Customer Reviews

Hell's Angels: Three Can Keep a Secret If Two Are Dead'

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book is poorly written. While the information is interesting, it is dated and extremely hard to follow at times. It reads like a rough draft of ideas. The information in the book is very out of date to say the least. If all one wants to do is look into the history of the club, this might be a good book if it were written with more professionalism. The way that it is written now, it has few redeeming qualities. One would have to read certain pages several times to try and understand what the author was trying to convey. Over all, it is dated and very difficult to follow even for a biker who understands what the author is writing about.

This book was recommended to me by a CHP officer as a good resource for MC clubs' criminal history. If this is what passes for a good resource, I'd say the MC Gang-True Crime genre is ripe for a real history written by a real life honest to goodness writer.

After finishing this book, initiation in the Hell's Angels almost looks refreshing. First the good: it held interest, was a fast read, and had interesting 'facts' (the reader has to assume this is either true or not, as the author doesn't cite any specific text except, apparently, what he read in the newspapers).

However, I have to wonder if it held interest because of how awfully it was written, thus affecting a sort of voyeuristic "Where is he going with this?" kind of feeling. As to it being a fast read, I can't really account for this, as it often felt as though the whole book was the same first-draft page reprinted 339 times and shipped to the book store.

I don't know if Lavigne was going for his own 'style' here or not, a la Hemingway. What I do know is that writing a history of anything written entirely in present tense is enough to make me want to stop shaving and bathing and beat people up as I ride around on a bike trying to forget the whole experience. When did this brilliant idea surface? It's very irritating and the book suffers tremendously for it.

Also, I'm not sure anyone, including the author, reread or edited this book beyond the first draft. It seems like every 3,4,5 pages some bit of information is repeated as though it was a new thought. Very often this repetition is almost a complete letter-for-letter copy of a previous paragraph.

And another thing: could Lavigne compare MORE things to genitalia? Jeez, it's like he writes sentences around some 8th grader playground vocabulary in a way he just MUST have thought a tough guy would talk. You just start feeling embarrassed for him after awhile.

Although Lavigne claims to dislike motorcycle gangs and ostensibly writes this book to 'expose' them, he writes as though he was some Hell's Angels rejected prospect who writes a poison pen book to get back at those mean guys, but down deep he still pines away for them.

Messy, unsubstantiated (though probably mostly true), overwrought, reaching, ultimately a disappointment. This is the book that, in getting published as is, makes struggling writers who are ten times better bang their heads on the walls in frustration.

But still interesting. I'm an organized crime book junkie, so I loved much of the information in this, but it's told in such a weird, disconnected style that I wasn't sure what the point was. The author's opinion seems to be that the Hell's Angels are very naughty people and we should all be very scared of them, but I didn't get the sense that there was much of a point to the book beyond that. The main thing that works against Lavigne is that he jumps around so randomly in time that he'll be telling you about 1974 in one paragraph (in present tense) and then the next paragraph will be about 1984, with absolutely no transition. Reads like it was written by a guy on his fourth week of a bender on bad biker speed. He also rarely cites sources -- what are these, court documents? Confidential informants? Who the heck knows. Even so, the information is interesting, especially if you're a crime junkie. If you're looking for a book that makes much sense, though, look elsewhere.

I need to add one more thing to my review above. There are a number of glaring errors in the book that call into question how much first person research Mr. Lavigne did and how much was based on hearsay from bikers, law enforcement, or other sources. The first error may be considered minor - a map purporting to show the locations of various HAMC clubs places San Bernardino in Ventura county instead of San Bernardino County. Others include claiming that the P.O.B.O.B's where founded in San Bernardino (they were founded in Bloomington - hence the acronym, "Pissed Off Bastards Of Bloomington", a suburb of Fontana, California.) There are others, but all together they make you wonder how much of this is reasearch by the author and how much is taken from other less informed sources.

If you're interested in outlaw bikers, this is one of the most comprehensive books written since Hunter Thompson's HELLS ANGELS. It provides a clear understanding of what took the outlaw clubs from being about riding, fighting and women to being primarily focused on earning money and fighting the RICO laws. In addition to great background info on the Angels, there's hard to find history on the other three of the "Big Four" clubs. Although a lot of the book focuses on Canada, it's a great read and a must have for anyone interested in the outlaw biker subculture.

Yves Lavigne's unrelenting vulgarity takes away from what is otherwise an informative and well researched first-person account of the growth of the Hell's Angels growth from 50's rebels to 60's cause celebre to modern day mafia. Their ability to enforce omerta (the code of silence)among their members, at least in this account, makes them more effective, and more dangerous, than La Cosa Nostra. How much of this admittedly entertaining tale is truth and how much is fantasy? Only Mr. Lavigne and the Hell's Angels know with any certainty.

If you read Taking Care of Business don't waste your money on this one. There is a little bit of new stuff but in large it is a repeat of TOB. Opinions, everybody has one...

This is probably the weakest book on the topic I have read. The hardest to deal with is the author's weak writing style and use of profane misogynistic gutter language. This language used in context of describing the behavior and mentality of the subject might be of value, but the author seems to be some kind of wannabe outlaw and is using language that is inappropriate for a study of the subject. Couple this with shallow journalism and no real analysis and you have a trite and offending book not worthy of the bathroom collection. I read 70 pages, scanned the rest and chucked it in the bin.

This is one of the most difficult books to read from a stylistic standpoint. It is choppy and seems to bounce all over the place. The editor of this book should be fired - there is way too much extra "stuff" in the text. There is so much fluff that should have been cut out that would have made this a lot easier to read. The author's choice to use slang (to the point of vulgarity) did not go over so well with me either. I understand that this is a book about the Hell's Angels - there is going to be a lot of choice language in it, but he continues to refer to the slang when describing items that are not HA quotes. I don't think this was a necessary device considering the type of book this is - it would have worked for a fictional piece, but not for something as factual as this.

There are many other books out there on the topic of the Hell's Angels or Outlaw Mototcyle Gangs. I would suggest starting elsewhere if you are looking to read about the topic. This book as some interesting parts of it, but you'd be better looking at another title.

First I have to say, I had been an associate of the club for quite some time, and there is very little in this book that is not true, as someone that was close to them, I can say that "they" were not happy about this book and tried very hard to claim all the information in the book was false, however I know many things contained in it were all to true. I once considered many of them very close personal friends, unfortunatly I came to find that no one is a close friend, not even their own are safe. Yes they do "Eat thier own". as one of the cartoon illustrations in the book shows. I can not go into any datails about my own experiences, except to say I was beaten, robbed, extorted,and nearly murdered by men I thought were my friends. My "friends" came with smiles, as they always had in the past, only this time it was different and I was thrust into a realm of terror I cannot begin to detail in this review. But let me say in closing that nearly all the details in this book are true, and I commend the auther for putting it in print and saying what many were afraid to say. I give it two thumbs up!!!!!