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Book Review of Etta

Etta
Etta
Author: Gerald Kolpan
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
reviewed on + 1452 more book reviews


I don't often read the author's comments before I read a book but this time I did. It helped me understand how and why the author built the story around the little known Etta Place. She was a member of the Hole in the Wall Gang but not much more is known about her. We do find e a photo of her with Harry Longbaugh, who was probably her lover. The tale uses what little information can be found about Etta enhanced by the activities of the gang.

The reader finds lots of action coupled with encounters with famous people like Eleanor Roosevelt which is totally fiction. (The author acknowledges the fiction but felt that the book needed someone like her.) Etta may have been someone from wealth. Taking that thought, Etta becomes a character with much complexity and depth. She rides, she shoots, she helps others and she loves with her whole heart.

This is an easy read that is fun and I liked the author's take on Etta Place. Who knows who she really was? She is lost in history and we probably would not have known anything about her if she had not be associated with the Sundance Kid and the Hole in the Wall Gang.