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Product Description
Product Description
From the moment they first cut a swathe of crime across 1930s America, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker have been glamorised in print, on screen and in legend. The reality of their brief and catastrophic lives is very different -- and far more fascinating. Combining exhaustive research with surprising, newly discovered material, author Jeff Guinn tells the real story of two youngsters from a filthy Dallas slum who fell in love and then willingly traded their lives for a brief interlude of excitement and, more important, fame. Thanks in great part to surviving relatives of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, who provided Guinn with access to never-before-published family documents and photographs, this book reveals the truth behind the myth, told with cinematic sweep and unprecedented insight by a master storyteller.
About the Author
Jeff Guinn, bestselling author of the three books in 'The Christmas Chronicles,' is an award-winning journalist and writer
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Never the most glamorous of the War on Crime legends (Dillinger, etc - in fact most of their peers thought them beneath them), and immortalised by a largely fictional 1967 biopic, its high time a thorough, sober assessment of B&C was attempted, and here it is.
Guinn has written a detailed, superbly paced biography that takes you from the slums of West Dallas to the final days of B&C. A lot of crime writers view B&C as scummy fame hungry thrill killers, which Guinn explodes. While there's no doubt Clyde killed whenever he felt he had too, and there is no doubt too that the couple loved the legend that was building around them, Guinn is careful to explore the hard reality of their lives and what led them to their spree.
Despite all of this, the book is clear too that their lives were their choices, and their choices could have involved hard work and honest lives but that instead they went a criminal route that led them to their fates. This is an excellent, informative book that, whilst not making you 'like' them (more or less impossible, I'd imagine), is definitely a proper attempt at understanding them through a modern perspective.
If you're interested in that period of US history, and want to know more about B&C and sort through the legends and the misinformation then this is the book for you. The only thing people might take against this book is that it is dense and full of detail, perhaps too much for some, but Guinn is an excellent writer and handles all the details very well. As highly recommended as can be.
Guinn has written a detailed, superbly paced biography that takes you from the slums of West Dallas to the final days of B&C. A lot of crime writers view B&C as scummy fame hungry thrill killers, which Guinn explodes. While there's no doubt Clyde killed whenever he felt he had too, and there is no doubt too that the couple loved the legend that was building around them, Guinn is careful to explore the hard reality of their lives and what led them to their spree.
Despite all of this, the book is clear too that their lives were their choices, and their choices could have involved hard work and honest lives but that instead they went a criminal route that led them to their fates. This is an excellent, informative book that, whilst not making you 'like' them (more or less impossible, I'd imagine), is definitely a proper attempt at understanding them through a modern perspective.
If you're interested in that period of US history, and want to know more about B&C and sort through the legends and the misinformation then this is the book for you. The only thing people might take against this book is that it is dense and full of detail, perhaps too much for some, but Guinn is an excellent writer and handles all the details very well. As highly recommended as can be.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I rather enjoy true crime books anyway, but this one is particularly well done. It's amazing that a couple of haphazard, bungling nobodies like Barrow and Parker could have become so notorious. I suppose it says something about how similarly talentless people manage to obsess the media even today!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Riveting!
Even though I had seen the Bonnie and Clyde film I couldnt get enough of this book. Made them book seem human and 3 dimensional which is a major plus. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Edie
tough and loyal but outlaws
After reading this i cant help but feel some sympathy for clyde and bonnie,i know they were involved in killings,but im not sure bonnie ever killed any one she was just so loyal to... Read more
Published 8 months ago by rebelinblue
A Meticulous Account
In Go Down Together Jeff Guinn has created what is probably the definitive account of the lives and careers of Clyde Barrett and Bonnie Parker. Read more
Published 14 months ago by CJ
Absorbing and thought provoking
Just read this book. I found it very interesting, absorbing and thought provoking. ( What a hard, terrible and dangerous life they lived and died) I was really impressed by the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Child Of The Sixties
Sad and Bad
I have just finished reading this book, and to use a much over used cliche, I could not put it down. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Paul A. Mclean
Indispensable
The only disappointment this book provides is the fact that the final quarter or so is taken up with notes, bibliographies etc. Read more
Published 20 months ago by AK 1957-05
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie & Clyde
I haven't yet finished this book, but I so far have found it absolutely amazing. I found that it shows a different to Bonnie and Clyde that what we all assume of them. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2010 by E. Hopkins
Excellent
A well written, comprehensive, and riveting biography of Bonnie and Clyde. Read it!
Published on 10 Dec 2009 by D. Fulford
Exploding the Myth
In Go Down Together Jeff Guinn attempts to strip away the layers of myth and legend that have grown around Bonnie and Clyde in the decades since their death and thanks to... Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2009 by bhayes81
Rivetting Read
I found it difficult to put this book down.What this gang did was unbeleavable It just goes on and on !
Published on 3 July 2009 by John Gray
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