- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: L.A. Weekly Books; First Edition edition (Nov 17 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312282915
- ISBN-13: 978-0312282912
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.8 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 494 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,342,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Revisiting the prison milieu that made the author's Another Day in Paradise a critical success, Little springs a violent felon from an Indiana prison and sends him climbing up the criminal ladder before a high-stakes coin heist in Boston brings him tumbling back to earth. The adventures of antihero Bobbie Prine continue in this sequel as Prine executes a daring escape from the high-security Indiana facility he calls home, and quickly goes back to his drug-taking, law-breaking ways after landing on his feet on an Illinois farm run by a friend. His first criminal venture is a mildly lucrative gig kiting travelers' checks, but Prine's longing for the big score remains unfulfilled until he moves to Boston. There, he is hired by a gang to steal a rare coin collection from the Fogg Museum, but his plans go up in smoke when the famous elderly buyer suddenly dies, leaving Prine with a potentially priceless but unsellable haul. His bosses try to take him down after the heist falls apart, leading to a violent bloodbath when Prine goes on a no-holds-barred killing spree. The first third of the book is flat and derivative, but the plot gets interesting once Prine makes his break, and the passages set in Boston offer plenty of suspense and intrigue to offset the gratuitous violence and some silly romantic subplots. Little sticks closely to the tried-and-true formulas of prison fiction, but his ability to put together a fast-moving and at times riveting caper should help develop his critical reputation. (Nov. 5)Forecast: Another Day in Paradise was made into a movie directed by Larry Clark (Kids) and starring James Woods and Melanie Griffith, which should boost Little's name recognition. His rep as an ex-addict he is now the director of an organization that feeds the homeless in L.A. should help generate interest, too, at least on the local level.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The sequel to Another Day in Paradise (1998), this bleak tale continues the saga of 18-year-old Bad Bobbie, last seen in an Indiana juvenile detention center after a crime spree gone terribly wrong. After a bloody jailhouse fight, he escapes along with two friends just before being transferred to a state prison. The rest of the book is a long, grim, violent odyssey through the underworlds of the Midwest and the East Coast as Bobbie hooks up with some old and new associates for increasingly high-stakes criminal activity. He seeks money and heroin with a single-minded intensity that even falling in love can't change, and his bad choices lead him two steps back for every positive step he makes along the way. Little, an ex-convict and recovering drug addict, injects the story with realistic, rapid-fire dialogue and spares no depressing detail about the poisonous lifestyles of Bobbie and his unlucky entourage. A painfully graphic cautionary tale. Carrie Bissey
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The thing about trying to escape is that trying really doesn't cut it. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The thing about trying to escape is that trying really doesn't cut it. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Little loves to break your heart,
By A Customer
This review is from: Steel Toes: A Novel (Paperback)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
It doesn't get any better than this...,
By
This review is from: Steel Toes: A Novel (Hardcover)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than the last, and that's saying plenty,
By Crime Guy (Mobile AL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Steel Toes: A Novel (Hardcover)
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!
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