Thick as Thieves
by Steve Geng
Published by Henry Holt and Company
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Reviewed by Lauren Segelbaum
After the fiasco of James Frey’s book, Million Little Pieces, one tends to be skeptical of the memoir genre. We read these books with a part of us wondering if the tales of the writer’s drug addiction are true.
Thick as Thieves in many ways is no different but it doesn’t seem to be as important. There are other plot lines in this well-written novel that matter more. This is a story of an older sister, Veronica Geng, the well-known New Yorker writer, and her younger brother Steve Geng. Children of a colonel in the Quartermaster Corps and a stay-at-home military mother, Veronica takes a path to success and Steve takes a path of self- destruction.
Steve Geng chronicles his life as a beatnik, jazz enthusiast, criminal, actor and junkie. He does so with passion and a certain rawness that makes you feel both empathy and rage.
Thick as Thieves answers the question: How do two children growing up in the same family turn out so different? They both had the same set of parents with the same set of opportunities. Veronica graduated from an Ivy League school while Steve Geng received his education from the streets of Paris and New York City. Veronica went on to become a successful writer for a well-known publication, and Steve Geng went on to be a career criminal spending time in jail and in rehab.
Ironically enough Steve outlived his sister. The fact that he lost touch with her in her final year of her life haunts him to this day. So to repair the damage he caused his family, he goes back to AA and becomes an active member of the recovery community in Manhattan. He did so in his fifties, the time of his life when he wrote this novel.
Mr. Geng includes an author’s note at the end of this book. I suggest he move it to the beginning to take away the skepticism of the potential reader who was damaged by James Frey.
Armchair Interviews says: A family story without a happy ending.