Preview of The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza Summary:

The social concerns, which serve as background rather than foreground, include the corruption and dissolution of urban life. In the Burglar series, a central theme is the skill of the professional, the individual who is differentiated from the masses by his cleverness and the special abilities that he has developed and perfected. The individual, Bernie Rhodenbarr, is a skilled burglar and safe-cracker, someone at the top of the criminal hierarchy. Bernie successfully copes with the complexity and the corruption of the city around him, and he triumphs in having a personal life that is warm and sustained and varied and interesting. The central friendship in the series is an unlikely one between Bernie, the burglar, and Carolyn, the lesbian dog groomer. In The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, that friendship involves sharing Bernie's work, with Carolyn sometimes called Bernie's partner and sometimes his henchperson. Despite...