In this prequel to the stainless steel rat, slippery jim is a brash 17-year-old who has left his parents' porcuswine farm, planning to embark on a life of crime. The book opens with jim bungling a bank job so that he can...In this prequel to the stainless steel rat, slippery jim is a brash 17-year-old who has left his parents' porcuswine farm, planning to embark on a life of crime. The book opens with jim bungling a bank job so that he can be arrested and sent to prison, where he plans to learn the art of being a master criminal.