Review: Interesting Reading
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 2, 2013
I never really knew anything about Bonnie and Clyde beyond the fact that they were Depression-Era bank robbers, they died in a bullet-riddled ambush and they were played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the film. That was literally the sum total of my knowledge, so this book was a real revelation and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, I couldn't put it down. There's always been a certain glamour attached to the celebrity criminals of this era - Bonnie and Clyde themselves, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd - so it's quite interesting to read just how unglamourous the reality was, how dangerous, dirty and painful Bonnie and Clyde's lives were, how they were attracted to the criminal life by the harshness and impossibility of the Depression, how they never intended to set out to kill anyone and how often they kidnapped law enforcements officers instead of killing them, mostly treating them fairly and kindly along the way, how devoted they were to their families and each other, and how resigned to their fate they were.In this book neither Bonnie and Clyde come across as anything close to criminal masterminds, more like desperate and unimaginative kids from a dirt poor background who couldn't (or perhaps refused to) see any other to make a living than by turning to crime. It's almost enough to make you pity them. If nothing else, you certainly come away from this book understanding them and the choices they made a little better.