"Go Down Together" by Jeff Guinn - Book Club Discussion

Forget everything you think you know about Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Previous books and films, including the brilliant 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, have emphasized the supposed glamour of America's most notorious criminal couple, thus contributing to ongoing mythology. The real story is completely different -- and far more fascinating.

Bonnie & Clyde: Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow were an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. The couple was known for their bank robberies, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural funeral homes.

About the Author:

• Jeff Guinn is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Go Down Together, The Last Gunfight, Manson, The Road to Jonestown, War on the Border, and Waco.
• He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.
• Jeff Guinn is the winner of the 2016 TCU Texas Book Award.
• The former books editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and award-winning investigative journalist, he is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.

• On Writing the Book:
• “Guinn’s “clear-eyed” account acquits the couple of some of the gang’s worst transgressions but never romanticizes them” (The Week)
• “if we examine their lives as a story, then it has everything: young kids rebelling against authority, there's the Romeo and Juliet thing, true love, and think they're really mostly interesting to us finally because of the way they die in this bloody, graphic, ambush when, essentially, they're blown, in the words of one of the deputies during the shooting, into a pile of wet rags. Would they have been as interesting to us if, let's say, they'd surrendered meekly that day, got long prison sentences, and came out sort of bent, worn-out old people? No, I don't think so. You had to have the great supposed tragedy and the drama of their deaths, and that's why, in various forms, the story's held us ever since. It's been 75 years, and yet thousands of people still troop out to look at their graves every month.” (NPR)
• “In a sense, all my books are about how our culture takes history and re-shapes it into whatever mythology suits our collective needs and interests at a given time. I wanted to answer two questions in Go Down Together. The first was, why would two young people willingly give up their lives for a very brief period of lawbreaking? Second, why would a nation find them fascinating and elevate them to the same sort of iconic heights enjoyed by Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth just a few years earlier? There had to be some sort of event-driven sociological chemistry at work. What was it?” (CBS News)

• “In a very real sense, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are less important for themselves than for what they represent. They reflect a time in our history when there was a huge chasm between a few very rich Americans and millions of poor ones. Young people born into poverty had no hope for improving their lives. Yet modern media - movies, newspapers, magazines - shoved into their faces images of fancy cars, fine clothes, glamour in every conceivable form - on a daily basis. When ambitious kids want things they can't have by following the rules, they break them. That's immutable fact. The parallels between the Barrow Gang era and modern-day America are staggering. Once again, many struggling people don't trust the government, think of the banking industry as the enemy, and feel helpless to save themselves and their families by doing what they are told to do (obey all the laws, trust the government). We can either learn from the past or, in some more modernized form, repeat it.” (CBS News)

Discussion Questions:

1. Did you know the story of Bonnie & Clyde before reading “Go Down Together”?
2. What did you learn from the book that you hadn’t known before?
3. Why do you think Bonnie & Clyde are still glamorized in pop culture? What makes them more interesting than Blake Fitzgerald & Brittany Harper?
4. In what ways are Bonnie and Clyde portrayed as heroes? What were some of their personality traits?
5. Based on the book's cover, what were your expectations for the book? Were you right?
6. The cover depicts an iconic, vintage photo of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. What do the photo and the rest of the cover suggest regarding the time period, the individuals pictured there, etc.?
7. Thinking about how each of the characters grew up, how did that affect their lives?
8. How did Clyde’s time in prison contribute to his criminal lifestyle? Would anything have deterred him?
9. What do you make of the relationships between Blanche & Buck? Even after Blanche’s most prized possession, Snow Ball is lost to her, she continues to stay by Buck’s side while nagging him. Why?
10. What do you make of the family dynamics between the Parkers and Barrows? Why did the family unwaveringly protect the criminals? What does this say about familial bonds?
11. What legacy did Bonnie & Clyde leave behind? Is being infamous criminals a legacy?
12. Do you think that Guinn got to the truth about Bonnie & Clyde? What truths did you discover that differ from the legend usually surrounding Bonnie & Clyde?
13. Did you find yourself doing any research on topics brought up in the book? If so, on what?
14. Did you read any of Bonnie’s poems? What did you think of them? Was she a good poet or simply glamorized for her escapades?
15. Bonnie had big dreams for her life (a Broadway actress, a well-known poet, etc.). Why do you think she ‘settled’ for the criminal lifestyle of Clyde? Love? Popularity? Being seen?
16. Was there an end to how far Bonnie & Clyde would’ve gone for each other? Why or why not? What bonded them together in such a way?
17. Why do you think image was so important to Bonnie & Clyde? Bonnie is more upset with being thought of as a cigar smoker than being a criminal. Clyde makes all of the Barrow Gang members dress in suits.
18. Do you think the deaths of Bonnie & Clyde were fair? Should they have been given the chance to surrender by Hamer and his posse? Would they have done so? Or was death the only way to stop Bonnie & Clyde?