Caught

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, February 2014: At the risk of annoying those who hate literary mashups, I’m declaring Caught to be “Huck Finn meets Les Miserables.” As those are two of my formative reading experiences, that’s no small statement. And this is no small book. On page one, the likeably misguided Daniel Slaney has just escaped a Canadian prison, where he’d been held on pot-running charges. Through the story of Slaney’s struggle to remain free, we soon learn that he’s already, in many ways, caught. Caught in a manipulative relationship with his childhood friend Hearn; caught in his doomed love for the women he left behind, and the child who’s not his. Other characters are similarly caged by circumstance, particularly the wounded, dogged detective Patterson, who pursues Slaney across Canada, to Columbia and Mexico, all the while admiring, even envying Slaney’s bravado attempt at freedom. They know each other, the hunter and his prey. They’re both caught in the lives they’ve chosen. Toward the end of this subtly brilliant and propulsive novel, Slaney is asked whether it’s best to just do the things he’s blamed for. Slaney’s reply: “I did them from the start.” There’s so much energy, wit, smarts and heart in Moore’s writing, though nothing feels forced or contrived. I enjoyed so many small, crystalline moments--sometimes tense, sometimes heart-rending--that made me sit back and think, “Wow.” (Flipping through my review copy, I see “Nice!” scribbled in the margins a dozen times.) Already an award-winner in Canada, Caught is captivating. --Neal Thompson