Thick As Thieves
A Brother, a Sister--a True Story of Two Turbulent Lives
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A memoir about two siblings who loved each other (sometimes); the thrill of the shoplift, the power of the written word, the agony of addiction, and the joy of someone who understands you and still stays true
Steve Geng—thief, addict, committed member of Manhattan's criminal semi-elite—was a rhapsody in blue, all on his own. Women had a tendency to crack his head open. His sister? Also unusual: Veronica Geng wrote brilliantly eccentric pieces for The New Yorker, hung with rock stars and Pulitzer Prize winners, threw the occasional typewriter, fled intimacy. They were parallel universes, but when they converged, it was . . . memorable.
Spanning decades of unresolved personal drama and rebellion, Steve Geng's memoir, Thick as Thieves, is the story of their lives, the bond between them, and all the things they shared. Raw, real, and funny, Geng follows his unique family history from Philadelphia to Paris, Greenwich Village to Riker's Island. We meet lovable, often treacherous characters (B.J. the Queen of Crime, Tina Brown). We hear the rants of the Geng's father, the Colonel; the malicious invective of publishing; the patter of hardened criminals. This is a memoir that will lift your spirit, kick you in the shins, and help you remember the person who understood you the most. Geng has made a lot of mistakes in his life. Thick as Thieves may just make up for them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his bold memoir, Geng takes readers on a wild ride through low-life Paris, Miami and above all, New York City. The brother of New Yorker writer Veronica Geng (who died of a brain tumor in 1997), Geng enjoyed a lucrative career as a petty criminal and hardcore junkie while his sister climbed the masthead of the New Yorker. The chronicle of Geng's misadventures includes prison stints, an HIV diagnosis in the early 1980s and murder attempts by not one but two girlfriends, the second one drugging Geng before setting him on fire. It's amazing that Geng is still alive and a miracle that a man who didn't pick up a pen until he was in his 50s writes with such vigor and joy. "Record Steve," as he was known for his LP shoplifting skills, draws vivid scenes of Parisian brothels, South Beach stints on Miami Vice and the hipster underworld of 1960s and '70s Greenwich Village. Geng tells of meeting such celebrities as Don Johnson, Debbie Harry and Leroi Jones (who told Geng that heroin was keeping Gengyoung), but his finest descriptions are of his fellow hustlers. Although his sister's rarely involved in Geng's hijinks, she hovers throughout the narrative as a puzzle, goad and guardian angel.
