Oliver Twist is one of my favorite books of all time. Since I first saw the movie musical Oliver! as a child, I have been obsessed with Dickens' seedy underworld of villains, innocents, and in-betweens. I first read the novel in sixth grade, and I have fond memories of my father reading certain chapters aloud to me as we waited for my piano lessons. The book introduced me to several characters that were removed from the play including Monks, Oliver's treacherous half-brother. I was excited to see how Epstein would paint Dickens characters in a more nuanced light.
In the first half of the book, I was not disappointed. Epstein gives us a Fagin who while still recognizable, is far more sympathetic and morally gray than the version in Dickens' original. I could very much see a young Ron Moody playing the part of young Jacob as he stumbles through the world, being kicked around both by tragic circumstance and by the sort of scoundrel than he is destined to become, and yet still managing to land on his feet every time. The story of his early life was fantastic, and I could still reconcile the Fagin of both Oliver! and Oliver Twist to this crafty young man and his quest for survival at whatever the cost.
The author started to lose me at the introduction of Bill Sikes. As anyone familiar with the story will know, Sikes is the true villain of Dickens' original novel and is utterly irredeemable. Unfortunately, in her quest to justify Fagin's attachment to Sikes, Epstein has also excused much of Bill's behavior, changing the story where it couldn't possibly be done. On top of that. the moment he arrived in the story, the carefully researched period slurs and profanity dissolved into modern epithets where Bill was concerned, disrupting my immersion. The dénouement breaks down completely in the third act with the death of Nancy, which occurs in a manner wildly different than in either the original novel or the play. She also has removed Monks completely, explaining in the notes that she couldn't figure out a way to cast Fagin's association with him in a positive light. What results is that the second half of the novel becomes little more than glorified alternate universe fanfiction, which is a shame since the former half was nearly completely canon-compliant.
Fagin the Thief is a debut novel, so I do not rate it as harshly as I might have if written by a more experienced author. Epstein is indeed a talented writer, and I look forward to seeing what she does next. If I had gone in with clearer expectations of what the novel actually was (a complete re-working rather than a sympathetic retelling), I might have enjoyed it more. As it stands, I give it 3 out of 5 stars.