- John Donne
Jacob Fagin, the six-year-old son of his good, smart, kind mother. Fagin, the fifty-one-year-old Jew, friend and father figure to unwanted children and adults alike. Fagin the friend, Fagin the son, Fagin the coward. Jacob Fagin the deeply flawed, haunted, staggeringly real human being. Fagin the thief.
It's a story you know, sort of, if you know Oliver Twist, but it's also a story of who Fagin was before Oliver arrived on the scene, and who he becomes after Oliver departs. It takes the villainous barbarism of Bill Sikes and gives him, against all odds, a beating human heart. Nobody in this story is pure sinner or pure saint, and Allison Epstein renders all of them into fully three-dimensional people, just trying to make their various ways in life.
That life is perhaps Fagin's defining characteristic in his vow to stay alive at any cost. We expect our literary heroes to be selfless, self-sacrificing, but here is a man who is neither. Fagin is honest when it matters, ready to face death when he absolutely must, but not one moment before that. It's a trait any reader might recognize as their own feelings on the subject, and Fagin is no less heroic for it. He does what we all must, born into lives we didn't ask for: Fagin survives.
While Fagin the Thief would be engrossing in any format, Will Watt’s audio performance here is superb. He gives every character a distinct voice and brings the whole cast to life.
Favorite Quotes:
The Fagins aren’t important enough to argue with the rabbi’s wife, but Leah lacks the ability to keep what she’s thinking out of her face.
“They aren’t friends worth having, if they only like you when you’re stupid,” she says. “No man’s reputation ever suffered because he was bright.”
These hands are all he has, but they will have to do.
Life is only the present moment, the past a fairy story and the future speculation. He is here now.
Didn’t you hear me? he asks God. I’ll study four hours a day, five. I’ll say a blessing over every meal. I’ll honor you, I’ll do as you ask, but if you made me then you know what I need to survive, and you can’t take it from me without giving anything in return.
Better to cut his losses and care for himself, because this is the price that must be paid when someone else cares for you, the searing, ever-expanding pain when they inevitably disappear. Iron hearts can’t break. It’s a lesson he will remember.
The buildings that loom over both sides of the road remind him unpleasantly of Copley Street, where he and Leah defended their own little world, where he watched his childhood drift away without realizing it was happening.
“You couldn’t pick a dead man’s pocket if you were alone in his tomb.”
He sees again the child he used to be. The kind of animal you drown to beat God to the punch. Bill Sikes has never killed a man, but he’ll put that boy out of his misery today.
Jacob can’t decide whether the proper response is to laugh or to show her that his heart is breaking. “Nan, I haven’t had such a brilliant day of it since I was half your age. You’re better than Ned and Toby put together. God’s sake, do I think you ruined it? You’ll be begging my old bones to leave you before I’ve tired of you.”
He might in fact be on the deck of some ship, with the waves cresting beneath him as he leaves England and its hangmen behind. It’s not running away when a man is on a ship. It’s adventure then.
“I’m an old man, sir, and a poor one, but I still have the right to live.”
Occasionally, Jacob thinks he sees the boy’s eyes grow damp, but it’s only a trick of the light. They are only glittering, forged hard like diamonds. Even at thirteen, the boy would not cry for such a trifle.
