The Sucker's Kiss

This is an excellent novel, highly recommended. The author is film director Alan Parker, and he brings his directorial skills to the novel's constantly flowing structure as we journey all over the United States. It's very cinematic in its sweep and rapid cuts from California to Chicago to Tennessee to New York and lots of places in-between. The narrative voice is one of those great characters with not much formal education but with tons of street smarts about how to survive during the hard times. (I couldn't help but think of "Paper Moon" and "True Grit" and "The Sting" and "Ragtime.") We're in that wonderful escapist world of yesteryear Americana and the poor people who must survive by hook or by crook. Here, we have a lot of endearing crooks. We start during the San Francisco earthquake and fire, and the detail is amazing. I kept getting hit by thoughts of "Did I really just read that?!" You will get sucked in immediately by this charming thief, to echo the title. The narrator, a young boy who quickly learns the art of pickpocketing, has the ability to fling out brilliant similes and to remember appropriate philosophical profundities from the books he has read along the way. Only a few chapters in, I started wishing for a movie version just so more people can enjoy Tom Moran's journey through the Roaring Twenties and the Depression. If you want a fresh, captivating surprise, by all means give this book a try. And if you want to hold on to your wallet, don't ever get within fifteen feet of another human being. This guy can steal your money just by thinking about it.

This is one of the most enchanting, amusing and readable works I've read in quite some time. You could almost describe it as the story of Huck Finn had be become a pickpocket. Mr. Parker has an easy style and a wonderful command of our language. The book follows the career of a career criminal from the age of seven, starting during the San Franscisco Quake of 1906, through the depression and beyond. The author's use of slang is almost lyrical, and after several pages, almost becomes addictive. The author is able to capture "hard times" with a sort of pragmatic humor which is sort of difficult to describe. His description of the country and it's people of that time is wonderful and quite accurate. This is certainly one of those books that will completely hook you after the first page, so it is best to start it when you have the time to finish it. It seems that everytime I get discouraged as to the state of writing in our times, I run across a work such as this and am able to take heart. I checked this one out from the library, but will have to now purchase it as I am sure it will be one of those I will want to reread over the years. Highly recommend this one and I do hope it is not this writer's last!