Thick As Thieves: A Brother, a Sister–a True Story of Two Turbulent Lives

Product Description

“Geng’s memoir . . . does much to restore integrity to the genre of the addict memoir as presented in classics by William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, and Jerry Stahl.”―The New York Times Book Review
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. This is a memoir about two siblings who loved each other (sometimes), the thrill of the shoplift, and the power of the written word, which will lift your spirits, 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.

Review

“The only man more honest than a man without sin is a man without shame. In Thick as Thieves, Steve Geng explores his tumultuous life and poetic relationship with his sister with a hard won clarity and a resigned grace. Candidly unsentimental but powerfully moving, Geng’s tribute to his sister is one of the most frank and insightful depictions of familial devotion– and failings–that I’ve ever read.” ―Josh Kilmer Purcell, author of I Am Not Myself Today
“You’ll never forget your vicarious joyride through Steve Geng’s world, where jail, junk, jazz, larceny and sex are the dominant themes, and art and love are the variations. Geng has committed and survived any number of crimes, but his thirst for life, lively prose and clear-eyed analysis of his own story will have you rooting for him, no matter what.” ―Elizabeth Gaffney, author of Metropolis
“Along with ample evidence of Stephan Geng’s honesty, clarity, and courage–and, let’s not forget, occasional depravity–Thick as Thieves demonstrates that there were two writers growing up in the same household with pitch-perfect senses of the absurd.” ―Mark Singer, author of Somewhere in America

About the Author

Steve Geng grew up an army brat in Philadelphia with his sister, the late Veronica Geng, who wrote and edited for
The New Yorker and died in 1997. He attended high schools in Heidelberg, Germany, and Orléans, France. He has been a thief, a saloon keeper, and an actor, and is an active member of Manhattan’s recovery community.
Thick as Thieves is his first book.