Love Give Us One Death Review

LOVE GIVE US ONE DEATH

Bonnie and Clyde in the Last Days

By Jeff P. Jones

**WINNER: 2016 Idaho Author Award**

**WINNER: 2015 George Garrett Fiction Prize**

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Texas Review Press

Date of Publication: October 25, 2016

Number of Pages: 232

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Bonnie and Clyde are the most famous outlaw pair in American history. Frank Hamer, the legendary Texas Ranger, was hired to stop them. Part prose, part verse, with historical artifacts interwoven, the well-researched novel tells the story of their deaths on a lonely Louisiana back road, as well as their bloody and short lives together. Its many voices invite the reader to become a ghost rider along with Bonnie and Clyde, while it also exposes the forces of injustice and greed that created them.

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PRAISE FOR LOVE GIVE US ONE DEATH:

“If you are a fan of historical fiction, you must secure a copy of his debut novel in which Jones ‘added, subtracted and distorted facts’ adroitly and creatively in his re-telling of Bonnie and Clyde’s last days. There are very few writers who can write like Jones — in many voices and in various forms — but he choreographs his work like an award-winning producer, designating him as unique as the members of the Clyde Barrow Gang.” -Idaho Statesman

“Love Give Us One Death delivers not only a knock-out story of brutal adventure, and love, across the heartland of the Great Depression, but a story about the very character of the republic itself.” -Robert Wrigley, Poet

“This is the history of love and destruction you didn’t know you needed. In a time of Public Enemies, we see the last legs of a journey between the violent and manic Romeo and Juliet-like pair. The last public outlaws are riding away into their last sunrise, and this book serves as its journal.” -Atticus Books

“The language is absolutely stunning. Characterization, historical setting, ambience are all accurate and depicted with great clarity. A terrific achievement.” -Mary Clearman Blew, Author of All But the Waltz

“This is historical fiction raised boldly to the level of myth.” -Tracy Daugherty, Author of The Last Love Song

With absolute certainly and no apologies, this tale forces notions both heart wrenching and startling. There are unforgettable scenes and poetry that challenge the reader and will no doubt stretch normal perceptions of writing. There’s an earnest quality to the journey with Bonnie and Clyde. Moments of their love for other another and tragedies they face are capturing. Between the tension of these scenes, are a variety of accounts and verses. It was a much needed change to push the story along.

With the mix of fact and fiction, Clyde and Bonnie’s complexity is legendary and takes so many different outlooks in this book. Love Give Us One Death is intense! It’s natural to suspect it would be with the kind of content and premise of Bonnie and Clyde. Foreshadowing their end to come, there is the brief and life changing events of the people around them. Family and strangers lives are turned upside down and their own accounts are scattered throughout on this duo. There’s brutality and realness in every experience but also beauty and passion.

Jone’s approach to writing was very different and a good change. The writing is very well done and displayed with fierce imagery and symbolism. While it was a bit bleak to read around the holidays, I found it very impactful and memorable.

JEFF P. JONES’s ancestors were sharecroppers in East Texas. He was born in Denver, and was educated at the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of Washington, and the University of Idaho. He’s a MacDowell Fellow, and his writing has won a Pushcart Prize, as well as the Hackney, Meridian Editors’, A. David Schwartz, Wabash, and Lamar York prizes. He lives on the Palouse in northern Idaho. This is his first book.