GO DOWN TOGETHER by Jeff Guinn is a new (ish) biography of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker that is the best I have ever read with lots of previously unpublished details . I probably knew, but in 2009 you don't think of it, that many of the main roads were still unpaved dirt in 1932.
shareThanks for the referral, clean. I went to Borders today after reading your lead and was so captivated by the book I speed read it, since I couldn't put it down, it exposed the characters so deftly. It made watching the movie so much more fulfilling, even if it did sympathize with them in a different manner than the glorified escapades that the movie illustrated so adroitly. Of course Clyde's prison rape and his first murder were avoided in the film, as well as Bonnie's crippling injuries and Clyde's skills at daredevil driving. Too bad the movie didn't illustrate the crazy driving in that V-8 Ford a little more aptly. Neither did the movie show how bad Bonnie was injured by those car crashes and the nature of her injuries, despite the skill Clyde possessed as a road runner. And the book showed how poorly they planned their escapades and how measly their rewards were, in favor of their insane love affair rather than the pursuit of wealth. It also revealed Clyde as being a little short guy, instead of a glamorous Adonis. And Bonnie was actually more of a drunkard than the movie made her out to be. I loved reading it. Thanks for the introduction.
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