Remember the character of Etta Place, played by Katherine Ross in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Very little is known about the life of beautiful Etta, so author Gerald Kolpan imagined a life for her in this historical novel. Parts were very entertaining, but in the end this book was a bit too much like a bodice ripper, with exaggerated action, romance, and far too many descriptions of what people wore. Still I enjoyed hearing a bit about the Hole in the Wall Gang, and the Pinkertons, and even the Harvey Girls, who served in Harvey House restaurants all along railroad lines. The subplot involving Eleanor Roosevelt was too farfetched for me to swallow, though. I really don't know that much about the infamous and mysterious Etta Place and not much more than Utah citizenship demands of the rest of the Wild Bunch, but this little fictional possibility is certainly entertaining. I admit I was not quite sure what to expect when I began, but fortunately this entertaining story gets better as it goes along and if Kolpan was maybe not as personal in his writing as I would have liked, he certainly knows how to write a spirited adventure. The story is told through various means, such as news articles and Etta's diaries entries, which may come off as gimicky to some, but I thought it was kind of a fun touch that grew on me as I read. It's a wild, romantic, proper adventure and is certainly worth a read.
What do You think about Etta (2009)?
A fictional look at who The Sundance Kids real girlfriend really was.
—rzetter
ohhh! so good! Butch and Sundance here I come!
—rainbabyy
