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329 reviews for:
American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst
Jeffrey Toobin
3.83 AVERAGE
329 reviews for:
American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst
Jeffrey Toobin
3.83 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
I had to take a long break with about a quarter of the book left because a) I fell into a library holds all coming in at once sequence as inevitably you do and b) I got frustrated with Jeffrey Toobin as inevitably you do. He has a weird relationship to Patricia Hearst in that I think he thinks she's full of shit after a certain point in her ordeal where the trauma is no longer a ruling factor in her behavior which somehow invalidates both her trauma and any other experience she has as authentic. He's of the mind that she follows whatever course of action the situation best dictates. I think one of the lasting impression he wants to leave is that the violent crimes that she participated in were never fully held to a normal standard of justice because her presence--and her insistence that her presence was coerced which exonerated her of culpability--overshadowed the crimes committed, including the death of a bystander. Which: yeah, it's a good point. But I was also pretty fed up with the book as a whole by the time he made it, so that was less great.
I grew up hearing about the crazy story of Patty Hearst but mostly about her being kidnapped, robbing a bank and that I associate the word Stockholm syndrome with her. I'm glad the author gave a brief story on how that syndrome got it's name.
I like that the author used the perspective of everyone involved to help tell the story since Patty herself didn't want anything to do with the book.
Patty spent a year on the run with several opportunitys to make a break for it but seemed mentally held captive. Spending years in a bad marriage I can see how that could happen. You can physically escape but mentally your brain traps you in various scenarios that all end in death in some way.
I can't help but wonder tho did you just jump from one captor to the next? Has she ever been mentally free?
It was a great inside look and I've added the other books to my tbr
I like that the author used the perspective of everyone involved to help tell the story since Patty herself didn't want anything to do with the book.
Patty spent a year on the run with several opportunitys to make a break for it but seemed mentally held captive. Spending years in a bad marriage I can see how that could happen. You can physically escape but mentally your brain traps you in various scenarios that all end in death in some way.
I can't help but wonder tho did you just jump from one captor to the next? Has she ever been mentally free?
It was a great inside look and I've added the other books to my tbr
Another non-fiction audiobook. I was 4 when Patty Hearst was kidnapped (well, technically it was a day before my 4th birthday). Following up on my recent delve into Watergate / Vietnam / Nixon in '72, this book did a good job of creating the feeling of the era in SF. The Symbionese Liberation Army is exposed as a ragtag group of inexperienced counterculture wannabes who somehow became the most wanted people in the country almost by accident. Patricia Hearst, a pragmatist who was impressionable and converted into the counterculture. Toobin's book sets out the places where stories differ and offers conclusions based on the ability to look back at a pretty complete picture now. The stories are hard to reconcile in our post-9/11 internet-dominated, over-connected world. Interesting stuff.
I definitely liked this more than you would think a three star rating would mean. I had heard about Patty Hearst but I sincerely did not know much, if anything, about the whole "wild saga". Toobin's writing was well researched, but pretty dry and clinical (I think this is really because Patty Hearst refused to participate in this project). All that being said - Toobin definitely, definitely, definitely had a very strong point of view that Hearst got off so easily and that all her claims of being in fear were a load of bunk. And since it is just Patty's story against the story of like 6 other people - I really think that Toobin's belief is correct.
I might have told Jeffrey Toobin to take it down like half a notch, but this is still so compelling, and I learned a lot! Also: reading about the 70s makes me feel better about today.
What a strange and interesting ride! This was such a bizarrely fascinating story from beginning to end. I grew up hearing about Patty Hearst but it was so much fun hearing all the nitty gritty details. Very good!
I once wrote a paper on Patty Hearst and I feel like I know more about her case than the average person, and I still found this book well-written and interesting. Toobin builds a strong case that she never really suffered from Stockholm syndrome and provides reasons why she may have decided to go the route she did.
Jeffrey Toobin is rapidly becoming one of my favorite nonfiction authors: his narrative flows clearly, he has swathes of original research and his analysis is understated but clear. Relatedly, I really liked American Heiress. I'm too young to have a personal memory of the Patty Hearst saga, so like many my age all I knew Patty Hearst was kidnapped, got Stocklholm syndrome, something, something, guest starred in Veronica Mars that one time. The tale as Toobin tells it is more complex.
This is a wide-ranging tale (over 18 months long) that includes the birth and death of the San Francisco counter-culture, the terrorist-style activism unique to the 1970's, tension with the evolving face of feminism, turf wars between the FBI and other branches of government and widespread distrust in the government due to the scandalous actions of the president. Reading through the "best books of the year" in 2018 so many of them are about These Dark Times in America. Toobin reminds us that other Dark Times have come before -- in a lot of ways the 70's were worse because Nixon was without precedent. Anyway, the scene and context are set well by the time Toobin introduces us to Patricia Hearst (who hated being called "Patty.")
Toobin then attempts to recreate all of the events from the formation of the Symbionese Liberation Army -- which he paints as alternatingly bumbling and terrifying -- the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, her involvement in the bank robbery...and then, instead of the story ending there, like I always thought it did, there are months of generally hiding out, followed by all of her SLA captors being killed by the police, Hearst hanging out with the remainder of the SLA who futilely try to send her back to whence she came, a cross country trek, more bank robbing and finally an arrest. Toobin then outlines Hearst's legal strategy and her ultimate conviction and sentencing. All of this, the footnotes make clear, is done on the basis of reams of contemporary notes and interviews. Toobin is meticulous about making clear when any events are at all in doubt.
The story is fascinating in and of itself. Does it speak to something bigger? Well, it ends with a a certain FBI Director Robert Mueller, III sending a pointed letter to then President Clinton arguing that Hearst should not be pardoned because people should be treated the same regardless of their personal wealth or family background.
This is a wide-ranging tale (over 18 months long) that includes the birth and death of the San Francisco counter-culture, the terrorist-style activism unique to the 1970's, tension with the evolving face of feminism, turf wars between the FBI and other branches of government and widespread distrust in the government due to the scandalous actions of the president. Reading through the "best books of the year" in 2018 so many of them are about These Dark Times in America. Toobin reminds us that other Dark Times have come before -- in a lot of ways the 70's were worse because Nixon was without precedent. Anyway, the scene and context are set well by the time Toobin introduces us to Patricia Hearst (who hated being called "Patty.")
Toobin then attempts to recreate all of the events from the formation of the Symbionese Liberation Army -- which he paints as alternatingly bumbling and terrifying -- the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, her involvement in the bank robbery...and then, instead of the story ending there, like I always thought it did, there are months of generally hiding out, followed by all of her SLA captors being killed by the police, Hearst hanging out with the remainder of the SLA who futilely try to send her back to whence she came, a cross country trek, more bank robbing and finally an arrest. Toobin then outlines Hearst's legal strategy and her ultimate conviction and sentencing. All of this, the footnotes make clear, is done on the basis of reams of contemporary notes and interviews. Toobin is meticulous about making clear when any events are at all in doubt.
The story is fascinating in and of itself. Does it speak to something bigger? Well, it ends with a a certain FBI Director Robert Mueller, III sending a pointed letter to then President Clinton arguing that Hearst should not be pardoned because people should be treated the same regardless of their personal wealth or family background.