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Steel Toes: A Novel

Steel Toes: A Novel

List Price: $13.95
Your Price: $13.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Better than the last, and that's saying plenty
Review: No kidding, Eddie's first [Another Day in Paradise] is fantastic. Having said that, I think his latest is even better. The voice is more refined, where it's still all tough, but with more focus. And I found a lot more hope in this one. Rock on, Eddie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It doesn't get any better than this...
Review: Picking up almost immediately at the point that _Another Day In Paradise_ left off, Bobby Prine is killing time in a hard-core Indiana youth facility, trying to avoid the next race riot that will either kill him or send him packing to adult prison. On the razor's edge, he determines that only escape will save him from the fate that awaits him in either correctional facility. With a couple of friends, he does manage to flee... the crew makes their way to New York and then Boston, hooking up with a variety of other crime gangs, some of whom are very dubious partners. Prine's small crew manages to fund themselves through a moderately successful set of crimes, ranging from check-kiting to hijacking.

But a truly big score awaits: a Boston museum is displaying a collection of rare coins that a major collector desperately wants -- and he's willing to pay as much as $600K. Realizing that the competing gangs may double-cross his group, Prine tries to set up a triple-cross. But an increasingly serious drug habit and some girlfriend problems have helped cloud his mind. As the violence escalates, the reader feels just as trapped as Prine: can he survive long enough to realize one final, big score? And clean himself up in the bargain?

Little is straight out of the Eddie Bunker school of crime writers: guys who know exactly what they're talking about and wrap you into a near-psychopathic experience. You'll feel the anger, the addiction, the joy and rgaing pain that Prine experiences. Because this is raw, moving and -- ultimately -- stunning material.

p.s., As I understand it, Little passed away recently (heart attack). What a tragedy... he had so much to offer us. Luckily, we have this book and the previous one - and his memory will live as long as these books are around. And that will be quite some time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: dark disturbing and delicious
Review: right from the very first page this is a book that you cannot put down till you finish it. Shakespeare it aint, but it does what it does very very well.
i recommend this book to anyone with the slightest curiosity of the dark underbelly of the criminal world. the writer, eddie little, has the power to make your skin crawl in parts of the book, yet can make your heart soar in others. As i said, it aint shakespeare, but if you want an adrenaline charged surge into the underworld from the comfort of your very own armchair, then look no further.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: dark disturbing and delicious
Review: right from the very first page this is a book that you cannot put down till you finish it. Shakespeare it aint, but it does what it does very very well.
i recommend this book to anyone with the slightest curiosity of the dark underbelly of the criminal world. the writer, eddie little, has the power to make your skin crawl in parts of the book, yet can make your heart soar in others. As i said, it aint shakespeare, but if you want an adrenaline charged surge into the underworld from the comfort of your very own armchair, then look no further.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Steel Toes
Review: Steel Toe's is an absolute must read. Little takes you into a world that will scare most of us but does it so skillfully that if you are anything like me you will end up wondering how you would have ended up if your life had been a little bit different, and a whole lot tougher. Imagine a cross between Jim Thompson and William Bouroughs pumped up on steroids and put into this time frame and current hip vernacular. I couldn't put it down after I read the first page. I now know what it feels like to be over the edge, a complete outlaw.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Little loves to break your heart
Review: The late great Eddie Little follows his born-to-lose autobiographical character Bobby Prine to prison and on to further escapades with Syd, Ben, and Billy Bones from Another Day in Paradise. If you liked the former you'll find this a respectable follow-up. Little sketches out his underworld characters, not as fully developed as in Another Day in Paradise, which is the superior book, but still draws you in until you start to care about his adopted family of thieves and junkies. As before, he pulls no punches and makes no excuses for his characters behaviour; it's an unflinching, unapologetic revelation of their world. He demonstrates how their addictions, fears, insecurities, and violent coping mechanisms, constantly undermine their intentions, even their better ones. What I liked about Little's writing was this ability to articulate the root causes of crime and addiction: abuse, ignorance, and the eternal cycle of violence, without his characters being victims of anything other than their own choices. He gets in his licks, makes a few points about thrill seeking and the dangers of addiction, but always with his eyes wide open, and with redemption just out of reach, for Bobby Prine, and it most unfortunately seems, for Eddie Little himself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Even Better than 'Paradise'
Review: Wow!!! All I can say is wow!! Eddie Little Hits another home run. If you liked Another Day in Paradise, you gotta check this out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not as good as the first one, but...
Review: Yep, I know, Another Day in Paradise was slick as hell (while the Larry Clark film version was a certified stinker). That's the sequel, sort of, with Little's alter ego Bobbie breaking out of jail and doing what he does best (hustling, robbing, cheating and dealing, the whole lot).
Mind ya: few novels get to be this good. Steel Toes just reeks of truth, period. Not as good as the first one, that's for sure, but *well* worth your time nonetheless. Stay the hell away from the latest Jeffery Deaver's psycho-killer nonsense and buy this beaut instead.


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