WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM – Pretty Boy. Vanguard, hardcover, 1936. Mongrel Empire Press, softcover, 2014.

   William Cunningham was director of the Federal Writers Project in Oklahoma under the WPA. Working under him were Jim Thompson and Louis L’Amour. Then when he quit, he recommended Jim Thompson as the next director. Which was granted.

   This is the fictionalized story of Pretty Boy Floyd. Childhood is skipped, the story beginning with Pretty Boy already debauched and criminous, forsaking the life of a bankrupt tenant farmer for that of a small-time bank robber.

   Floyd has no desire to live in the world into which he was thrown, that of starving Depression-era Midwest. “You can’t beat the system, and you might as well be dead, so why worry about anything?”

   The banks are robbing the farmers. The farmers are foreclosed. Seems like the only honest way to make a living is by robbing the banks. Parole officers make it so hard to go straight it’s easier to go underground, back into the degeneracy and crime, than not to.

   Pretty Boy is a hero of the backwoods tenant farmer, generous with his plunder to those in need. Never killing anybody unless he had to. Never robbing anybody but the bank.

   He’s able to survive much longer than most because none of the locals will give him up, and local law enforcement leaves him be.

   And then he doesn’t. But he’s alright with it. He’s ready to go. Just so long as he doesn’t have to get arrested. So long as they don’t stick him in the chair, electrodes to his head and a metal hat. Dying’s okay. Just not like that.

   The book’s fine, if you want to hang out with Pretty Boy Floyd for a bit, hiding out in the backseat watching him rob a few banks, be charitable with some sad sack wretches, and hide out. Til the next time. And the next. And the one after that. And then stop.

   A bit on the depressing side. Like if Parker was more like Robin Hood and got killed by the Sheriff of Nottingham. And unlike Parker, Pretty Boy doesn’t really enjoy it — not the action nor the plunder. He’s reluctant and he’s sad and he doesn’t want to live. But then again, Parker’s not real, and Pretty Boy was.