Man on Fire

Man On Fire is a story about ex-mercenary, Creasy, who is burned out and drinking too much, who has seen too much of the bad side of life and sees nothing more to live for. He visits his old friend Guido in Naples, who convinces him to take a low wage bodyguard job to occupy his time. Becoming a bodyguard to eleven year old Pinta Balletto was at first difficult for Creasy in that he did not care to be around people. But Pinta weaves her way into his cold heart and softens it.

When Pinta is kidnapped and killed, and Creasy badly wounded in her protection, he realizes that Pinta had given him a new outlook on life, and he vows to kill everyone even remotely involved in her death, including taking on Italy's top mob boss, Cantarella.

Unfortunately, here the book takes an emotional sidetrack that the movie thankfully left out. Creasy travels to Gozo to recuperate his strength, staying with the family of Guido's dead wife, Julia. He manages to become accepted in the close knit community, making friends and toning his body.

Here we meet Nadia Schembri, Julia's sister, supposedly written to appear tragic but coming off as pushy and self-centered to me. Unfortunately, she becomes a love interest to Creasy, a very bad sidetrack in the plot. I'm sorry, but a bad first marriage doesn't give her the right to use and deceive someone else. I didn't like her at all.

All the revenge and killing praised about in Man On Fire doesn't even begin until page 257 of a 370 page book. While 256 pages were dedicated to Creasy's meeting with Pinta and recovery after the kidnapping, the book still did not divulge as much information on his character as the 2004 movie did.

Ok, I saw the 2004 movie before I read the book, and since the book is almost *always* better than the movie, my expectations for this book were set pretty high.

The Creasy in the movie is much colder, meaner, and more brutal than the book portrayed, the characters more well rounded (and Nadia completely left out, thank god) and more time is spent on the details of the kidnapping and revenge than the book.

Overall, the book was OK, but not spectacular. There was not as much action as I anticipated, and I found the softer Creasy to be less likeable than the movie's more hardened version. Pinta's part in the book was shallow, and I felt I didn't get to know the girl well enough to love her like Creasy did. If you have seen the movie, take note that the book is very different. If you haven't seen the movie, you may enjoy the book more, but be cautioned that it is not the "non-stop action thriller" that is promised.

Source:

http://www.memeread.com/book/0333307429-man-on-fire.html

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