ththalassocracy's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
mattnixon's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book. Sutton presents a winning and complex portrait of Depression/WWII-era bankrobber Willie Sutton and successfully probes the ideas of American myth-making and individual and cultural memory. The book deftly explores what happens when a man becomes a folk hero as well as "a legend in his own mind" and the relationship between the two: self-conception and public consumption. How much does one impact or shape the other.
Sutton is imperfect and I imagine that most qualms will center around many of the characters being stock, the central relationship being pat or cliche, the use of cultural signposts in lieu of establishing setting and/or the possibly simplistic or lazy explanation for Sutton's motivation. For me, however, Moehringer employs a deft and effective--again, to me--narrative sleight-of-hand that makes those complaints at worst beside the point or, at best, exactly the point. It hit me as the latter.
I found Sutton in turns funny, tense, and insightful--I can't help but think Moehringer was partially using this story to make a statement about America circa 2012. The ending packed a surprising emotional punch that left both my head and my heart equally stung.
Don't let the gauzy, romance novel cover scare you off (as it did me for a while). This is a book of bank robbers, prison escapes, double-crosses and life on the lam. It's also, yes, a romance: between a man and his woman, America and its folks heroes and a life lived and a life remembered.
Sutton is imperfect and I imagine that most qualms will center around many of the characters being stock, the central relationship being pat or cliche, the use of cultural signposts in lieu of establishing setting and/or the possibly simplistic or lazy explanation for Sutton's motivation. For me, however, Moehringer employs a deft and effective--again, to me--narrative sleight-of-hand that makes those complaints at worst beside the point or, at best, exactly the point. It hit me as the latter.
I found Sutton in turns funny, tense, and insightful--I can't help but think Moehringer was partially using this story to make a statement about America circa 2012. The ending packed a surprising emotional punch that left both my head and my heart equally stung.
Don't let the gauzy, romance novel cover scare you off (as it did me for a while). This is a book of bank robbers, prison escapes, double-crosses and life on the lam. It's also, yes, a romance: between a man and his woman, America and its folks heroes and a life lived and a life remembered.
dana_in_denver's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this historical fiction about a legendary bank robber... The ending offers an interesting insight in to the mind of this complicated man. Got this book tip from a woman at the gym who never steers me wrong!
barbie16's review against another edition
4.0
Ok so Sutton. I just want to start by saying I really enjoyed this book. The character Willie Sutton was richly developed and his life retold throughout the novel was fasinating. The story is actually based off the real Willie Sutton aka Willie the Actor, a bankrobber who most likely stole about 2 million dollars from many different banks during the 1920s-1950s. He escaped prison three times. How did this guy pull it off? Well the story is historical fiction so who knows how he actually pulled anything off. But who cares, the story still is captivating.
The story begins with Willie being released from jail. The year is 1969. A paper is able to get an exclusive with him and he agrees to have a reporter and a photographer follow him around all day while he tells his life story. Here he recounts his childhood, how he got into robbing banks, the horrors of prison life, and a woman he could never stop loving.
I guess my only real problem with this book is that sometimes the shift between Willie in 1969 telling his story and his life story don't always mesh well. The reader is getting a meaty version of his story - all the gory details. When the novel switches to 1969, Willie sometimes summarizes in a sentence or two what we the reader just read. To me this means that Willie isn't telling the reporter and the photographer the story that we the reader are getting. So may I just say how could they have written an interesting article in the tiny tidbits they got?? Seems odd that what we're reading isn't exactly what the reporter and the photographer hear. The connection between the sections is there but to me it's just not strong enough and sometimes too unnecessarily repetitive.
Other than that I loved how this book illustrated both Willie and the tough time period he lived in. Sometimes I think other books and historical accounts make us think that the 20s was some high living decade that ended with the crash of '29. OR that the economy only hit a depression in the 1930s. The reality is that there were many times after WWI right through to the 1930s where times were extremely tough for many people. Not everyone was partying and rolling in money. This story might not be real persay but Moehringer makes it sound like it could be. Willie the Actor is not a very good man, he's a criminal who really just never learned, but he lived during a very tough time in our history and I found myself sympathizing with him. He rarely did things right, but he made choices based on what he believed and he stuck to them. As he said, he was never a "rat".
If you're a fan of the time period and love a good crime novel, you'll enjoy this.
The story begins with Willie being released from jail. The year is 1969. A paper is able to get an exclusive with him and he agrees to have a reporter and a photographer follow him around all day while he tells his life story. Here he recounts his childhood, how he got into robbing banks, the horrors of prison life, and a woman he could never stop loving.
I guess my only real problem with this book is that sometimes the shift between Willie in 1969 telling his story and his life story don't always mesh well. The reader is getting a meaty version of his story - all the gory details. When the novel switches to 1969, Willie sometimes summarizes in a sentence or two what we the reader just read. To me this means that Willie isn't telling the reporter and the photographer the story that we the reader are getting. So may I just say how could they have written an interesting article in the tiny tidbits they got?? Seems odd that what we're reading isn't exactly what the reporter and the photographer hear. The connection between the sections is there but to me it's just not strong enough and sometimes too unnecessarily repetitive.
Other than that I loved how this book illustrated both Willie and the tough time period he lived in. Sometimes I think other books and historical accounts make us think that the 20s was some high living decade that ended with the crash of '29. OR that the economy only hit a depression in the 1930s. The reality is that there were many times after WWI right through to the 1930s where times were extremely tough for many people. Not everyone was partying and rolling in money. This story might not be real persay but Moehringer makes it sound like it could be. Willie the Actor is not a very good man, he's a criminal who really just never learned, but he lived during a very tough time in our history and I found myself sympathizing with him. He rarely did things right, but he made choices based on what he believed and he stuck to them. As he said, he was never a "rat".
If you're a fan of the time period and love a good crime novel, you'll enjoy this.
ktcarlston's review against another edition
3.0
I will read anything J.R. Moehringer writes. I'm a fan. Totally. But this book was just okay. It took me a looooong time to slog through and I don't know if it's because I just didn't find the story compelling enough or just a reflection of the time of year with a lot of other things going on - but - not a bad story - but also - I didn't love it. I wanted to love Willie but I just couldn't.
lazygal's review against another edition
4.0
This is an interesting blend of historical fiction, fiction and what I call faction (fiction based on non-fiction). The true is that on Christmas Day, 1969, after his release from Attica, Willie Sutton spent the day with a newspaper reporter and photographer, taking them on a tour of his life. Based on that day, the author has written a supposal: what was Sutton thinking when he revisited sites (many of them long gone by 1969)?
Moehringer has posited a Sutton who was beat up by his brothers, who turned to crime because he was in love with Bess Endren (daughter of a rich shipyard owner), and who was bound by one main rule: don't rat out your friends. One of those friends? Dutch Schultz. As the three men tour Vinegar Hill, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Coney Island, Staten Island, Yankee Stadium and other places in New York City, Sutton's tale is interrupted by reminiscences of the past and his obsession with Bess. His reading habits and gentleness with others is highlighted (for example, while working at Farm Colony Hospital, he anonymously left money for burials on the corpses of those who would otherwise end up in Potters Field).
In doing a little research it's unclear how much of the book is true (one source has Sutton born in Greenpoint, while this book says Vinegar Hill) but ultimately it doesn't matter. This plausible history is an enjoyable read, reminding us of a world gone by (I chuckled with I read Sutton's reaction to the "remodeled" Yankee Stadium - whatever would he think of today's entirely new model?)
ARC provided by publisher.
Moehringer has posited a Sutton who was beat up by his brothers, who turned to crime because he was in love with Bess Endren (daughter of a rich shipyard owner), and who was bound by one main rule: don't rat out your friends. One of those friends? Dutch Schultz. As the three men tour Vinegar Hill, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Coney Island, Staten Island, Yankee Stadium and other places in New York City, Sutton's tale is interrupted by reminiscences of the past and his obsession with Bess. His reading habits and gentleness with others is highlighted (for example, while working at Farm Colony Hospital, he anonymously left money for burials on the corpses of those who would otherwise end up in Potters Field).
In doing a little research it's unclear how much of the book is true (one source has Sutton born in Greenpoint, while this book says Vinegar Hill) but ultimately it doesn't matter. This plausible history is an enjoyable read, reminding us of a world gone by (I chuckled with I read Sutton's reaction to the "remodeled" Yankee Stadium - whatever would he think of today's entirely new model?)
ARC provided by publisher.
celise_winter's review against another edition
4.0
Knowing the elusiveness of straightforward facts on Willie Sutton, I decided to read this as speculative literature rather than worrying about the details. The author doesn't pretend to know everything, which makes for a few interesting moments.
I liked the beginning, fell out of love as soon as the female character was introduced. Men, pay attention, this is how you DON'T write women. Then suddenly I was completely interested in the story again and I read two thirds of it in a few days, when it had taken me a month for the first 60 pages.
I would consider reading more by this author.
I liked the beginning, fell out of love as soon as the female character was introduced. Men, pay attention, this is how you DON'T write women. Then suddenly I was completely interested in the story again and I read two thirds of it in a few days, when it had taken me a month for the first 60 pages.
I would consider reading more by this author.
book_nut's review against another edition
3.0
I liked it more than I expected, but less than I could have.
leighcharlton's review against another edition
3.0
idk why my dad let me read this when I was like 12.
linzbassett's review against another edition
4.0
It took me a little bit to get into Sutton, but once I finally got there I couldn't put it down. The writing style is what made it hard for me initially. The way the dialogue is written makes it hard to tell who was speaking and the fact that the main character sometimes speaks in the third person didn't help. Overall, I found it an interesting story that depicted a really fascinating time in U.S. History.
To see my full review check out https://linzthebookworm.blogspot.com/2022/06/book-review-sutton-by-jr-moehringer.html
To see my full review check out https://linzthebookworm.blogspot.com/2022/06/book-review-sutton-by-jr-moehringer.html