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Title: Becoming Bonnie
Subtitle: A Novel
Author: Jenni L. Walsh
Narrator: Susan Bennett
Format: Unabridged
Length: 12 hrs
Language: English
Release date: 05-09-17
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes
Genres: Fiction, Historical
Publisher's Summary:
From debut historical novelist Jenni L. Walsh, Becoming Bonnie is the untold story of how wholesome Bonnelyn Parker became half of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde duo!
The summer of 1927 might be the height of the Roaring '20s, but Bonnelyn Parker is more likely to belt out a church hymn than sling drinks at an illicit juice joint. She's a sharp girl with plans to overcome her family's poverty, provide for herself, and maybe someday marry her boyfriend, Roy Thornton. But when Roy springs a proposal on her and financial woes jeopardize her ambitions, Bonnelyn finds salvation in an unlikely place: Dallas' newest speakeasy, Doc's.
Living the life of a moll at night, Bonnie remains a wholesome girl by day, engaged to Roy, attending school, and working toward a steady future. When Roy discovers her secret life, he embraces it - perhaps too much, especially when it comes to booze and gambling - and she tries to make the pieces fit. Maybe she can have it all: the American dream, the husband, and the intoxicating allure of jazz music. But her life - like her country - is headed for a crash.
Bonnie Parker is about to meet Clyde Barrow.
Critic Reviews:
"A compelling account of a nation and a life in disarray - readers will feel for Bonnelyn as she finds herself scrabbling for survival in a world turned upside down." (New York Times best-selling author Lauren Willig)
Members Reviews:
Uneven but promising historical fiction imagining Bonnie before Clyde
HISTORICAL FICTION
Jenni L. Walsh
Becoming Bonnie: A Novel
Forge Books
Hardcover, 978-0-7653-9018-9 (also available as an e-book, on Audible, and on audio CD), 304 pgs., $25.99
May 9, 2017
âBut I, being poor, have only my dreams.â
âSaintâ Bonnelyn Parker grew up poor and ambitious in Cement City, a company town in West Dallas created for the employees of the areaâs cement plants, in the early twentieth century. In 1927, Bonnelyn is seventeen years old, attending high school, singing in the church choir, escaping into books at the local library, and dreaming of becoming a teacher. When her widowed mother becomes ill, her brother is hurt on the job, and Bonnelyn is laid off from her waitressing job, she follows her best friend, Blanche, to a bartending job in an illegal speakeasy (its walls papered with pro-Prohibition posters) in the basement of a physicianâs office in what is now the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, so she can keep the electricity on.
Becoming Bonnie is the debut novel by Jenni L. Walsh. Historical fiction set in Dallas during the latter years of Prohibition, Becoming Bonnie is the story of how prim and proper Bonnelyn Parker became half of the infamous, bootlegging and bank-robbing couple Bonnie and Clyde.
The pace is steady if slow at times. The plot is simple but packs a healthy number of twists. Walshâs characters are engaging, especially Bonnelynâs best friend, the irrepressible Blanche. Bonnelyn seems to break character regularly, but these instances always follow a threat to the financial survival of her family, providing plausible motivation. âI mixed right and wrong together âtil I found a comfy spot in the middle,â Bonnelyn says. Walshâs historical details are authentic, often charming, and well deployed.
