{"id":1045,"date":"2018-12-31T15:23:41","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2018-12-31T15:23:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:23:41","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-109","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1045","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

HISTORICAL FICTION<\/p>\n

Jenni L. Walsh<\/span><\/p>\n

Becoming Bonnie: A Novel<\/span><\/p>\n

Forge Books<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-0-7653-9018-9 (also available as an e-book, on Audible, and on audio CD), 304 pgs., $25.99<\/p>\n

May 9, 2017<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I, being poor, have only my dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSaint\u201d Bonnelyn Parker grew up poor and ambitious in Cement City,<\/span> a company town in West Dallas created for the employees of the area\u2019s cement plants, in the early twentieth century. In 1927, Bonnelyn is seventeen years old, attending high school, singing in the church choir, escaping into books at the local library, and dreaming of becoming a teacher. When her widowed mother becomes ill, her brother is hurt on the job, and Bonnelyn is laid off from her waitressing job, she follows her best friend, Blanche, to a bartending job in an illegal speakeasy (its walls papered with pro-Prohibition posters) in the basement of a physician\u2019s office in what is now the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, so she can keep the electricity on.<\/p>\n

Becoming Bonnie<\/span> is the debut novel by Jenni L. Walsh.<\/span> Historical fiction set in Dallas during the latter years of Prohibition, Becoming Bonnie<\/span> is the story of how prim and proper Bonnelyn Parker became half of the infamous, bootlegging and bank-robbing couple Bonnie and Clyde.<\/p>\n

The pace is steady if slow at times. The plot is simple but packs a healthy number of twists. Walsh\u2019s characters are engaging, especially Bonnelyn\u2019s best friend, the irrepressible Blanche. Bonnelyn seems to break character regularly, but these instances always follow a threat to the financial survival of her family, providing plausible motivation. \u201cI mixed right and wrong together \u2019til I found a comfy spot in the middle,\u201d Bonnelyn says. Walsh\u2019s historical details are authentic, often charming, and well deployed. Her research of the era and setting is obvious, while she grants having taken liberal license with her historical characters, beginning with Bonnie Parker\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Bonnelyn\u2019s first-person narrative is written colloquially (\u201cMama had more pride than a lion\u201d): droppin\u2019 its G\u2019s; using \u201cya\u201d for \u201cyou\u201d; \u201c\u2019cross\u201d for \u201cacross\u201d. This technique is effective but used inconsistently: an equal number of G\u2019s remain, and some word choices appear too sophisticated for the established down-home, country style\u2014the same Bonnelyn who says \u201cnot no one\u201d refers to customers at a caf\u00e9 as \u201cpatrons\u201d. Overuse of various conjugations of \u201cgrowl\u201d, and the like, indicate a need for closer editing. These elements taken together can be distracting.<\/p>\n

Becoming Bonnie is most refreshing in that it\u2019s not about Clyde Barrow; he doesn\u2019t appear until a third of the way through, and doesn\u2019t become a factor in Bonnelyn\u2019s life until two-thirds of the way through. It\u2019s not about him. Becoming Bonnie is a coming-of-age story centering on Bonnelyn\u2019s transformation from reserved, conventional, small-town girl to risk-taking, dangerous, gangster moll. One of the best things about Becoming Bonnie<\/span> is the power of female friendship between Bonnelyn and Blanche.<\/p>\n

While uneven, Becoming Bonnie<\/span> is creative and has moments of inspiration; Walsh has promise. Y\u2019all look for the sequel, Being Bonnie,<\/span> coming soon.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}