“Young Ren lives a somewhat Dickensian life in New England during what seems to be the nineteenth century, at first in an orphanage run by Catholic brothers who will line up their charges now and then whenever someone wishes to pay enough to take a boy away (the girl orphans disappear somewhere into the hands of Sisters who live elsewhere). Otherwise the boys are fated to a hard life, sold into the army if they are not claimed by the age of fourteen or so. Ren remains unchosen primarily because he is mysteriously missing a hand, until a man arrives, claiming to be his long-lost brother.
Benjamin Nab may or may not be related to Ren and may or may not know why Ren is missing a hand, but he's certainly no more on the up and up than Ren, who has become a good thief, practicing nicking things while at the orphanage. Benjamin is a teller of tall tales and immediately uses Ren as a way to worm his way into the sympathies of various people he can fleece or steal or beg from. Benjamin meets up with his friend Tom, a former teacher who is frequently drunk in taverns. Ren's new life involves fake (or not so fake) Elixirs, Resurrection Men, an all-powerful factory owner and his thugs, more orphans and much more.
The adventures seem bizarre and picaresque, difficult to fathom where they are going or what it all adds up to until the very end. The characters are interestingly drawn but not terribly sympathetic. This was somewhat like reading _Oliver Twist_ without most of the romanticism or an ending with a wealthy family and comfort to relieve all the depictions of the dark and dangerous life in the underworld. It perhaps is a tale more suited to our times with moral ambiguity, dysfunctional societies and families and lives, and a focus more on surviving than reflection.”
aprillee wrote this review Wednesday, May 20 2009.
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