Customer Reviews

The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Absolutely loved this book and was telling my friends about it when I was only a third of the way in. (I tend to reserve 5 stars for mind-changing books.) Mullen takes the 1930s gangster teams to a new level by turning the usual tale on its head right off the bat. Set at a time when bank robbers could just as easily be seen as hero or villain, because of all the foreclosures by the banks (sound familiar?), the Firefly Brothers' spree takes on legendary status and for darn good reasons. But...I won't spoil the fun. Suspend disbelief and take the ride with Jason and Whit; it's bumpy but you'll love the wind in your hair almost as much as Darcy did.

Along the way we're forced to think about family relationships, brother to brother, son to father, and how moral choices are made and justified. We also get to 'feel' the Depression from ground level. But it's actually a lot more fun than all that sounds. Heck, just read it for the romping adventure and you'll enjoy it. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I was supposed to enjoy it quite this much. 100% guarantee that there will be arguments about the ending and I look forward to that fun. I can't wait to see what Mullen writes next and what my friends have to say about this book.

The author's depiction of the 1930's is too real to be comfortable. I was alive during that period, and the author describes the hopelessness and misery of those times as they really were. There were no jobs; some families lived in tents out in the country or vacant lots, and hobo parks were common. There was no welfare, and most people lived wretched lives.

Against this background the author writes about the adventures of Jason Fireston and his brother Whitson, 2 desperadoes in desperate times living their own code of law. The story line is so original I could never imagine where it was going. As the story develops one learns about the family dynamics of the brothers with each other (there is a 3d brother who is a straight arrow) and how each of them became who he is. The story of the family background evolves slowly and is critical to the story. Circumstances and individual beliefs shape the brothers' destinies.

I could not put this book down until my husband ordered me to turn out the lights. I am recommending it to all of my friends and to book clubs. Amelia Koenig

Gangs, molls and robbing banks. Just the ingredients for a good-old yarn, right? You can practically smell the gunpowder and spilled gin... And yet? "The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers" is more than that. Much more.

First, I need to say that this Depression-era novel was eerily reminiscent of today. Of this time in our country where nothing is certain and days are filled with fear and worry about what the next day may bring. This book is set in 1934 - but there many similarities to what is making the news in 2010.

"The reality we'd all believed in, so fervently and vividly, was revealed to be nothing but a trick of our imagination, or someone else's, some collective mirage whose power to entrance us had suddenly and irrevocably failed. What...had happened? What had we done to ourselves? The looks I saw on people's faces. The shock of it all. Capitalism had failed, democracy was a sad joke. Our country's very way of life was at death's door, and everyone had a different theory of what would rise up to take its place."

Jason and Whit Fireson rob banks. They steal money from the few places that still have money in 1934 - and they become anti-heroes to the Americans who are so desperate and so angry at seeing all they believed in and trusted being destroyed. Banks are foreclosing at constant rates, people are out of work, the stock market has crashed, and families are desperate. So when the pair starts garnering fame for stealing from those who are perceived as causing the financial chaos...they are dubbed the "Firefly Brothers" and their admirers start to outnumber their pursuers.

I picked this book hoping for some pure escapism, but got instead a great story AND some great insights.

"People tell their stories to place themselves somewhere solid in this great swirl that they can't otherwise understand. The stories define what is possible, what the tellers yearn for, what they believe they deserve. The self-made man, the American dream, Capitalism, socialism, religion - all those narratives that try to contain everyone's desires and fears within neat lines. Different tales, different obstacles, but the hero is always us, and the ending has us attainting what we've always wished for."

Wow...I just had to read that again.

This really was a great story. It was a compelling tale of escape and adventure, of getaway cars and hideouts. Of double-crosses and dirty money. A chance to enter the mind of a criminal and look around.

"The right thing was confusing, and difficult, and sometimes Jason wondered if it was in fact a nonexistent ideal, like heaven or the American dream. There was no right thing. You did what you did for whatever reasons occurred to you at the time, depending on whichever emotion was running thickest in your blood. Your desire and fear and adrenaline and longing. You made your choice and came up with the reasons later."

But what I keep coming back to is not what the story had to say about Depression-era criminals, but about us, about people in general. People who aren't criminals, but who find themselves forced to consider choices they never expected.

"We believe there are things that are possible and things that are not, actions we can imagine doing and others that are beyond the pale. But then doors are swung shut and what once was impossible, unthinkable, is there before us, happening to us. Sometimes we throw open the doors ourselves, sometimes someone else pushes them open and points at what lies beyond. Sometimes we don't even want to look. But we never have a choice."

Law abiding citizens and criminals. Seemingly different sides of a coin - polar opposites. But in uncertain times, when the world seems upside down...identifying which one is good and which is bad becomes a much harder task.

In 1933 and the first half of 1934, a Great Depression frightened public adore the Firefly brothers though Jason and Whit Fireson are violent bank robbers. The siblings do what many dream of doing but are too afraid when they boldly commit robberies.

However, in August 1934, proud law enforcement authorities announce the end of these vicious felons as the bullet ridden corpses of the Firefly brothers lay in an Indiana morgue. Their girlfriend Darcy Veronica are heartbroken with grief as is their mom and though a straight shooter their brother Weston. However, the cops prove premature with their bloody announcement as Jason and Whit wake up and calmly leave the morgue to begin the further escapes in legends of The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers.

Although how the siblings stay alive through their dangerous capers is never explained, fans will not care as the Firefly Brothers adventures are a timely allegorical historical; desperate people have given up on a pathetic government and turned to antiheroes as champions. Action-packed, this is a terrific parable that uses the war on crime during the Great Depression in comparison with the war on terrorism during the Great Recession. The stark reality of the Great Depression on the lives of ordinary people is enhanced by the fantastic Firefly brothers who symbolize the frustration with government that fails to act (Henry Higgins Effect of Democrats in charge) or unwilling to act (Pygmalion Effect of Republicans in charge) when the need is obvious, which implies in charge or not Republicans win and people lose so they turn to antiheroes.

Harriet Klausner

Author's approach to story telling is really different. Interesting premise. Once you get beyond the unbelieveability of the premise, the story is quite interesting and deep. Definitely worth the listen. From a time when things were tough and people did extraordinary things to get by.

Things I expected from this book: Great historical feel, a good mystery, excitement, and great characters.

What I got from this book: Not those things.

First and foremost, I was looking forward to a good historical novel, with a Depression era feel and some good info on bootleggers and gangsters. However, the overall feel of the novel was decidedly modern, with Mullen trying to make some obvious comparisons between the Great Depression and today's economic climate. There was nothing very period about the novel.

I did get a good mystery -- several of them in fact. They were enough to keep me reading. However, there is no frustration like hanging on to a novel one is not quite enjoying just so one can at least find out the answer... only to not have the answer.

Excitement was there, in between long gaps of dull non-action. The red cover, the fast-moving figure, the subject matter -- all these things promise fast pace, hard action and adventure. This novel was mostly introspective.

And introspective works when the characters have depth, but most of these fell flat for me. I liked Whit, somewhat, but got mostly Jason and his girlfriend Darcy. Oh, well.

Not my cup of tea... or my glass of bootleg whiskey. Lots of people do seem to enjoy it, so by all means, read all the reviews and give it a thought.

I kept waiting for something big to happen throughout the book and it just never did. If a book does not grab me by the time I am half way through, it is just a waste of my time althought I forced myself to finish because it was a book club read. Still would rather have read a book that was more of a page turner. To me, this was not.

Enjoyed this book immensely. Even without the magic realism twist of the brothers coming back to life, I liked the intricit plot and the depth of development of this story. People just didn't act, they were complex characters with conflicting motivations. I also enjoyed the Midwest setting. I wonder if there was a four-lane divided highway between KC and St. Louis at this time and I don't think there were as many showers in houses in rural areas as the author includes. I found the resolution satisfying if not conventional and neat. Everyone may not enjoy this book, but it was a pleasant surprise for me.

Mullen has a real knack for crafting a novel that is simultaneously historically accurate and utterly fantastical. Magical realism is a seriously difficult challenge to pull off, but Mullen is more than up to the task. He's extraordinarily good at mixing up the story of the seemingly immortal Firefly Brothers with the nitty-gritty of everyday life in the Great Depression.

I also found it to be a great read and more than a bit timely. We seem to be living through our own period of economic chaos, and while we aren't plagued by bank robbers who come back to life, there's something about this novel that is very much about our current moment in history as it is a fictional account of the Great Depression.

This has all the required elements of a 1930s American gangster story, but also explores family relationships, a country in economic collapse and the power of myths and stories - and a pair of bank-robbing brothers who refuse to stay dead.

The country is in deep recession. The economy has collapsed. The banks are hated and there's "the next round of politicians, assuring us they were not afflicted by the same lack of vision as their predecessors". Does this sound at all familiar? But this is 1930s America - full of gangsters, speakeasies, tommy guns, fedoras, beautiful heiresses, bumbling cops and the newly formed FBI, daring bank robberies and kidnaps. Yes, the gang is all here, but `The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers' is a lot more than your average gangster book and it's a hugely fun story.

At the centre of the book are Jason and Whit Fireson, collectively referred to in the press and elsewhere as the Firefly Brothers; notorious bank robbers and with the recent shooting of John Dillinger currently riding in top position on the FBI's most wanted list. Or at least they were until just before the start of the book. When we first meet them, they are laid out on cooling boards in the local police morgue, riddled with bullet wounds. But they're still alive. Confused? Well, so are they. But they have other matters to attend to, like how to get out of the police station, how to find their loved ones and how to recover enough money so that they can disappear for good and maybe set up that restaurant in California that Jason has dreamed of. Then of course there's the issue of who ratted them out to the cops. Thankfully, being apparently dead takes some of the heat off things for a while.

It's great fun and a highly entertaining read. But if you are expecting a fast action-filled story of gangster capers, you might be a bit disappointed. In fact, there's much more depth to this story. Leaving aside the fact that the brothers have a disturbing tendency to increase the national average for deaths per lifetime, the book paints a vivid picture of a nation in economic meltdown but most of all, it is a book about families.

The boys are your typical gangsters who are good to their mother, but there is also an exploration of the boys' relationships with their father, who before his death was an upstanding member of the community who nevertheless ended up on the wrong side of the law. The boys' relationships with him and the back story of how they grew up and ended up in their line of work is fully explored. Sibling relationships are also prevalent, both between Jason and Whit as well as with their non-gangster brother Weston. Then there are father-daughter issues for Jason's beau, the classic gangster's moll, a rich heiress attracted to bad boys. Her relationship with Jason is just one reason why her father, a motor magnate, disowns her. But how will he react when she's kidnapped? Or will Jason get there first?

At this point, you might be wondering why I haven't made more of the brothers' habit of not being, or more accurately staying, killed, particularly as this happens on three separate occasions (does three count as `many'? I guess in terms of being significantly above the norm, then we can allow that in this instance). Well, partly that's because neither does the book. The brothers have just too much going on to worry about why they keep getting reincarnated. Eventually the reason is explained although, perhaps inevitably, it's not entirely satisfactory and there are some treads left unexplained such as why this also happens to another character at one point. But strangely this doesn't seem to matter, although I suspect it will cause some arguments amongst readers.

The reason it doesn't matter is that the story telling is so joyful. Mullen's descriptions and similes are full of fun and frequently had me smiling and re-reading them to savour. It's not laugh out loud funny, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Jump on the running board and enjoy the ride.