Bonnie

Thanks to footage of the real Bonnie Parker and her associate-in-crime, Clyde Barrow, and Warren Beatty’s film masterpiece, this reader thought she knew everything of interest about the two. Also, generally, I eschew historical fiction, but somehow this book landed on my desk. I remain grateful that it did. Christina Schwarz’s Bonnie is an original, beautifully imagined creature at once down to earth and totally out of it.

The author brings her Bonnie to life. Rather than a glamorous image, the author details the life of criminals on the run from the law; going without food, sleeping outside, wearing the same old clothes and making quick escapes leaving all their possessions behind. In this novel, we meet Bonnie as a young girl who loses her father and lives in abject poverty in a grey industrial town. Yet she has an adventurous spirit and a longing for refinement. She channels that yearning into her poetry. With a romantic nature, she quickly found romance. She married disastrously and was soon on her own with just her good looks to recommend her. The Clyde Barrow in this book is much different from the well-known film version. Ultimately, this is a love story between the two murderous criminals.