pleasant enough
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The book was interesting enough to keep me entertained on a long train journey, but someone who sets his story in various periods of history needs to tighten up more on the historical fee. I'd already begun to feel the style was wrong when there was reference to a 'stable manager' in the eighteenth century, but couldn't believe when the main character travelling to revolutionary France refers to telegrams.
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An historical romp that doesn't quite deliver.
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The poor Matthieu Zela is at his wits end. His twenty-two-year old nephew Tommy, a hugely popular English television celebrity, just can't look after himself, spending most of his days living on the edge, snorting cocaine and partying to all hours of the morning. Indeed Matthiew fears that Tommy may go the way of Tommy's ancestors, everyone one of whom has met with an unhappy ending.
Matthieu is all too familiar with the various generations of Thomas's as his lineage has always been troublesome. Born in 1743 in Paris, Matthieu seems to have always had a nephew tagging along beside him. Now over 250 years old, Matthieu is well aware of the winds of change, each era in history providing a window of learning for this talented media entrepreneur who over the centuries has courted the rich and famous and witnessed some of the most defining moments of three centuries.
In 1758 the fifteen-year-old Matthieu escapes Paris for Dover, after his stepfather horribly murders his mother. Matthieu takes his five-year-old brother Tomas and his older companion, the lovely Dominique Sauvet, a girl whom he meets on the voyage over. Many adventures await them, as Matthieu struggles to make a life for himself in this new country.
But the biggest surprise is that in 1793 the process begins which was to make him truly "a thief of time," and he stops the physical aspects of aging. At first Matthieu is shocked, but as he lives on, he realizes that this kind of enforced longevity perhaps isn't that bad after all. Life continually leads him in completely different and unexpected directions, and what could have begun to unravel, ends up in fact being a life well lived, filled with murder, betrayal, marriage and romance.
Drifting somewhere between fiction and the totally absurd, The Thief of Time makes some fun observations about the last couple of centuries as Matthieu's path veers from a seventeenth century stable boy to a nineteenth century industrialist to a respectable, twentieth century media entrepreneur.
Over the hundreds of years, Mathieu's personal life indeed becomes complicated. There are failed marriages, and women who blend together and separate, and then there's the problem of what to do about his nephews, "256 years old and he's sat back and watched nine of the Thomas's die and done nothing at all to prevent any of these tragedies."
Fortunately, our hero is exceptionally bright, usually one step ahead of everyone else. Boyne moves his plot along at break-neck speed, weaving his time-traveling adventure tale and immersing the reader into these different eras of history.
My problem with this novel is that Matthieu often comes across as a blank slate and rather one dimensional; we never really get to the heart of what makes this 256-year-old man tick. Matthieu's encounters with different periods of history are always interesting, but for all its predilections towards an historical adventure novel and all the drama and behind-the-scenes machinations, the Thief of Time, and indeed Matthiew himself, is a bit flat and perfunctory. Mike Leonard March 07.
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Intricate storyline but limited insight
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This is a story about a man who lives for 256 years; the author narrates his personal history and that of a series of nephews. Due to the long lifetime of the main protaganist, several narrative lines are interwoven, giving the potential for suspense and even cliffhangers. The author concentrates on the lifestory of the protaganist, and the most memorable storylines are in the 'present' - ie 1999 and in the early parts of the protagonists lifetime.
I was moved by the vivid and lifelike portrayal of the 'terror' of the French revolution and also I was intrigued by the references to an anti-communist witch-hunt in the US, which I had not previously been aware of.
However, I did not find the book particularly enjoyable. Although the story-lines drew me at times, they were not the most fascinating I have encountered. I did not see much depth in the characterisation and I found seven generations of nephews too many to worry about.
I learnt by reading this book and I enjoyed parts of it but I would not particularly recommend reading it unless there is nothing else good to hand.
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A fantastic read
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This is a truly imaginative read - a novel about a man who never dies, just carries on living, year after year, through the centuries. Rich in contrasts, the chapters swing between different eras; one of my favourites were the scenes where he moves to Hollywood and meets Charlie Chaplin, depicting him a cold womaniser off screen. The plot is fast-paced, combining numerous passionate affairs, not to mention the odd murder and chase sequence. This is literary fiction at its most accessible - a novel which you can read & enjoy on the train - but also an enthralling novel which makes you think. A great read!
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good old-fashioned storytelling...
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Now don't get me wrong - i'm not saying anything against modern hi-tech whizz-bang post-modern storytelling, cut-ups and fold-overs and spiralling internal monologues, but occasionally, just sometimes, it's nice to read a well-thought-out, diligently researched tale that utilises some modern method (time-jumping for one) but otherwise could have come straight from Dickens or Scott at their most imaginative. "The Thief Of Time" will transport you into the mind of a 256-year-old who's seen-it done-it in ways that most contemporary heros can only dream about, and evokes various key points in his story beautifully. I would say that "i couldn't put it down", if that didn't sound too trite. A simple story from a clearly far from simple wordsmith. Congratulations Mr Boyne - i hope your publishers signed your next few tales up as well...
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