Go Down Together

The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde

By: Jeff Guinn

Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan

Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

With dramatic flair, Jeff Guinn delivers the definitive portrait of Bonnie and Clyde. These media-savvy outlaws appealed to America's Depression-era hunger for swashbuckling characters. Glowing radio and newspaper reports transformed these "public enemies" into celebrities - much like the cinema gangsters of the time.

©2009 24 Words LLC (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"With the brisk pacing of a novel, Guinn's richly detailed history will leave readers breathless until the final hail of bullets." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A fine work of history.... Easily readable and includes much of the last two decades' new scholarship.... Go Down Together is especially good at...placing Bonnie and Clyde in context." ( The New York Times Book Review)

Interesting Glimpse into Another Era

Crime never pays & "if you live by the sword you die by the sword " proves true; don't romanticize crime. But this story goes so much deeper, and makes you wonder if given different circumstances would Bonnie and Clyde have chosen a different path and turned their strength, loyalty and determination into a positive contribution to their world. Would they have even met? We'll never know because they made their choices and fatalistically moved towards their tragic end, affecting many lives around them. Narration was a little dull.

Loved it!

One of my favorites thus far. Very good story of the infamous couple. Narrator is great and the story grand your attention early and holds it through until the end.

Good biography. Narrator was excellent except.....

Jonathan Hogan has a deep, easy to listen to voice but his occasional pronunciation missteps distracted from the narration.
"Rather" and "aunt" were pronounced with English style accents and the Texas Ranger on the trail of Clyde and Bonnie was called Hammer instead of the correct "Hay-mer".
Narration aside, Jeff Guinn has done exceptional research and, although factual, it reads like a well crafted action novel. I will seek out his other work on Audible.

Thrilling!

What an amazing story! So much detail, action, and great pacing. Kept my attention. Just read it!

Interesting

This is not what I always thought about this pair. It brings to light the true story of their entire lives. A bio has to be well written to keep my attention. It's not the greatest but it's thorough and will read another of his bios.

worth the listen!

learned so much more than just the myth of Bonnie and Clyde. it started slow by describing Dallas where they grew up, but upon reflection it made you understand how they started their life of crime.

The true story

Great research for video I’m making. Check it out on YouTube when the pictures got bigger

Mixed feelings (Book-5, Narrator-3 = 4 stars)

I really liked the material in the book! Having grown up in that area, it was interesting to hear about the Bonnie & Clyde era (which pre-dated me by a number of years - but my parents/grandparents might have known some of these people!) Lots of good (factual?) material. The author really did a lot of homework. There were some speculative elements that may have been passed off as fact - but the story really didn't seem to be hinged on those points - - they were mostly used as filler data to bridge known (and documented) facts.


NOW, my real (and only) problem with the audiobook - the narration. For 16 1/2 hrs, the listener endures the narrators fairly-strong speech impediment! At first, I thought I could be the understanding listener, and "get past it" - but after the first half-dozen hours, it just wears you down! I liked the tone/tempo/quality of the narrator's voice - overall...except for that darned lisp-like impediment. It's all focused around "s"-sounding letters - sometimes in the middle of words, and sometimes at the end (and some "th" and "z" sounds get hammered a bit, too). Still, I can handle that! I'm a really tolerant listener!!! Yet, it was the flipping inconsistency of those "mis-speaks" that killed me! Perhaps when the reader was fresh (new to a recording session), the problem wasn't as noticeable. But, (as he tired?) eventually the lisp (?) reappeared - even on words that had previously been pronounced correctly (or, perhaps, less-impinged?). It was almost like the reader bit his tongue (had tongue surgery?) during the recording sessions, and it became more swollen or sensitive the more he read. This was MASSIVELY distracting. I had to replay MANY passage!!!


Still, I managed to finish - the story is that compelling. Sure, we know they're going to die (no spoiler there - everybody knows that ending!), and most people even know HOW they died. But, it's the myriad details that keep it intriguing and fun! Still, buyer beware!

I couldn't stop listening - the story is that good

Where does Go Down Together rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I love history and I love biography. This book brings them both together, and brings them alive. Listening to this audiobook helped me understand who they were and why they made the choices they made. I was sad to see their end come -- they felt like people I knew and cared about. A top notch book.

What did you like best about this story?

I really appreciated how the author put their story in the context of the economic and social conditions of their time -- I could see what had shaped them.

What does Jonathan Hogan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator brings a "down home" feel to the book. He sounds like someone who knew Clyde and Bonnie.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

I wish the author had talked more about Clyde's interest in music. I'm glad he talked about Bonnie's poetry. People were more willing to be creative back then.

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

The REAL Story

Slow at times and maybe a little depressing but the hear the real story in context makes you feel like you're right there in a 1934 ford V8 with bullets whizzing by and wondering how they lived as long as they did.
Just a blast to listen to for anyone who loves history and especially depression Era life and crime.