Willie Sutton is a Poor Role Model

William Sutton

    "Sutton" By J.R. Moehringer is a historical fiction novel about Willie Sutton the bank robber. Willie was most active during the 1920' and 30's. Sutton stole approximately 2 million dollars during his career and enhanced his daring reputation by taking part in a few jail breaks.

      Lets get to the nitty gritty. Historical fiction is a complex genre because there is so much subjectivity in determining the parameters that will be judged. "Sutton" probably meets the criteria  of most because Moehringer does a very good job of using setting to establish the feel of the early 1900's. Moehringer moves seamlessly from the current time period, where Sutton is relaying anecdotes to a reporter and photographer after his final release, into the past where the action takes place. The vehicles, streets, buildings, and banks all give the reader the sense of going back in time. You can imagine the gangsters, the prisons, just about everything. It is a nice juxtaposition moving between current to past time periods because some geography and buildings remain as touchstones or reference points. As historical fiction I appreciate the novel, as a subject I object to Sutton.

      Moehringer glamorizes Sutton the same way others have glamorized Jesse James or John Dillinger. Moehringer writes as if Sutton did not have a choice,  it was his environment that turned him into a predator. His Gatsbyesque pursuit of a women/love and his childhood left him no other path than to rob, cheat and lie. His spin of life's wheel of fortune never gave him a chance. Moehringer idealizes Sutton in a manner with which I could not agree. The glamorization of criminals/predators usually has a short leash in my opinion.  Moehringer also gives the reader a bit of red herring by using the murder of Arnold Schuster and Sutton's ties to the event as bait to continue reading. This death is used as the reason the cub reporter is even meeting with Sutton. Moehringer maintains a level of tension between Sutton and the reporter as each tries to manage  opposing agendas. 

      This is a book that sits right on the fence of inclusion into a YA library. It is well written and does a credible job with the setting that allows a reader to build and feel context of a different time period. However, idealizing a man who preyed upon others is not the best idea to deliver to YAs'. The book would allow conversation about the depression and how socioeconomic classes are affected by government and corporate decisions in various ways. Other discussions could include making career decisions based on external versus internal pressures. i.e. Willie Sutton giving way to the external pressures/expectations in determining his career path as a criminal, or how media/popular culture can glamorize certain traits while obscuring others as deemed fitting to their agenda. Exit stage left.