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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
I learned so much about the 1970s from reading this book. Toobin does a great job integrating the legal case, the history, the media hype, and the cultural forces.
Would recommend as a book club read
Would recommend as a book club read
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2016/05/2016-book-91.html
Look, if Jeffrey Toobin--who mainly writes books about legal stuff, including the one The People vs OJ Simpson was based on--is gonna write a book on Patty Hearst, I am THERE, ok? And this was freaking RIVETING. Hearst apparently did not cooperate with the book, but it is still fairly sympathetic toward her--I mean, I have no idea how accurate this portrayal is--it seems well-researched but who knows how it's spun--but it /feels/ accurate. And like I said, totally riveting presentation. I thought the depiction of how COMPLETELY INSANE the 1970s were, especially in California, was very well-done (this was a great followup to the Charles Manson's Hollywood eps of You Must Remember This, not to mention Emma Cline's excellent The Girls). And Toobin really TRIES not to let being a white man interfere with his story--my main quibble here is that he offhandedly mentions Nancy Ling's boyfriend forcing her to turn tricks, and several times thereafter Toobin calls her "the sex worker"--which maybe she was? But he never really says so otherwise? And it's not really a flattering characterization the way he presents it? That lack of information on a lot of the players was where this struck me as weak--I could have used a lot more backstory on Hearst and her sisters, for instance--though I guess that is not really the story Toobin is trying to tell. Still, I sometimes struggle with nonfiction and had no problem sitting down and plowing right through this, so it's definitely entertaining. And insane. I love it. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.
Look, if Jeffrey Toobin--who mainly writes books about legal stuff, including the one The People vs OJ Simpson was based on--is gonna write a book on Patty Hearst, I am THERE, ok? And this was freaking RIVETING. Hearst apparently did not cooperate with the book, but it is still fairly sympathetic toward her--I mean, I have no idea how accurate this portrayal is--it seems well-researched but who knows how it's spun--but it /feels/ accurate. And like I said, totally riveting presentation. I thought the depiction of how COMPLETELY INSANE the 1970s were, especially in California, was very well-done (this was a great followup to the Charles Manson's Hollywood eps of You Must Remember This, not to mention Emma Cline's excellent The Girls). And Toobin really TRIES not to let being a white man interfere with his story--my main quibble here is that he offhandedly mentions Nancy Ling's boyfriend forcing her to turn tricks, and several times thereafter Toobin calls her "the sex worker"--which maybe she was? But he never really says so otherwise? And it's not really a flattering characterization the way he presents it? That lack of information on a lot of the players was where this struck me as weak--I could have used a lot more backstory on Hearst and her sisters, for instance--though I guess that is not really the story Toobin is trying to tell. Still, I sometimes struggle with nonfiction and had no problem sitting down and plowing right through this, so it's definitely entertaining. And insane. I love it. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.
informative
medium-paced
I thought this was meant to be more of an objective account of Patty Hearst's kidnapping and subsequent crimes, but the author seemed biased against Hearst to the point of distraction. I don't have strong feelings about Hearst either way, but almost no time is given to the validity of her claims of Stockholm Syndrome and what that entails. Multiple times in the book the author argues for Heart's rationality as a sober actor but doesn't even try on the other side of the argument. The book mentions all of the people who rushed in to defend Hearst without exploring their motivations. Was it because she was white, rich, and famous? Probably, and that would have been worth exploring with greater depth, but unfortunately, this isn't the book for that.
Pretty interesting but dragged at some parts. I didn't know much about this case, so I learned a lot! I do also like that they humanized the victims in this story.
I have known Patty Hearst's name most of my life, but never learned any of the details of her story until now. Toobin gives a very convincing account, based on over 100 interviews and thousands of pages of documents and other evidence, of Hearst as an independently acting "urban guerrilla," despite her claims at trial that she was acting in constant fear for her life. He also paints such a colorful picture of California's counter-culture in the early 70s, which I find so interesting since I was a preschooler there during those years.
The biggest surprise for me from this book was to discover that the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped Patty and with whom she robbed banks, was such a small rag-tag operation. I had always imagined her in a Black Panther-like group, not a total of 8 self-styled revolutionaries with no real objective.
I was also bothered by her presidential pardon, clearly a result of money and influence rather than the merit of her case. Perhaps if I had a shred of belief that she really was brainwashed I would be less provoked, but Toobin thoroughly convinced me that she was guilty. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
The biggest surprise for me from this book was to discover that the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped Patty and with whom she robbed banks, was such a small rag-tag operation. I had always imagined her in a Black Panther-like group, not a total of 8 self-styled revolutionaries with no real objective.
I was also bothered by her presidential pardon, clearly a result of money and influence rather than the merit of her case. Perhaps if I had a shred of belief that she really was brainwashed I would be less provoked, but Toobin thoroughly convinced me that she was guilty. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
The book is mostly set in 1970s California, against a background of a violent counterculture setting off dozens of bomb a year. The author explains Patty Hearst’s behaviour by simple self-interest. When kidnapped, her captors told her that the police were out to kill them: something she saw verified on live TV when six of the group were killed in a shootout. Hearst could’ve surrendered on multiple occasions, but cast her lot with her captors. When she was finally arrested, she gave her occupation as “urban guerrilla”. But as the gravity of her trial sunk in, she abandoned her former comrades, married the bodyguard her father had provided, and got behind her family’s campaign for a presidential pardon. One may well think that clemency was indeed due, given the criminal company that she unwillingly found herself in. However, that argument goes for thousands of others who don’t have the lobbying resources of a publishing empire.
Beyond Hearst’s remarkable story, what stood out for me was the nature of the group that captured her: the Symbionese Liberation Army. Their political thinking was facile, but whether by training (one was an artist and poet, another a university-trained actress), or by intuition, they know how to work “the society of the spectacle”. For example, not all banks had security cameras at that time, so they looked out for them when deciding which branch to rob: not to avoid the cameras, but to place Hearst in front of one of them, with her gun. So, one of the most famous photos of the 1970s, apparently a grainy found image, was actually the result of consummate media manipulation.
Beyond Hearst’s remarkable story, what stood out for me was the nature of the group that captured her: the Symbionese Liberation Army. Their political thinking was facile, but whether by training (one was an artist and poet, another a university-trained actress), or by intuition, they know how to work “the society of the spectacle”. For example, not all banks had security cameras at that time, so they looked out for them when deciding which branch to rob: not to avoid the cameras, but to place Hearst in front of one of them, with her gun. So, one of the most famous photos of the 1970s, apparently a grainy found image, was actually the result of consummate media manipulation.
Excellent narrative nonfiction, about an event in history that I knew about but didn't really know any of the details. I couldn't put it down, and was really fascinated by all of the "characters."
Pros
Informative
window into a different era
Cons
I didn't enjoy the writing style
A lot on information repeated over and over
it didn't seem linear.
Informative
window into a different era
Cons
I didn't enjoy the writing style
A lot on information repeated over and over
it didn't seem linear.
What a fascinating story, almost cartoonishly ridiculous. It would be funny if people hadn't died. I tore through this book, which was a very fast and compelling read. It's written in a very journalistic style that makes it smooth. The characters are real people, and yet on many levels most of them remain cartoonish stereotypes. But Patty Hurst, the girl at the center of it all, remains a mystery. In my mind it is perfectly clear that she stayed with the SLA by choice and willingly participated in a multitude of crimes. So why does she so thoroughly revert back to being "normal" after her arrest? Is it simple enough that it was a clear path to freedom? Toobin makes a compelling comparison of the "brainwashing" of her lawyers, family, and old friends with that of her captors. I think there is an interesting and compelling in there, but I found Patty's refusal to ever take responsibility for her actions and quest for a presidential pardon pretty distasteful. A very interesting book all around.