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75th out of 308 books
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203 voters
Thieves Like Us (Film Ink Series)
One of the great forgotten novels of the 30s - Raymond Chandler
Somewhere between the hardboiled talk of Dashiell Hammett and the dustbowl poetry of John Steinbeck lies the doomed romanticism of Edward Anderson's Thieves Like Us. When three small-time country gangsters break jail, they return, like moths to a flame, to the only life they know - smalltown bank-robbing. And w...more
Somewhere between the hardboiled talk of Dashiell Hammett and the dustbowl poetry of John Steinbeck lies the doomed romanticism of Edward Anderson's Thieves Like Us. When three small-time country gangsters break jail, they return, like moths to a flame, to the only life they know - smalltown bank-robbing. And w...more
Paperback, 206 pages
Published
May 1st 1999
by Prion Books Limited
(first published 1937)
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This is a classic and a must read! I had never heard of this before and only read it because I've been working my way through the Library of America "Crime Novels" collection. This is one of only two novels by Edward Anderson. He lived a tumultuous life, mostly as a newspaper man. He had multiple marriages, once to the same woman a couple times. He abused alcohol, had extreme religious and political beliefs and died young. And brother, does this crazy life come out in his writing!
This book is ho...more
This book is ho...more
Raymond Chandler declared this one of the great forgotten novels of the 1930s. I'm not going to argue with Chandler.
Anderson gives us a look at depression era bank robbers in Oklahoma and Texas. It was fertile ground with Bonnie & Clyde, Dillinger, et. al. having been all over the newspapers. Anderson looks at a trio of escaped convicts who are robbing banks in Texas, before shifting the focus to a single character Bowie Bowers. The shift allows us to get a better glimpse in to the thought...more
Anderson gives us a look at depression era bank robbers in Oklahoma and Texas. It was fertile ground with Bonnie & Clyde, Dillinger, et. al. having been all over the newspapers. Anderson looks at a trio of escaped convicts who are robbing banks in Texas, before shifting the focus to a single character Bowie Bowers. The shift allows us to get a better glimpse in to the thought...more
Seemed pretty out-dated, especially language-wise. I had some trouble following what was going on, and who really believed what. Starts with prison escape, and follows the escapees (especially one in particular) as they go around robbing banks. Makes a point of how newspapers exaggerate to make the robbers seem worse, and how bankers rip off money attributed to robbers. Also a love story in there, but I didn't get much out of that either--she was bored and found him exciting? Mostly, I think, I...more
The most gracefully written crime novel there is. . .a MUST read for fans of the genre - pick it up at any and all costs.
Well, not really my favorite type of book. A bit too black and white for me. Definitely brings across the mindset and attitudes of the criminal class rationalizing their behavior. The "Laws" weren't much better shifting the facts this way and that.
Very flat characters. No really likeable characters except "The Little Solider." Poverty is hard to escape from especially if you don't like hard work.
Probably would never read anything by this author again.
But if you like Bank Robbers and Shootem u...more
Very flat characters. No really likeable characters except "The Little Solider." Poverty is hard to escape from especially if you don't like hard work.
Probably would never read anything by this author again.
But if you like Bank Robbers and Shootem u...more
This is a very good crime novel from the 1930,s about a gang of bank robbers in Texas and Oklahoma . For about a year they are on a crime spree in the dusty little towns, holed up in rented houses and motel courts. The gang meets its demise one by one. Bowie Masters the last of the band to be killed or captured falls in love with Keechie Mobley but he is unable to go straight. The theme is that everyone is a thief in their own racket, whether it be a merchant or a lawyer but Bowie just liked rob...more
Edward Anderson’s 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 they’re not stupid. They’re 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 is funda...more
Such an great joy it is, beautiful writing!
Anderson's classic portrait of small-time Depression era bank robbery takes you not only through a vivid, poignant experience that breaks your heart with its humanness and immediacy, but even beyond that---on the very final page---into an unforgettable metaphor for the economic disaster of 1929 that destroyed so many homes, so many lives.
This is literature. This is what fiction is supposed to be.
Anderson's classic portrait of small-time Depression era bank robbery takes you not only through a vivid, poignant experience that breaks your heart with its humanness and immediacy, but even beyond that---on the very final page---into an unforgettable metaphor for the economic disaster of 1929 that destroyed so many homes, so many lives.
This is literature. This is what fiction is supposed to be.
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.
Anderson's second, and final, novel is a stunning piece of character-driven noir. From one end to the other, the book bears the minimalist stamp of a Hemingway disciple. Whereas Dashiell Hammett took his cue from Hemingway and spun macho minimalism into the beginnings of the hardboiled detective novel, Thieves Like Us feels less like a genre novel than the sort of thing Hemingway himself might write about characters who just happened to be criminals. The book has much more dialogue than plot and...more
A sad, desperate story of crime and economic and social injustice rendered in terrific, terse hard-boiled prose. Very much a Depression-era novel. Not sure why this isn't more widely read, especially given the two well-known film adaptations of it, but it's thankfully included in the Library of America's first volume of hard-boiled crime fiction, and in their American Noir set.
Apr 26, 2010
Frank
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
the-great-unfinished,
thrillers-and-other-pulp
Pulp surfeit, or is this really weaker than the other novels in LoA's American noir of the 30s and 40s? I didn't manage beyond the first 40 pages or so. Uninvolving story, repetitive action, too much of the same (criminals bragging), too much slang and too much would be writerly writing. Not the lean and spare hard-boiled style of Cain or McCoy, by far. Not for me.
This would have been much better had the book ended 20 pages earlier. The surprise near the end would only have been a shocker to men in the 1930s. Excellent dialogue and framing, but somewhat dated, though that is part of its charm.
I would recommend this book, basis for a Robert Altman 1974 movie starring Keith Carradine, Shelley Duval, Louise Fletcher, and Tom Skerritt. Three escaped convicts go on a crime spree across Oklahoma and Texas. The younger of the three fall in love with another's cousin and finds himself torn between wanting to live normal or stay loyal to his friends. In the end, we affirm that not all thieves are behind bars.
Again, not my favourite novel in the Noir course, but a decent story if you're into the Bonnie and Clyde couple-on-the-run sort of thing.
great book- highly recommended for anyone interested in the period
Classic noir. Anderson's stark style and great dialogue move this one along.
Stay in school. Don't do drugs. Utilize birth control.
Although nicely written, the dragging pace of this book -- exacerbated by the looming sense of doom that weighs down every page -- made it a difficult novel for me to finish.
A kind of low-budget version of The Grapes of Wrath, and a thematic -- if not actual -- inspiration for movies like Terrence Malick's Badlands.
A kind of low-budget version of The Grapes of Wrath, and a thematic -- if not actual -- inspiration for movies like Terrence Malick's Badlands.
read after seeing the Robert Altman film many many years ago.
Quite enjoyable
Quite enjoyable
Simple yet effective.
May 13, 2013
Liudmyla Beraud
marked it as to-read
May 05, 2013
Adam Chant
marked it as to-read
May 03, 2013
Tyler Henderson
marked it as to-read
Apr 27, 2013
Janet
marked it as to-read
Mar 21, 2013
Dorotea Rossi
marked it as to-read
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“The lights of the little highway town ahead spread with their approach and then scattered like flushed prey as they entered its limits. Under the filling-station sheds, swirling insects clouded the naked bulbs. The stores were closed; the depot dark.”
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“The empty highway behind looked like a stretching rubber band.”
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