Mr. Blue

From AwardAnnals

Book:	Mr. Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade
Author:	Edward Bunker
Honors:	2000 Dagger-Nonfiction winner Score: 10.5
Genres:	Nonfiction books Biography books Mystery/Suspense books
Publisher:	No Exit Press

Edward Bunker’s Life is beyond the imaginings of most fiction writers. He was born in Hollywood, California, the son of a stagehand and Busby Berkeley chorus girl, whose early divorce propelled him into a series of boarding homes and military schools. From the age of five he repeatedly ran away, roaming the city streets at night. A proud character, combined with an IQ of 152, resulted in a series of altercations with the authorities. He became the youngest ever inmate of San Quentin at the age of seventeen, and there he learned survival skills and faced down the toughest prisoners in the system. He was befriended by Mrs Louise Wallis, a former star of the silent screen and wife of movie mogul, Hal Wallis, who produced films starring Bogart, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. She introduced Bunker to her circle of friends, including Jack Dempsey, Tennessee Williams, Aldous Huxley and William Randolph Hearst, whose guest he was at San Simeon.

A parole violation resulted in a spell crossing America as a fugitive on the FBI’s most wanted list. His eventual capture led to Folsom prison. Encouraged by the example of Dostoevsky, Cervantes and Caryl Chessman, and by the kindness of Mrs Wallis, he determined to write his way out of prison. Bunker’s first published novel, No Beast So Fierce, viewed by many including Quentin Tarantino as the finest crime novel ever written, changed his fortunes. It was filmed as Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman. He has written three other novels, The Aninal Factory, Little Boy Blue and Dog Eat Dog, (all published by No Exit..) admired by writers as diverse as William Styron and James Ellroy. He received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Runaway Train, and has appeared in a score of films, most notably his legendary role as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs. This blistering narrative is a memoir like no other.

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Reviews

Amazon.com

Perhaps not content with their standard anti-social activities, it seems that more and more criminals are angling for respectability by publishing their autobiographies—luridly bragging about their endeavours and romanticising their misdeeds. Certainly, there is a morbid fascination to be gained but if the recollections of Edward Bunker are anything to go by, the reality of a criminal mind truly is far stranger (and more compelling) than fiction.

Known to modern audiences as Mr. Blue in Quentin Tarantino’s ultra-hip crime flick Reservoir Dogs, Bunker became the youngest ever inmate of the notorious San Quentin Prison at 17-years-old. He spent the next 18 years of his life in prison and effectively wrote his way to freedom. Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade details his early life: roaming the city streets a product of a broken home, his fearsome prison experiences, his associations with the likes of Tennessee Williams and his spell as a fugitive. It culminates with the publishing of his first novel No Beast So Fierce, which Tarantino regarded as one of the finest crime novels written. There is a deep cynicism to Bunker’s writing (who could blame him?) but it is overridden by a hardened optimism that you will come to respect. He expertly details the ferocity of prison life, especially his experiences at Folsom, where he witnessed savage race riots: “In a world absolutely integrated…the cell offered no safety…racial hatred was malevolent and intractable.”Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade is not a tale of a man revelling in his dubious abilities. Rather, it is a hard-as-nails narrative of someone trying to go straight in a world that won’t let him but ultimately uses his writing skills as a redemptive tool to “make a lotus grow from the mud.” Given the vast, violent odds he faced, miraculously it did grow in a most storming fashion.—Danny Graydon