Synopses & Reviews
The flesh-and-blood story of the outlaw lovers who robbed banks and shot their way across Depression-era America, based on extensive archival research, declassified FBI documents, and interviews The daring movie revolutionized Hollywoodnow the true story of Bonnie and Clyde is told in the lovers own voices, with verisimilitude and drama to match Truman Capotes In Cold Blood.
Strictly nonfictionno dialogue or other material has been made upand set in the dirt-poor Texas landscape that spawned the star-crossed outlaws, Paul Schneiders brilliantly researched and dramatically crafted tale begins with a daring jailbreak and ends with an ambush and shoot-out that consigns their bullet-riddled bodies to the crumpled front seat of a hopped-up getaway car.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows relationship was, at the core, a toxic combination of infatuation blended with an instinct for going too far too fast. The poetry-writing petite Bonnie and her gun-crazy lover drove lawmen wild. Despite their best efforts the duo kept up their exploits, slipping the noose every single, damned time. That is until the weight of their infamy in four states caught up with them in the famous ambush that literally blasted away their years of live-action rampage in seconds. Without glamorizing the killers or vilifying the cops, the book, alive with action and high-level entertainment, provides a complete picture of Americas most famous outlaw couple and the culture that created them.
Paul Schneider is the author of the critically acclaimed Brutal Journey, the highly praised The Enduring Shore, and The Adirondacks, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book. He and his wife, the photographer Nina Bramhall, and their son, Nathaniel, divide their time between Bradenton, Florida, and West Tisbury, Massachusetts.
The daring movie revolutionized Hollywood; Now the true story of Bonnie and Clyde is told in the lovers own voices, with verisimilitude and drama to match Truman Capotes In Cold Blood.
By means of extensive archival research, declassified FBI documents, and interviews, Paul Schneider has written a book that is strictly nonfictionno dialogue or other material has been made upand set in the dirt-poor Texas landscape that spawned the star-crossed outlaws. The dramatically crafted tale begins with a daring jailbreak and ends with an ambush and shoot-out that consigns their bullet-riddled bodies to the crumpled front seat of a hopped-up getaway car.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows relationship was, at the core, a toxic combination of infatuation blended with an instinct for going too far too fast. The poetry-writing petite Bonnie and her gun-crazy lover drove lawmen wild. Despite their best efforts the duo kept up their exploits, slipping the noose every time. That is until the weight of their infamy in four states caught up with them in the famous ambush that literally blasted away their years of live-action rampage in seconds. Without glamorizing the killers or vilifying the cops, the book, alive with action and high-level entertainment, provides a complete picture of Americas most famous outlaw couple and the culture that created them.
"A nonfiction novel in the style of Capote's In Cold Blood . . . . Schneider's Bonnie and Clyde presents the story the way it might have been from the inside."Allen Barra, Chicago Tribune
"Schneider gets much closer to his subjects in Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend. Noted for his novelistic approach to nonfiction in such previous works as Brutal Journey, Schneider takes two big risks here. He writes throughout in the present tense and tells much of the story from Clyde's point of view in a startling second-person narrative: 'You're just shooting the trees to pieces over the guard's heads with your Browning automatic rifle . . . God, that gun feels good. Rata rata rat.' This strategy makes Schneider's book extraordinarily immediate, not to mention lurid. Liberally quoting from eyewitness accounts (of varying reliability, he freely acknowledges in the endnotes), he excels at conveying the grungy texture of their lives."Wendy Smith, Los Angeles Times
"A detailed history of the Barrow gang's short life . . . Bonnie and Clyde has extensive quotes to pull the reader into the action."Simon Baatz, The Washington Post
"Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend by Paul Schneider is the best thing Ive read this yearit puts truer faces on the duo than Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaways, and while taking nothing away from the immortal, classic film, adds layer upon layer of intrigue . . . Paul Schneider, 75 years after the couple was ripped to shreds by the bullets of the law, has stripped away the iconography, offering up a stunningly researched, immaculately constructed story of love, sex and sin, all in the words of Bonnie and Clyde and those who knew them, feared them, and had the misfortune of being caught in the cross-fire. As Schneider explains in his intro to the text, 'The following is a work of nonfiction in which nothing has been created out of whole cloth by the author and everything has a reasonably acceptable pedigree as a "fact."' Then, he adds, with a touch of humor, 'That said, some sources are better than others, a situation that is true for every work of nonfiction and is even more unavoidable in stories as rife with rumor and lacquered with legend as that of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrowall the reader needs to know is that no dialogue has been made up' . . . Schneider takes the “cool” away, and shows Bonnie and Clyde for what they were: lovers, laughers, and cold-blooded murderers. His Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend is a riveting triumph, and as eye-opening as the sight of Barrows corpse. They changed American culture, and died in the act, and for that, well never forget themwhether wed like to or not."Christopher Schobert, The Buffalo News
"If an amusement park spent millions on a Bonnie and Clyde adventure extravaganza, you would not get a more thrilling ride than might be had by reading West Tisbury resident Paul Schneider's latest book, Bonnie and Clyde, the Lives Behind the Legend . . . Mr. Schneider (The Adirondacks, The Enduring Shore, and Brutal Journey) conjures a very palatable desperation as well as the excitement of life on the runa life with a limited future. His deft delivery will have the reader sweating along with Clyde and his gang, feeling the hunger, desolation, exhaustion, and the camaraderie among thieves. The story is like a Greek tragedy. There are no surprise endings in traditional Greek tragedy, and no surprise endings in Bonnie and Clyde. (Most of us have seen the 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.) But it is not the end, but the journey that makes this book worth reading . . . Almost immediately, Mr. Schneider sets the stage and mood with his mastery of descriptive prose. He moves between a narrative that at times seems to mimic those 1930 movie narratorspart third person omniscient vernacular, and an unusual second person omniscient voice that somehow puts you in the center of all the activity. Perhaps the most unusual and impressive aspect of this book is that every quoted personal conversation is comprised of words that were a
Review
"When David Newman and I were writing the screen play for "Bonnie and Clyde" we did an enormous amount of research, but not nearly as much as Paul Schneider. And it has paid off handsomely; he has written a splendid biography of two iconic American gangsters who were 'not only outlaws, but outcasts.' From the first page, waiting for a prison break on a foggy morning in East Texas to the last, the book is riveting and unforgettable."—Robert Benton
"A nonfiction novel in the style of Capote's In Cold Blood . . . . Schneider's Bonnie and Clyde presents the story the way it might have been from the inside."—Allen Barra, The Chicago Tribune
Review
"When David Newman and I were writing the screen play for "Bonnie and Clyde" we did an enormous amount of research, but not nearly as much as Paul Schneider. And it has paid off handsomely; he has written a splendid biography of two iconic American gangsters who were 'not only outlaws, but outcasts.' From the first page, waiting for a prison break on a foggy morning in East Texas to the last, the book is riveting and unforgettable."Robert Benton
Synopsis
The flesh-and-blood story of the outlaw lovers who shot their way across Depression-era America, based on archival research, declassified FBI documents, and interviewsThe daring movie revolutionized Hollywood—now the true story of Bonnie and Clyde is told in the lovers' own voices, with verisimilitude and drama to match Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.
Strictly nonfiction—no dialogue or other material has been made up—and set in the dirt-poor Texas landscape that spawned the star-crossed outlaws, Paul Schneider's brilliantly researched and dramatically crafted tale begins with a daring jailbreak and ends with an ambush and shoot-out that consigns their bullet-riddled bodies to the crumpled front seat of a hopped-up getaway car.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's relationship was, at the core, a toxic combination of infatuation blended with an instinct for going too far too fast. Without glamorizing the killers, or vilifying the cops, the book, alive with action and high-level entertainment, provides a complete picture of America's most famous outlaw couple and the culture that created them.
Synopsis
The flesh-and-blood story of the outlaw lovers who robbed banks and shot their way across Depression-era America, based on extensive archival research, declassified FBI documents, and interviews
The daring movie revolutionized Hollywoodnow the true story of Bonnie and Clyde is told in the lovers own voices, with verisimilitude and drama to match Truman Capotes In Cold Blood.
Strictly nonfictionno dialogue or other material has been made upand set in the dirt-poor Texas landscape that spawned the star-crossed outlaws, Paul Schneiders brilliantly researched and dramatically crafted tale begins with a daring jailbreak and ends with an ambush and shoot-out that consigns their bullet-riddled bodies to the crumpled front seat of a hopped-up getaway car.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows relationship was, at the core, a toxic combination of infatuation blended with an instinct for going too far too fast. The poetry-writing petite Bonnie and her gun-crazy lover drove lawmen wild. Despite their best efforts the duo kept up their exploits, slipping the noose every single, damned time. That is until the weight of their infamy in four states caught up with them in the famous ambush that literally blasted away their years of live-action rampage in seconds. Without glamorizing the killers or vilifying the cops, the book, alive with action and high-level entertainment, provides a complete picture of Americas most famous outlaw couple and the culture that created them.
About the Author
Paul Schneider is the author of Bonnie and Clyde, the critically acclaimed Brutal Journey, the highly praised The Enduring Shore, and The Adirondacks, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book. He and his wife, the photographer Nina Bramhall, and their son, Nathaniel, divide their time between Bradenton, Florida and West Tisbury, Massachusetts.