Not-so-real Dillinger

Press, 16 July 1983, Page 18

Not-so-real Dillinger

Dillinger. By Harry Patterson, Hutchinson, 1983. 191 pp. $19.95. Dillinger, a notorious American criminal, was missing for three months after he escaped from prison in Indiana, and before he was shot in Chicago in July, 1934. Patterson has written a fictional account of those three months, in which he has Dillinger performing acts of derring-do and romance in Mexico, rescuing a child and avenging wrong-doing. The book, and the tale, have little substance. The story is a fast-paced, cleverly-written, shallow shoot-’em-up in the “Boy’s Own” tradition: a couple of hours should see even a moderate reader through it. As with Patterson’s earlier book, “To Catch a King,” the tale is a distortion of history that does not fit into the bracket of historical novels. It could have been just as good a tale written about a fictional gangster, although it would then have had to depend on its own merits, and not a famous name.

Dillinger comes out as a pleasant, and even admirable fellow. History, nonfictiOnal, would tend to suggest otherwise. Reading this, one has the feeling that something, somewhere, is feeding on dead men’s bones. — A. J. Petre. -