Thief

by Maureen Gibbon

Suzanne believes she knows who she a former wild child, neither virgin nor virginal as a teen; someone who pulls for the wayward girls and troubled boys she now teaches in Minnesota. She has learned to survive good love and bad love and people who don't care at all. At her rented cabin, she gathers strength, like a storm forming over the lake.

While looking for a spark in her life, a random coincidence leads Suzanne to try to unlock a harrowing event from her past. She is drawn into an unusual relationship with Alpha Breville, a convicted criminal with a disturbing history; simultaneously, she begins seeing an unpredictable, dark-haired drifter―a cowboy who's part angel, part howling dog. Though the cowboy matches Suzanne in intensity and desire, he's less faithful than the captive Breville.

Which man can offer Suzanne the knowledge she seeks? Which man can truly touch her? How can she find her unique peace?

In writing that has been likened to Kate Chopin's, Maureen Gibbon constructs a taut story of desire at the other end of the Mississippi, in the north woods of Minnesota. Against deep lakes, casinos, and a bar named the Royal, Gibbon's unconventional characters show us how to play the hands we're dealt and own the choices we make, in a tough and tender book about hard-won redemption from one of America's most original writers.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

182 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2010

About the author

Maureen Gibbon is the author of Paris Red and two previous novels. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Playboy, Byliner, and elsewhere. She lives in Park Rapids, Minnesota.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I added this to my to-read list four years ago, and I can no longer remember why, or imagine what might have drawn me to it. It's generally poorly rated on Goodreads and Amazon, although a proportion of the negative reviews seem to come from people who are disgusted by the existence of a promiscuous female protagonist.

Suzanne, a 33-year-old teacher, is spending her summer in a quiet lakeside cabin. She puts a personal ad in the local paper, and one of the respondents – the only one to write a letter that hooks her attention – is a prisoner, Alpha Breville. When she finds out he's imprisoned for rape, she feels this must be a cruel cosmic joke; Suzanne was raped when she was sixteen. It's a strength of Thief that Gibbon does not make her a downtrodden victim, yet it's also clear she has been deeply damaged by the experience – in ways designed to challenge the reader's notion of what a sympathetic survivor should look like. What do we make of a rape victim who is 'slutty', has a voracious sexual appetite, is drawn repeatedly to dangerous men? What does she make of herself?

Still, the book is explicit in a way that is often uncomfortable. It's not just Suzanne's harsh language and unsparing descriptions of sex (she'll never use a softer word when 'cunt' or 'cock' or 'fuck' will do); it's what she's attracted to in men, and what she puts up with from them. Parallel to the correspondence she begins with Breville, there is the man Suzanne becomes physically involved with, referred to as 'the cowboy': a virtual stranger with a quick temper, whose behaviour indicates a proprietorial attitude. During the course of the story, both men demand things from Suzanne that they have no right to demand, and she acquiesces for dubious reasons. One has the sense that she's fooling herself in insisting that she wants these things too.

I liked Suzanne's solitude and self-sufficiency; the scenes of her at the cabin, swimming in the lake, were my favourite parts of the book. I found some of her other actions harder to untangle – though this seems to me the entire point of the story rather than something to quibble about. I wouldn't have picked this now, but I'm glad I rescued it from the purgatory of my longlist. It was an interesting read.

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[alysa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise was really interesting at the start and I found the relationship between Suzanne and Alpha to be interesting ( prior to it becoming sexual/romantic ). The sex scenes are very vulgar to the point where I would visibly cringe and there's not many redeeming things about any character in the book. The commentary around rape / the causes of it are pretty annoying, any crime can be linked back to a bad home environment, it's nothing new and nothing interesting. I appreciated her story and thought some of Suzanne's thoughts and actions were worth appreciation, but her romantic attraction to both Alpha and the cowboy felt stupid. Happy she ended up alone in the end.

[Claudia Putnam · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 probably. Certainly better than most of the GR reviews. My suspicions are that the book was broadly promoted to the wrong audience. Or else ahead of its time. It ought to be reconsidered in light of what might be a higher tolerance for complexity in light of #metoo. It's well done.

[Suad Shamma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really disliked this book. I couldn't find any redeeming qualities to it, or any of the characters involved.

I purchased this book because the premise sounded really exciting and interesting. I had completely different expectations to what it would be about, and was hoping for more of a "thriller" type instead of this self-destructive piece of writing.

Suzanne is by far one of the most unlikable characters I've ever read about. She isn't only self-destructive, but she is also selfish, disturbed and slutty. I would have been more understanding had I thought this was a result of her rape, but she was like that even before her rape, and she admits to it herself.

First few chapters, I was really intrigued by where this book was going. I thought Maureen Gibbon was going to do something incredible here in that she connected a rape victim with a rapist and had them establish some form of a correspondence. The letters started off interesting, with each person telling their story - Suzanne of her rape, and Alpha of his raping. You feel anger and disgust and hurt and I thought wow, this book is going to be great!

But then, things get strange and then stranger. Suzanne is a sex maniac, she can't seem to not have sex, despite her rape. Again, I stress the point that this was the case even before she was raped. She has sex all the time. In fact, we later find out that the reason she got raped was because she wanted to teach her boyfriend at the time a lesson for ignoring her, and so she goes out with an older guy who ends up throwing her to his friend who rapes her brutally.

Despite that, I refuse to accept that there is ever an excuse for rape. I refuse to accept that it can be redeemed, that you can serve time and then be forgiven for your crime. You have destroyed a person's life, you have taken something away from them that they will never have back, you have changed their lives and scarred them, how can that be OK?

And yet...and yet, Gibbon makes us feel that it could be OK. That there is redemption. That because a guy is handsome or because he says the right things, we can overlook his crime. That's how she made me feel with her development of Suzanne's character, which was so distorted and wrong in so many ways. Her own friends tell Suzanne she is sick and has sick tendencies. Suzanne herself admits to always going after the dangerous men - all very telling signs of her mental stability. However, and for the umpteenth time, what drove me crazy was that she was like that BEFORE her rape. That is a point that was emphasized many times by Gibbon that it made me think it didn't matter that she was raped to the overall story, because she did not change from the girl she was before her rape. She still went after the wrong kind of guys, she still went after sex and she still put herself in dangerous and promiscuous situations. What angered me even more was how the relationship between her and Alpha turned sexual, the letters they wrote one another, the visits she paid him in prison, doing whatever he asks of her, her submissiveness was disgusting. She felt it too near the end, when she shaved herself down there in order to please him, and watching his crass language towards her. It was so off-putting, I just couldn't believe the shit I was reading.

This was a small book, but it was filled with sex scenes intertwined with very frustrating scenes in which she continues to submit to this rapist. Could it be just me who felt this way about this book? I found it so disrespectful towards rape victims. I really hope Maureen Gibbon isn't writing from personal experience because then I will apologize, but it won't change how I feel about the book.

I almost wish this book was written from Alpha's rape victim's perspective instead.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was one that although I rated it four stars I know many won't. It was a book based on a disturbing subject - Suzanne (the main female character) was raped at 16. Now 17 years later she has escaped the Cities for the summer to a lake house, to get away from the fuss, to relax. Whilst there she recieves a reply to her dating ad. But its not from your usual gentleman. Alpha Breville. Convicted rapist, thief and drug abuser. It is the rapist part that holds the most for Suzanne and through this connection they start to understand eachother...she uses him to vent her frustration and anger towards her personal rapist, referred to as 'my rapist'.

But the shocking part is, is that some twisted artificial relationship is born through their unconventional connection.

What struck me with this book was just how raw and severe the author was. She doesn't create characters you love, she creates characters that cause you to feel conflicted, to understand what they do and why they do it but you aren't especially going to like it.

Suzanne is damaged, and so is Alpha Breville and that allows them to be on some sort of equal, except they aren't. One was the victim one was the offender (I must point out that Alpha Breville was not the one to rape Suzanne - completely unrelated!)

Through the book you come to see the awful attack on Suzanne when she was 16, and how that shaped her to the woman in the present day. Although throughout the book she does question whether she would have still been the same person if it never happened.

Alpha Breville had awful events in his life - losing his virginity at 8 to his 12 year old cousin and from there an ongoing struggle with sex, both abuse and consensual. Leading to his eventual rape of a woman at the age of nineteen.

Very controversial subject and story in general. At one point you actually feel for Breville and hope that some sort of relationship can come from this unusual circumstance. Not only that but it stays with you, creating conflicting feelings, not only towards the characters, but towards the book itself.

Maureen Gibbon, brilliantly achieved a shocking, raw and conflicting piece of writing, that will be a favourite of mine for a while and one that I will go back to read because it is one that needs to be read again and again to fully understand the impact.

It was a short book, at just 184 pages, consisting of short chapters, and strong prose, but this justs adds to the intensity of the story.

One part i particularly liked was the realisation by Suzanne that Breville had changed her, and her feeling towards him, how they changed It did not end, but one sentence made you realise that the fascination had, had vanished.

"He passed his hand over my hip and ass but this time I didn't feel any burning. Just the touch of his hand."

[eb · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unhappy novel about a rape victim who takes up with an imprisoned rapist. I admired the frankness, the restraint, the chill, but I dreaded picking up the book.

[Matthew White · Rating 2 out of 5]

well written and readable but the protagonist is one of the most stupid, vapid and unlikeable whores ever dreamed up. (hopefully this isn't autobiographical).

[Niamh Boyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written, intelligent, emotionally complex. I read it in one sitting. A brave book.

[Kiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm…

I don’t really know how to feel about this book.. The writing was fabulous - the author really has a way with words. However I didn’t really feel like the whole story went anywhere? No conclusion.. no real actions taken.. I downloaded this book several years ago, and had completely forgotten why I got it in the first place, so I read what it said about it on Amazon before starting, but otherwise I went in blind. It was not what I expected. There was a lot of sexual stuff in there - which I don’t mind, it just caught me off guard at first. Even though there wasn’t a lot of action in the story, it was so well written that it somehow still kept me entertained throughout. The ending was disappointing. I would have liked a bit more… of an ending. It was all right though, three stars.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I see a lot of folks have given this book a poor rating. I think it was bravely written considering the subject matter. I think it could be triggering for victims of sexual assault. It could be an excellent book to be explored by those in or going into a career in counseling. I found it quite interesting and well written. It’s a moment to try and walk in someone else’s shoes, from both the victim and rapists viewpoints.

[Melissa Wingard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in one sitting. It drew me in and wouldn’t let go. It broke my heart and disturbs me on some level. She is strong in so many ways and broken in others.

[Amanda Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fleeing from a bad relationship in Minneapolis, Suzanne finds herself relaxing in a remote cabin on a quiet lake in northern Minnesota for the summer. Enjoying her isolated summer off from teaching, four hours away from where she previously made her life, Suzanne begins to get lonely and places a personal ad looking for some male companionship in “Thief.”
Oddly, one of the men who responds to Suzanne’s ad is a prison inmate who writes a poetic response that intrigues Suzanne.
Why Suzanne would want to start a correspondence, let alone the sick and strange relationship that follows, attests to her mental stability. Whether it’s the fact that she’s been drawn to bad men her whole life, or the fact that Alpha Breville is a convicted thief and Suzanne is a rape survivor, Suzanne immediately writes Breville back, effectively beginning a relationship with him.
After Breville reveals his crime, Suzanne begins to use the correspondence as a type of therapy, expecting Breville to be honest when she asks him why he raped, expecting him to listen when she described to him how her rapist affected her life.
Suzanne begins making the four-hour drive to visit Breville weekly, and with face-to-face meetings, collect phone calls and the letters they still write, their relationship blossoms. Suzanne enters the relationship telling Breville that he must take her as she comes, and when she decides she’s done, he must let her go.
Their conversations and meetings become more sexually explicit, and one must wonder why Suzanne would go so far to please a man who in prison because he was a sexual predator. She is not only trying to work through her past rape, she believes herself to be falling in love with a man who committed the same crime that changed her life.
Suzanne finds a sexual outlet for her frustration over Breville’s incarceration. She meets up with a stranger who is only interested in sex, and Suzanne finds their following relationship quite satisfying.
Gibbon’s writing gets increasingly explicit as Suzanne opens up about her rape and her desires for Breville, and in turn her hook-up stranger ignite.
Suzanne is straightforward about her rape and how it made her feel, and how Breville makes her feel as far as she can figure, yet her actions are still difficult for the reader to digest. A woman whose life was so affected that she still thinks about her rapist daily, Suzanne uses her sexuality to get any man she wants then throws them away without a second thought.
The writing is salacious, the story is a bit open-ended. Suzanne is a woman who seems less at-ease with herself than she believes herself to be, thereby making the reader unsure what to think of her.
Gibbon is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. This is her second novel.

[Asiuol K · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of the book is interesting if it is done correctly, but it wasn't. Instead, there were a lot of flaws and while I appreciate how she handled the situation with Alpha, the rapist whom the main character fell in love with, I cannot say it's close to being a good book.

Suzanne, the main character, doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities. Instead, it felt like Gibbon was trying to convince us that there were some by having other characters discuss how great she was and when they had a valid complaint, the complainer was in the wrong.

The plot was rather slow and the fact that no sub-plots were given any effort made it even more disappointing. If you're going to discuss something as dark as living as a rape victim, you're going to need something else to make it more endurable. The constant sex did not help. I understand why it was included and there should have been some, but it took up way more words than necessary. All the time wasted on her sex life should have gone into, I don't know, developing characters or creating a more active plot.

In the end, Suzanne didn't see to have accomplished anything. Even though she shouldn't have been 'cured', she should have felt like a different person compared to her pre-book. Instead, she was pretty much the same person.

A few lines felt awkward and unrealistic - especially when they were used to compliment Suzanne or used to demonstrate how cultured she is because she teaches English. I'm sorry, but demonstrating how cultured or intelligent character is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to reading a book.

[Kayleigh Arthur · Rating 1 out of 5]

Personally, I found this book disappointing.I read the back of the book, thinking it would be really good, but in fact I found it really boring. I'm one of those people that once I start a book, I have to finish it. It took me really long to finish it though! Their were a couple of good bits in the book, like the bits when she visits the Man in Stillwater, but I just did not find it very gripping or mysterious. I was really disappointed about the ending too, I was expecting a bit of a better ending. If you want my advice, do not read it!

[Dottie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What started out as an interesting premise....a woman places a person and a man responds. He is an imprisoned rapist and she is a victim of rape. It originally appears that their respective thought processes will be explored and the associated feelings dealt with...what it is like to rape.....to be raped ......the book quickly seems to wander off to gratuitious (to me) sexual encounters. A quick read....

[Alyson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think what I wanted from this story was more substance. She did all these things but none of it, in my opinion, gave the story the depth I was hoping for. I would've liked the book to open up with her experiencing the rape 17 years ago to get the reader to connect, understand and sympothize with her on a deeper level from the beginning. But the character did nothing for me, I didn't feel an emotional connection with her, which left the story bland.

[Shona · Rating 1 out of 5]

I agree with another comment on here that this was an interesting storyline. However, it was far too short to really explore any characters and included too much unecessary sex! The plot didnt go anywhere, didnt care much for Suzanne and then it ended! Disappointment.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be very disturbing. The main character was so self-destructive that it stressed me out. Thought short, I struggled to get through the book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a disturbing story, but the narrative loses steam towards the end.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much more sexually explicit than I was expecting. Not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I was expecting somehow.

[Victoria Tirrel · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the back of the book a reviewer said something like "I read it in one sitting, late into the night." So did I. Disturbing but revelatory.

[Andrea Hollenbeck]

I would not recommend this book. It seems as if it is going somewhere, and the book ends. The main character is a little too self centered for me :-)

[Sarah White · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a book for everyone. Stark and honest about sexuality and the dark side of emotional healing.

[Snem · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok, not great not bad. I'm not sure it's for everyone so I would have a hard time recommending it, but it did cover a lot of the complexities of being a trauma survivor.

[Martina Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, a little weird tho and the ending wasn't great.