Customer Reviews

Etta: A Novel

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1 star:		(8)

 

 

I received this book from Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. It is due to be released in March. I was dubious - to say the least - not being a fan of historical fiction or the Wild West. But I feel an obligation to read these early releases quickly and get a review out. And so I began.

Boy, was I surprised! Apparently Gerald Kolpan became fascinated with Etta Place some years ago when he realized that the notorious companion of The Sundance Kid was a vast mystery. Almost nothing is known about her. So Kolpan has proceeded, in this book, to craft a fictional account of what her life might have been like - where she came from, how she happened to mix up with Butch Cassidy's gang, and her romance and life with the Sundance Kid. The result is a book you can't put down. This story is imagined so well that it could actually be her life - in fact, I wish it was a true story. This book is about as close to perfection as it gets for me. A little bit of suspense and intrigue, a good solid love story (without too much sappy-ness), and a deep character study.

In the past, books where the author tries to intersperse news articles or journal entries has seemed jarring to me. In this book, Mr. Kolpan does a great job of weaving them into the story. In fact, I have no criticisms of this book at all. Read it. You'll love it, even if you think the Wild West holds no interest for you. This is a story about a woman's life, and an fascinating one at that. But plan wisely, you'll be reading late into the night!

This is a beautifully written and designed story and if, perhaps, it's not really the 'true' story of Etta Place -- it should have been! Well imagined and lush, it fleshes out the mysterious personality of the woman who was reputedly the girl-friend of the Sundance Kid. Gerald Kolpan's novel is marvelous; the reader is quickly drawn into the story of young Lorinda Jamison, who must flee Philadelphia after her father's suicide and loss of the family wealth. The story is peppered with well known American heroes (and anti-heroes), ranging from Annie Oakley to Eleanor Roosevelt as the story of Lorinda's transformation into 'Etta Place' is achieved through help by her loyal family lawyer. Rechristened Etta, she is put upon a train and sent to Chicago to become a 'Harvey Girl' (all explained in the book) and the stage is set for Etta's remarkable life.

A great read--this is one helluva super novel. Brilliantly executed by the author, Etta is a refreshingly wonderful tale of a remarkable woman. If you never heard of her before--you won't forget her after this book!

I loved the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Remember, Paul Newman played the bandit known for his banter and slapstick humor? Robert Redford was Sundance, a sophisticated kind of outlaw whose wit was more biting than Butch's, but whose intelligence and gun were just as fast. Beautiful Katherine Ross, who had a bit part, played Etta Place, the light of Sundance's life. I always wondered who Etta really was and what happened to her. Now, Gerald Kolpan has written a glorious fiction, using his bountiful imagination, coupled with what little known facts exist about the enigmatic Etta - the sum of which is a rollicking tale about this multifaceted woman - the heroine, the main event, in this novel.

Our story opens with Miss Lorinda Reese Jamison of Philadelphia, graduate of the Irwin School, and cotillians at the Union League. However, Miss Lorinda was ever so much more than the usual deb. This high-spirited 19 year-old, rode like a hoyden, side saddle or astride, was even able to shoot like a pro...while on horseback. Her horse, the demon black stallion Bellerophon, was as wild as she was, and Lorinda was the only one who could handle him. Unfortunately, her days of good fortune were short. Mr. Graham David Jamison, her father and assistant chief officer of the Seaman's and Merchants National Bank and Mercantile Society, was somewhat of a profligate. He drank, gambled and owed over two million dollars in debts. So he committed suicide. Etta found him dead in his study. This deceased paragon, able to trace his ancestry back to the earliest days of the Republic, was now being investigated, posthumously, by the police and the bank for embezzlement. Lorinda, his only heir, watched as her house and all its belongings were sold. And she learned from the trusted family lawyer that the worst of her problems was yet to come.

Her father had gambled to such an extent that he became involved with a cabal of unscrupulous "Sicilian villains." They wanted their money, in cash, yesterday. Lorinda, now responsible for repaying the debt with interest, found herself penniless but brave. These ruthless criminals, who called their band of Merry Men, "The Black Hand, had the young lady followed and thought nothing of killing her or destroying her considerable beauty by throwing acid in her face. They would pursue her to the ends of the earth. Lorinda had to leave town, using the 1st of her aliases, immediately. Thus "Etta Place" was born. The kindly lawyer gave her false ID papers, money, a train ticket to Chicago and letters of recommendation to meet a Miss Lorretta Kelly at the Chicago train station.

Lorinda, aka Etta, was met as promised, along with a few hundred other young women applying for the same job. They were to be "Harvey Girls." At this time, trains in the West did not offer meal service. Fred Harvey assessed the situation and came up with a money-making business plan. He established a series of restaurants on the Santa Fe lines. Trains would stop for thirty minutes and passengers were permitted to disembark to get a good meal for a reasonable price in clean surroundings, very, very quickly. He recruited women via newspaper ads from towns and cities, stipulating that they had to be of good moral character, have an eighth grade education or higher, display good manners, be neat and articulate to work in his restaurants. If hired, they were given a rail pass to get to their Company chosen destination. Etta was assigned to work in the city of Grand Junction, Colorado. Although her work skills were excellent, her problems worsened when one day Earl Charmichael Dixon, a local scion, set eyes upon her lovely countenance. He wanted her for mistress or wife. Etta's response was "yuck!!" He persisted, tried to rape her and she shot him. No one listened to her explanations - she was simply deemed a murderess. Etta was jailed but fortunately escaped with a little help from her roommate Laura Bullion, aka Della Rose, and her lover.

On the trail for days, attempting to escape the law and the Black Hand, she and her aforementioned friends reached their destination of Hole-in-the-Wall, Wyoming Territory. After meeting several inhabitants of the town, like Frank Elliott, known as "Peg-Leg," the charming Butch Cassidy, (in all his incarnations), the ever-so-handsome Sundance, whose real name was Harry Longbaugh, and many other outlaws of a fictional nature, she was accepted as a kindred soul. As the author writes, "Etta Place, having met the requirements of leadership and community standards...and also being Wanted for FUGITIVE MURDER, is hereby accepted as a member in good standing of The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, and as such is entitled to all rights and privileges pertaining thereto."

Thus began Etta's uproarious, outrageous adventures as an outlaw, her intense romance with Harry Longbaugh/Sundance, which was to last all his life and most of hers, and the riotous train and bank robberies where Etta played the educated lady bandit to the hilt, ("she is highway lady to the ladies"). Always tailed, with unbelievable determination, by Pinkerton detectives, the Black Hand, and other sadistic villains, Etta proved she was a woman of true grit, even though there were many close calls, especially when she, or other gang members, were jailed...until they broke out. I could go on and on...but won't. Why should I spoil this delightful novel for you.

Historically, Etta, Butch and Sundance really existed, laughed, loved and robbed. Real life characters appear throughout the pages, i.e., Eleanor Roosevelt, Annie Oakley, BuffaloBill Cody and his Famous Wild West Show, presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, photographers Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, etc...however, in most cases the context in which they appear is fictional.

The prose is elegant and has a real flavor of the time. The narrative is interspersed with Etta's diary entries, newspaper clippings, Pinkerton WANTED notices, and letters which add so much to the diversity of the storyline.

I was left with a sense of nostalgia after reading the novel. Gerald Kolpan creates a magical ambiance for his characters to dwell in, whether in Philadelphia, New York, Colorado, Wyoming, Argentina, Bolivia, or an elegant chamber in the Waldorf Astoria where Etta and Sundance revel in their love. But the wild West is in its death throes. Civilization is encroaching on the frontier. An era is about to end.

Once more, I loved reading "Etta: A Novel," even more than I loved the movie. But, of course, Etta is the star here. Kudos to Mr. Kolpan...and thank you for writing this book. I look forward to reading your next one.
Jana Perskie

I have to admit that I knew almost nothing about Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid or Etta Place before watching the classic Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie about the three of them. It has been a few years since I've last experienced that movie but I remember coming away from it with a decent understanding of Butch and Sundance but a relatively poor feel for Etta Place and how she came to be the woman she was.

As it turns out, very little is known about the real Etta Place, neither her name, where she came from, nor what happened to her after Butch and Sundance were shot dead in South America. That she was said to be a beautiful woman with refined habits, an expert horsewoman, and an outlaw with a good heart add to the picture, but the details seem destined to remain forever out-of-reach. First-time novelist Gerald Kolpan now offers "Etta," the perfect companion piece to the movie that reintroduced Etta to the world some forty years ago.

Free spirited Lorinda Jameson, daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia banker, becomes well acquainted with horses and rifles as a girl but it is only when her disgraced father leaves her penniless and on the run from his creditors that she abandons the city and her old name for a new life in the West where she will be known as Etta Place. Penniless, though she is known to be, her father's creditors will not be satisfied until she is dead or, at the least, scarred for life. But Grand Junction, Colorado, does not turn out to be the safe haven she hopes for and, in the course of defending her honor, she makes a decision that earns her a date with the Grand Junction hangman.

On the run again, Etta throws in with Butch and Sundance's Wild Bunch, becomes the Kid's lover, and participates in many of the train and bank robberies that make them infamous. Kolpan's account of Etta's story includes newspaper clippings, entries from her personal diary and even an excerpt from a dime novel written about the New Jersey train robbery that she and the gang pulled off. Along the way, Etta has occasion to work for the colorful Buffalo Bill Cody as part of his Wild West Show cast and even becomes young Eleanor Roosevelt's closest friend.

Gerald Kolpan is a good storyteller and this fast paced western adventure story is fun from start to finish, even for those who already know the end of the Butch and Sundance story. We will likely never know the real Etta Place but Kolpan has done her proud with this version of what might have been.

This historical novel imagines the life of Etta Place, fellow outlaw and lover of the Sundance Kid, who was a member of Butch Cassidy's notorious gang of train and bank robbers. Etta's story is full of strong characters and dangerous adventures that unfold at the turn of the last century in a setting made real with plenty of historical details and figures (including a substantial role played by Eleanor Roosevelt). Excepting one villainous character, Kolpan imagines a group of outlaws governed by a code of ethics comparable to Robinhood's. Unfortunately, these likable renegades are too one-dimensional and interchangeable to be interesting. As a character, Etta is much more engaging than her partners in crime.

Interspersed throughout the story are Etta's journal entries, the Sundance Kid's letters to his father, detective reports, and newspaper articles. While the variety of sources lends credibility to this purely fictional story, Kolpan chose to reveal some of the novel's key moments via terse newspaper articles. This construct stripped the novel's most crucial events of suspense and emotion. (David Ebershoff's The 19th Wife is a much better mixed-media novel.) Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this quick-paced adventure tale as long as they aren't seeking much depth.

This novel has everything to enjoy in a book, fascinating characters and an enthralling story. We all know about the legend of the Hole in the Wall Gang and their ring leaders Butch and Sundance but Etta is usually portrayed as just a pretty face, tolerant of their shenanigans. This book fills out any speculative questions we might have had and who cares that it is fiction. Etta is a product of a wealthy Philadelphia family with an unfortunate history. When her mother died at birth, her father plunged into a depression relieved only by spending time with his daughter but also, what led to his destruction, gambling. He did spend time teaching her to ride and shoot,as well or better than himself, saying these skills would serve her better than the courses her fellow debutants favored. Thus she never learned to cook but after the family fortune disappeared with her father's death, these skills saved her from those hunting her with evil intent, because of the gambling debts her father incurred to the Black Hand, what passed for the Mafia at the turn of the century. Time and again, Etta crossed paths with historical figures such Eleanor Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill Cody.These incidents are so integral to the story and Etta's life and survival. This book reads like watching a movie, the descriptions of place, characters and action are so vivid. I hated the thought of this book ending, I enjoyed it that much, like some of Larry Mc Murtry's epics. I hope this author has another novel in the works, I am looking forward to it.

I was very disappointed to read Etta. I suspect that some of the many rave reviews (appearing immediately upon publication) were written by stooges for the author and publisher.

The writing is amateurish and disjointed; the characters are cardboard cutouts. The author is clearly padding pages with various letters and other documents that lead nowhere, as well as pointless chase scenes that repeat and repeat. Scenes created for shock value (Etta has an affair with Eleanor Rosevelt!) only make one laugh in disbelief. Kolpan should stick to writing cutesy pieces for the yuppies on NPR.

Don't waste your money on this turkey. My copy is going back on Amazon at the dirt cheap price it deserves, with a CAUTION - TURKEY! disclaimer.

I really wanted to love this book.

It had everything going for it - a gun toting kick ass heroine, a historical mystery, my favorite genre (historical fiction), my favorite time period, and even a preferred historical fiction style of mixed media - journal entries, newspapers, and straight up fiction.
Only a little bit into the book, I conceded to myself that the dialogue was a little flat, but at least the action was interesting and the character of Etta had potential. While it might not be as amazing as I thought it would be - at least it would be an entertaining read.

Yet by the end of the book, I hated the piece and had to force myself to finish. The writing style is sloppy and uneven and the author actually manages to make the characters boring (which, considering the wealth of history associated them, is quite a feat). The characters are all shallow and under developed and the author's constant harping on Etta's beauty over shadowed anything else redeeming about the character. Beyond mentioning Etta's beauty every other page for the entire book, Kolpan simply fails at providing a proper feminine perspective. I have read some amazing works by men who really get how their female lead character thinks, acts, and feels. It is possible for a man to write a female lead character. Kolpan apparently can not, or at least not yet in his development as a novelist. Etta comes off as nothing more than a shallow beauty with no complex emotions or inner conflict - simply written to fill in Kolpan's fantasy about the mysterious girlfriend of the Sundance Kid.

The other notably irritating thing that Kolpan does is try to fit an ungodly amount of famous historical characters into one work. Eleanor Roosevelt, Annie Oakley, Trotsky, and even Alfred Stieglitz all make appearances. Really? The Annie Oakley thing would have worked, because of the similarities. Maybe even the whole Roosevelt thing (Eleanor making a pass at Etta prompted an eye roll, the author's emphasis on Eleanor's "horse faced smile" and the over emphasized contrast between Eleanor and Etta in the beauty department was totally unnecessary) could be fudged. But all of them? In one story? Please.

I can fully appreciate the mindless read - I indulge in crappy fantasy and romance novels occasionally just because that's what is needed, a mindless, entertaining read. So if Etta had been just that, it would have made three stars. But when it comes to writing quality and character development, Etta falls so far short that it isn't even worth the nod as a mindless, entertaining read. Not recommended.

Books written in this format are hard to put down. Not only is the plot constantly developing, with something to worry about for our heroine, each "segment" is short enough that no matter how late it is and no matter how tired the reader is, just a couple of pages in the next "segment" might solve the problem of the moment. The reader is drawn on and on, because as each issue comes to a head, a new issue ensues.

I found Etta herself to be quite a character in Mr. Koplan's imagination. She is fantastically beautiful, not only from his descriptions, but from the convenient photo at the beginning of the book. She is the gal we'd all like to know: one who can keep up with any man doing manly sorts of things, intelligent enough to keep you guessing, and with a sense of humor that makes you chuckle from time to time.

I do think that many of the events are under-described and the action leaves you a little hollow... I mean, it's total fiction anyway, so let's go ahead and make it kick! This is not to say it is in any way boring. You immediately come to care about Etta and Koplan's descriptions of the other characters bring them to life. Perhaps there were just too many things to talk about. I like writers like Diana Gabaldon, who aren't afraid to let their books approach a thousand pages of deep descriptions and character development.

All in all this book kept me fully interested as long as Etta was developing and as long as she was with the Hole In The Wall Gang, but the final portion of the book began to drag and seemed anticlimactic.

I do recommend this book. It is fully entertaining and a good shot of "how it might have been".

I was a little surprised to see that Etta had some detractors. But when I read the reference in one review to the "Sunshine Kid", I realized those couple of reviewers possibly weren't reading the same Etta I really couldn't put down.
Growing up in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, I have an automatic draw to almost any great western story, and this one, largely mythologized, did not disappoint at any twist in the tale. Who can resist imagining how it might have been for someone whose existence is documented and little is known, except of those she called comrade in arms? From Etta's precipitous launch out of a largely imagined "life of ease" to the terrible culmination of her stint as a Harvey girl, to a fast membership and equally rapid climb in the Hole-in-the-wall Gang hierarchy I was enthralled, and found it all, within the context of the conceit, utterly plausible! Kudos to Gerald Kaplan, I was more than entertained. I truly hope someone out there in Hollywoodland sees the potential script in this fun, adventure-packed un-biography.