Sutton

By: J. R. Moehringer

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Born in the slums of Brooklyn, in the first year of the 20th century, Willie Sutton came of age at a time when banks were out of control. If they weren’t taking brazen risks, they were shamelessly seeking bailouts. Trapped in a cycle of bank panics, depressions and soaring unemployment, Sutton saw only one way out. So began the career of America’s most successful bank robber. Sutton became so good at breaking into banks, and such a master at breaking out of prisons, police called him one of the most dangerous men in New York, and the FBI put him on its first-ever Most Wanted List. But the public rooted for Sutton. When he was finally caught for good in 1952, crowds surrounded the jail and chanted his name.

Blending vast research with vivid imagination, Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer brings Willie Sutton blazing back to life. In Moehringer’s retelling, it was more than need or rage at society that drove Sutton. It was one unforgettable woman. And when Sutton finally walked free, he immediately set out to find her. Poignant, comic, fast-paced and fact-studded, Sutton tells a story of economic pain that feels eerily modern, while unfolding a story of doomed love that is forever timeless.

©2012 J.R. Moehringer (P)2012 Hyperion

Loved it!

If you could sum up Sutton in three words, what would they be?

Excellent story, suprize twist at end, wonderful narration!

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend the book and anything by the narrator. He really gave to charactors livid mental images

Fascinating!

Any additional comments?

I chose this book because of all the glowing reviews from other people who had listened to it. I have to admit, their assessment of the story and performance were accurate. Thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Well done...until the end

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes...but an odd shift near the end left me adrift as the listener wondering why the story was constructed as it is and what the point of the switcheroo was.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would have plotted out a more consistent narrative or signaled something being doubt much earlier. The "twist" comes across as Agatha Christie introducing an 11th hour character/clue to make things work out.

Have you listened to any of Dylan Baker’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No - but his performance was terrific...really added to the experience. Some performers attempt various voices and either fall short of fall into parody. His range was remarkable. I've enjoyed him on screen as a character actor, and his talents are similarly on display here.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

It depends on how much editorial control Mr. Moehringer will concede - preferably to a director who can create and maintain a central character who challenges our compassion in a reasonable if not reasoned way.

Great Start, Poor Finish

Would you consider the audio edition of Sutton to be better than the print version?

I got hooked on audiobooks after a hospitalization and I've never gone back to print books.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I loved the writer's concept, but he seemed to run out of steam in the last quarter of the book. I was really caught up in the story but the ending was so sudden. It left me with some questions about previous sections of the story.

What does Dylan Baker bring to the story that you wouldn't experience if you just read the book?

A good reader makes the story seem like a movie in your mind. Dylan Baker is an amazing reader. I love it when a reader is so good that you forget who he is and see only the characters.

If you could rename Sutton, what would you call it?

I think "Sutton" was an apt name.

A Very Bad Book

Would you try another book from J. R. Moehringer and/or Dylan Baker?

I will never try another book from this author or from this narrator.

What could J. R. Moehringer have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The story is jerky and implausible. The characters are cardboard cutouts, uninteresting, unattractive and often disgusting - but not in a good way. To me, gratuitous cruelty is unforgivable, and this book has gratuitous cruelty in spades. I finally stopped reading at the slaughter house scene during the cheering as they watched the slitting of the animals' throats.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Extremely insensitive to any subtleties in the material. Overly and inappropriately dramatic.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not really.

Any additional comments?

I'm amazed that this book found a publisher.

It is no fun being a bank robber

If you could sum up Sutton in three words, what would they be?

Interesting reading

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite character was Willie Sutton as the whole book was about him. He wasn't a very smart man as he spent half his life in prison

Which scene was your favorite?

I read the book some time ago and I don't really remember anything I could call my favorite scene

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The book was interesting and I've enjoyed reading it but it was not a book that I would so enamored about that I wonder want to the read in one sitting

Sutton was flawed genius

I enjoy all of Moehringer’s books. Sutton was no exception, except the audible narrator’s take on the photographer character—one of the likeliest people I would punch in a bar fight. I think some of the actions of the losers that Sutton himself hung out with were superior to the junkie-like babble of the photographer. Using the same lines, I think another narrator would have revealed a more sympathetic character. Despite that, this story nails the best and worst traits of manhood—as do nearly all of the author’s books, fiction and non-fiction. Without giving the story away, I have to say that Moses forgot to engrave another commandment that should have been Thou Shalt Have Empathy. Without empathy, some of us men not only come off as cruel, but we ourselves may be unaware of the enormous damage we incur upon our loved ones. Worse, in our own minds, we believe we are loving and empathetic as our family and friends wither and die around us. Also not to give anything away, it’s public record that Sutton was an escape artist from prisons. I have never understood how so many criminals who have managed to escape from concrete and steel fortifications almost always plan poorly to outsmart the law once they get out. It makes all of humans appear stupid. In any case, put this book on your wish list soon.

You can’t help but watch roadkills and you can help listen to this book

So many unbelievable twists and turns! so many disconnected associated facts. so many sad tales that are all based on a woman who never really loved him .... give me a break

Neither this nor that

What would have made Sutton better?

I was disappointed by this book. It is written as historical fiction, but has an overlayed story that is dull and includes three characters that are not very interesting. I wish the story had been told from some other perspective in forward time or that it had been written as non-fiction. As it is, it sucks as a piece of fiction, and does't work as non-fiction. I heard the author talking about the book, and I think he was trying to capture the different voices that Sutton himself spoke with about his own life at different times, but it really does not work. Suggest you read the WIkipedia entry on Willy Sutton and leave the book alone.

Would you ever listen to anything by J. R. Moehringer again?

Probably not.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Dylan Baker?

Maybe - nothing really stood out about the performance.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Dissapointment

By far, the worst audiobook I ever purchased

I can’t get past chapter 4.

The story is ALL over the place.

Don’t purchase.