Etta

Recently my daughter and I had a movie night together and watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (aside: they don't make 'em like Messrs. Newman and Redford anymore). Love that movie, and always have. It reminded me that buried in a pile somewhere was Etta, which a dear LT friend had read and reviewed years and years ago, so I dug it out.

Hardly anything is known about Etta Place, companion to Mr. Harry Longabaugh, aka the Sundance Kid. Here, Gerald Kolpan imagines her life as a sweeping saga beginning in wealth and privilege and driven to outlaw life following pursuit by the mafia and a stint as a Harvey Girl. The book is fun, if far-fetched, and Etta is a very strong character who lives life on her own terms, conducting herself show more with grace and grit. I do enjoy books that mix the real with the fictional -- Etta here is mostly fiction as so little is known about her, and in addition to Cassidy and Sundance, she mixes with Eleanor Roosevelt, "Buffalo" Bill Cody, and Charles Siringo, the famous Pinkerton detective.

I enjoyed the book but... this quibble is perhaps unfair: I often resist watching movie or TV adaptations of books because the production rarely matches the story as I've created it in my head. This book suffers from the reverse. I love the movie so much that the book just doesn't fit into the same place in my brain occupied by Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Ms. Etta Place. show less

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 show more 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! show less

Summary: Etta Place, the girlfriend of the Sundance Kid, is one of the most enigmatic figures of the American West. No one is sure who she really was or where she came from prior to 1900, and she disappears from history in 1909. In his debut novel, Kolpan offers up a vivid portrait of this beautiful, well-educated, and mysterious outlaw, as well as a plausible theory as to her origins. In Etta, when 18-year-old Philadelphia socialite Lorinda Jameson's father kills himself, leaving her heir to his gambling debts and the ruthless criminals who are looking to collect on them, Lorinda is left with little choice but to change her name and flee town, eventually becoming a waitress in a frontier town in Colorado. After killing a local scion show more (and would-be rapist) in self-defense, she's imprisoned, but escapes with the help of her roommate - a female member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang. She falls in with the gang, falls in love with the Sundance Kid, robs trains, befriends young Eleanor Roosevelt, joins Buffalo Bill's Wild West show for a time, and generally stays one step ahead of the law, but the life of an outlaw is never easy... she's still hunted by her father's creditors, as well as by the notorious Pinkerton detectives.

Review: I don't really read Westerns - in fact, my extremely limited knowledge of the Wild West comes almost exclusively from watching Deadwood on DVD. So, when I started this book, I'd never even heard the name Etta Place... but as I read, I quickly got to know her, and know her well. Kolpan not only brings this elusive figure to vivid life, but provides a background for her that is so plausible that it reads as truth rather than conjecture. Is it likely that the real Etta Place tamed an untameable horse, befriended Eleanor Roosevelt, saved the president's life, was active in the early socialist movement, and was the only female to rob a train in New Jersey? No, probably not, but these people have become legends specifically because they're larger than life, and Kolpan makes us believe that all of these things could have happened the way he says they did.

It's this same larger-than-life quality that introduces a few pacing problems into the novel - because Etta does so much, and is involved with so many prominent people and events of the period, certain elements wind up getting shorter shrift than they deserve. Etta's story is told in rich detail until the point where she actually becomes an outlaw, but after that, things get a little jumpier. I particularly wanted a little more detail regarding her life in the Wild Bunch - we get snippets, but it feels as though she both falls in love with Sundance and falls into the life of an outlaw a little too quickly to be fully believable.

Still, I really enjoyed this novel. Despite being centered around characters from the Wild West, it's not really a Western - it's more straight-up historical fiction. Kolpan's writing is smooth and authentic, and he seamlessly weaves letters, newspaper articles, wanted ads, etc. into his main narrative, which is not always the easiest style to pull off. Etta inspired me to go learn more about the actual history of the people involved, plus it kept me interested enough to tear through it in less than two days. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: People who actually know something about the American West will be interested to see Kolpan's vision of who Etta Place might have been, but more generally, anyone who likes vivid, well-crafted historical fiction should find this an absorbing read. show less

Etta, the novel, felt to me like a western Robin Hood. Yet I enjoyed it, anyway. With so little known about the historical Etta, the author’s imaginings of how a society lady may have come to such a place in her life seemed perfectly plausible. I enjoyed the natural weaving together of the imaginary and the historical figures. Theodore Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt sharing pages with the likes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Kid Curry, Annie Oakley, and Siringo. The personalities he gave to each of them were very fitting to his story, and his settings were, likewise, quite real. Using news articles, Pinkerton files, and fictional diaries to ice things together was a nice touch. The only parts I didn’t enjoy were the show more Trotsky/Marxism segments. I suppose that must have been part of the actual history, but its inclusion felt forced into the story line. In the author’s notes, there was an explanation of which subjects had been “tampered with” for the sake of the story, and which characters were fictional. Nicely done. Altogether, a very enjoyable western. show less

This book knocked me off my feet- I was expecting a neat little adventure and received that and a whole lot more. The synopsis definitely pulled me in- I'm taken in with the legend of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid like many others, not to mention growing up in New Mexico as a girl from ages 6-16 made me a big fan of rough, tough, Western women (I even have National Cowgirl Hall of Fame trading cards I picked up sometime in my youth!)
"Etta" switches between Etta's diary entries, Pinkerton Agency files, letters, newspaper clips and traditional literary storytelling. It keeps the story very fast-paced and kept my interest from wavering. I love historical fiction, and the mix of a foundation of truth then running with that research into show more your imagination is wonderful. "Etta" has amazing characters (both the historical and fictional), a beautiful story, great action AND romance, descriptions that made me long for the desert again and prose that will make you wish every event was true. show less

Rollicking, unsentimental, fast-paced and sexy story of one of the west’s few female legendary figures. Breathes true, sweaty, funny, smart life into the dusty images of Butch Sundance, the Kid, and his band!

Kept me turning pages until 1 am, greedily drinking in the story with the pleasant byproduct of a better understanding of some historical nuances about the railroads, early outpost towns, the very zeitgeist of the time.

I have long been fascinated by the American West, how it was discovered and settled, and the legends and stories of the people behind it’s history. The Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , were some of it’s last outlaws. The beautiful and mysterious Etta Place, Sundance’s companion has certainly developed into a legend herself. Etta by Gerald Kolpan takes the few facts known about this woman and gives us an entertaining story of what “might have been” weaving famous people and actual events throughout.

This turn-of-the-century story shows us both the last days of the wild west and the booming growth of the eastern States. It was a time of great change in America with new people, new inventions, and new show more political ideas pouring in. Gerald Kolpan envisions Etta as a daughter of a prominent Philadelphia family. Her mother id dead and her father has become an alcoholic and a gambler. He takes his life leaving his daughter to face the mess of debts he has left behind. The worst of these debts was owed to “The Black Hand” a criminal mob who intend to collect. With help from the family lawyer, she gets a new identity and is hired on to be a Harvey Girl in the new railway restaurants that were springing up along the western rails. She eventually comes into contact with Harry “Sundance Kid” Longbaugh and they fall in love.

I really enjoyed this imaginative story and the author’s use of letters, diaries and newspaper articles woven together gave me a real sense of time and place. My only drawback, and it is a big one, was that the characters felt a little one dimensional and flat. So kudos to the author for a great story, and giving me lots of information about the time period, but unfortunately Etta never became a book that involved me deeply or one that will linger in my memory. show less