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A review by hcq
Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston
2.0
This had all the elements of a book I would love; a thriller set in NYC, baseball, and even a cat. And while I did like the story, and some of the phrases were well turned, I didn't actually love it.
My biggest problem was sheer physical implausibility (and I'm terrific at suspension of disbelief; if you lose me, you're screwing up). Right off the bat (so to speak), our hero has taken a beating, and wakes up in the hospital to learn that he's actually lost a kidney (and the remaining one is pretty darn sore). Yet, in less than a week, we see this same guy climbing up and down a fire escape, running for his life along 14th St., and even swinging a bat in a batting cage.
Yeah, no. I've actually donated a kidney--intentionally, not having it beaten out of me--and I went into the surgery healthy, not having been a functional alcoholic like this guy. Trust me, none of that would have been remotely possible. Walking very, very slowly up a flight of stairs was possible four days later; climbing a fire escape? Ha, ha, ha....
I suggest approaching this book like an action movie, or a cartoon. In movies, we expect to see two big men beat the tar out of each other for five minutes on screen, and then appear in the following scene with a single, small Band-Aid on their foreheads. It's patently ridiculous, but hey, it's the movies. If I could have read this book with that mindset, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I tried, but I just couldn't manage it.
My biggest problem was sheer physical implausibility (and I'm terrific at suspension of disbelief; if you lose me, you're screwing up). Right off the bat (so to speak), our hero has taken a beating, and wakes up in the hospital to learn that he's actually lost a kidney (and the remaining one is pretty darn sore). Yet, in less than a week, we see this same guy climbing up and down a fire escape, running for his life along 14th St., and even swinging a bat in a batting cage.
Yeah, no. I've actually donated a kidney--intentionally, not having it beaten out of me--and I went into the surgery healthy, not having been a functional alcoholic like this guy. Trust me, none of that would have been remotely possible. Walking very, very slowly up a flight of stairs was possible four days later; climbing a fire escape? Ha, ha, ha....
I suggest approaching this book like an action movie, or a cartoon. In movies, we expect to see two big men beat the tar out of each other for five minutes on screen, and then appear in the following scene with a single, small Band-Aid on their foreheads. It's patently ridiculous, but hey, it's the movies. If I could have read this book with that mindset, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I tried, but I just couldn't manage it.