By J. R. Moehringer
Narrated by Dylan Baker
Publisher: Hyperion
Pub. Date: 2012
Duration: 15.12 hours
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Review:
At my block book club, each member shares about the book
he/she read and liked during the previous month. One member shared with
excitement about Sutton. So I had a very long trip planned
by car, I decided to listen to it. What a great experience it was!
In the French literature, we have a long tradition of the
"gentleman cambrioleur", a thief who is at the same time a gentleman,
robbing without violence. The most famous one is Arsène Lupin, a character
invented by Maurice Leblanc in 1906.
But the "gentleman thief" is not necessarily a
fictive character only. Indeed, Willie "The Actor" Sutton (1901-1980)
was a notorious bank robber in the US, even making it to the first FBI's list
of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. He managed to escape several times from
maximum-security prisons. As the legend and folk hero he had become, crowds
cheered him when he was finally released from Attica State Prison on Christmas
Eve 1969.
To avoid being bothered forever by journalists, he made a
deal to spend a day with a newspaper reporter and photographer, taking them on
a tour of his life.
This book is precisely organized around what that day might have been – Sutton
left two autobiographies, but as they contradict each other, the author had
some margins to write a believable fiction based on some known facts.
I really enjoyed a lot the structure of the book: the
reporter and the photographer follow the map Willie has given them, and with
him they drive from place to place, as each address appears chronologically in
his life: the place where he grew up, the first bank he robbed, etc. Each place
then allows Willie to remember and through these flashbacks, he tells the journalists
and us the readers what happened then and there.
Moehringer did a great job at showing how growing in the
slums of Brooklyn, in very poor conditions, somewhat predestined Willie to his
grim future. It was appalling to see how the economic conditions – the Depression
– put obstacles all along, even though he did try several times to find a
honest job and stick to it. And no one can be surprised at the hate he developed
for banks.
The book is full of adventure, as Willie retells his
different bank robberies and escapes, for instance; there’s also humor, as the
reporter and photographer realize that Willie is still very much “the actor”,
and they end up discovering that they may have become themselves his prisoners
for a day.
I really had the feeling I was getting to know Willie, with
his appalling first years, growing up with jealous and violent brothers, with
his sentimental life, his amazing love of books – he developed quite a reading
program in prison, and his mental make-up.
There are also lots of elements of mystery, especially around
his love for Bess. I’m not going to give spoilers, but the end of the book
invites the reader to reconsider every word of Sutton, and wonder if he would
have made it or not in different economic times: was he indeed a victim of
society and economic turbulences? Or did his love of money make him imagine
things he built all his life around, and develop different personalities? Was
he mentally strong or extremely fragile? Was he meticulous or totally
obsessive? Is he worthy to be the hero he was in the mind of many?
At a time when banks seem again to have some more than prominent
role in our society, I think this is really timely to be remembered the life of
the most famous bank robbers.
Thoughts on the
audiobook:
I had never heard the narrator Dylan Baker before. I highly
recommend you to listen to this book. Baker is superb, with great different
voices for each character in the book. He manages to give an idea of the social
milieu behind each one. He conveys extremely well the description of poverty, and
the mystery scenes leave you on the edge of your seat, as the suspense is so
well rendered. Baker’s voice is fantastic at giving you an idea of Willie’s
very complex personality, as his tone of voice changes depending on the
circumstances; you can feel Sutton still act in from of you, the listener.
Are you planning a long trip? Invite Willie in your car, you
will not be bored a minute!
*Disclaimer - I checked out this audiobook at my public library*
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