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A review by bhsmith
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein
4.0
This book started a little rough... I wasn't sure I'd be able to get through it. The opening pages feature a list of Hungarian names. These are the key characters in the story that is about to unfold. There was no way I was going to remember a few dozen Hungarian names! I thought for sure I'd be lost.
Then, the first few chapters are really heavy with Hungarian, Romanian and Transylvanian cultural, economic and sociological histories. It was important to the story... but so, so dry.
But, eventually, the story of Attila Ambrus starts to unfold, and the story really takes off. The subtitle for this book seems wordy and awkward, but really is a perfect description of what is about to unfold over a few hundred pages: "The True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts." Sure enough... all of that oddity was packed in there, plus lots more!
This is far from some sort of biography, though. It was written much more like a novel, with internal dialogues, elaborate conversations, detailed descriptions and much more. Far more detail and information than you'd expect from a typical historical biography. (There is probably a name for this style, but I'll call it the novel-ization of a biography) This approach was perfect! It made the book easy to read and kept my turning pages.
Then, the first few chapters are really heavy with Hungarian, Romanian and Transylvanian cultural, economic and sociological histories. It was important to the story... but so, so dry.
But, eventually, the story of Attila Ambrus starts to unfold, and the story really takes off. The subtitle for this book seems wordy and awkward, but really is a perfect description of what is about to unfold over a few hundred pages: "The True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts." Sure enough... all of that oddity was packed in there, plus lots more!
This is far from some sort of biography, though. It was written much more like a novel, with internal dialogues, elaborate conversations, detailed descriptions and much more. Far more detail and information than you'd expect from a typical historical biography. (There is probably a name for this style, but I'll call it the novel-ization of a biography) This approach was perfect! It made the book easy to read and kept my turning pages.