I enjoy Dickens' wry sense of humor, and I like the vigor with which he condemns the social evils of his time, but at some point in every one of his books I've read there's a moment where I can't help but reflect on how obvious it is that he was being paid by the installment. Twice in the novel Oliver finds a generous older benefactor who elevates him from the crime and misery into which he's been pulled, only for Oliver to be kidnapped back to his previous life. There's a chapter where Oliver's patroness Rose Maylie becomes ill for no reason and nearly dies, and it does nothing to evolve any of the characters or to move the plot in any way.

The other weird thing about this one, for me, is that relative to something like 'Great Expectations,' Oliver is barely a character in his own story. He exists to suffer and to be pitied, and I'm not sure that at any point in the story he makes an effectual decision. He barely appears in the last third of the book, which is all about the machinations of the people around him. The book mostly gets away with it on the strength of the supporting cast, but it's odd. Worth reading, but not my favorite of Dickens' works.