Genet, the main character as well as author of The Thief's Journal, revels with gusto in the abjection, poverty, and treachery of thievery in order to introduce to this book's readers a new and gripping look into the life of a social outcast and the subculture born of abjection. Although he recounts experiences in the Guyana prison, his string of lovers, prostituting on the streets of Europe, and the poverty in which he flourished with disturbing and revolting accuracy, none of these descriptions are told with any bitterness, shame, or resen ....