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Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts, by Julian Rubinstein
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Review
Awards: Winner, Borders 2005 “Original Voices” Nonfiction Book of the Year Finalist, 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Fact Crime Finalist, 2005 Anthony Award, Best Non-fiction Book Finalist, 2007 Audie Award, Best Audio Book National Geographic “Best 5 Books about Budapest” Film rights purchased by Johnnie Depp Reviews “A story of the sort that would make even the most dry-mouthed journalist slobber. Sometimes sad, often hilarious and always absurd, Ambrus’s tale microcosmically condenses the politico-historic oddities of his place and era into one entertaining and tidy narrative… With a keen eye for the ridiculous, fearlessly high-speed prose and an extraordinary wealth of reported detail, Rubinstein conducts the affair like an unusually thoughtful carnival barker.” —New York Times Sunday Book Review (Editors’ Choice) “An instant classic…. At once sad and funny, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, a rollicking tale of the Wild East, also has a deeply compelling political purpose.” Canada’s Globe and Mail (A Best Book of the Year pick) “Outrageously entertaining… An essential absurdism is never far from the surface… This fast-moving story is a rip-roaring cops and robbers saga with a Mitteleuropean heart.” —San Francisco Chronicle “One of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. Ever. In fact it’s one of the best non-fiction books I will ever read. It’s that good.” Harvard Bookstore Staff Pick “Marvelous. This book will stand as a vivid memento of modern Budapest’s formative years.” —The Budapest Times “If all the world loves a romantic thief, the world will fall head over heels for Attila Ambrus. Fast paced and exquisitely detailed.” —Outside “Rubinstein has a knack for vividly portraying his stranger-than-fiction characters… By turns hilarious and incredible, this stuff just can’t be made up.” —Maxim (5 out of 5 stars.) “Offers that simple pleasure, a great story.” —Esquire “Its hard to imagine what journalist Julian Rubinstein thought when he stumbled across the twisted tale of Attila Ambrus, but his fascination finds riveting realization in Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, a nonfiction account of a story that must be read to be believed… Set against a rich backdrop of hope and despair, the book is a heartrending study of a character whose bungling tells the story of a world much bigger than his own.” —The Onion, AV Club “A whiz-bang read, hilarious and oddly touching… Rubinstein writes in a guns-ablazing style that perfectly fits the Whiskey Robber’s tale.” —Salon.com “Julian Rubinstein has found what every writer craves: a larger-than-life character whose adventures veer from rollicking to comical to heartbreaking… Ambrus’s arc and all of its attendant absurdity tends to parallel that of Eastern Europe itself: the desperation, the sense of opportunity after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Wild West euphoria, the deep-seated corruption, and finally, the brutal hangover after the long bender. Studs Terkel eat your heart out.” —Boldtype “The antagonistic protagonist of Julian Rubinstein’s picaresque romp is a real person who defies belief… Rubinstein rides the momentum in appropriately riotous fashion, but he wisely never lets his vivid style overshadow a tale that burns up the pages on its own momentum. Nor does he succumb to sentimentality when exploring the tale’s pathos—and believe it or not, there’s as much of that as there is burlesque. A memorable tragicomedy.” —Boston Globe “Rubinstein’s chronicle is performance art, a madcap joyride alongside one of the most endearing figures in the annals of bad behavior.” —Men’s Journal “Truth is still stranger than fiction… This is a Hollywood film waiting to be made, a crazy outlaw caper from “The Wild, Wild East.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer “A beautifully crafted tale… In Rubinstein’s deft hands, Attila becomes a great tragicomic character.” —Denver Post (Best Books of the Year Pick) “As outrageous and entertaining as any piece of fiction in recent memory, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is a page-turner almost too fantastic to believe and too engrossing to put down.” —Columbus Dispatch “Arguably this is the best piece of serious literature ever written tackling the Hungarian experience in the 1990s… One of Julian Rubinstein’s best virtues is a sincere interest in, and sympathy toward, csorikaim, the little people, prone to fail, the losers. In Hungarian non-fiction, no examples of such curiosity and empathy have emerged since Gyorgy Moldova’s heyday… Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is one book in a thousand.” Elet es Irodalom (Hungary’s leading literary publication) “Rubinstein has succeeded in carving out a crime niche all his own.” —Toronto Star “A wonderful read. Rubinstein’s account of the Whiskey Robber seems straight out of Hollywood and ineed it’s ideal for the big screen. It’s got a rogue hero, chase sequences, even those romances. Best of all for potential producers, the actor cast as Ambrus would barely need to know how to play hockey.” —Sports Illustrated “Here, the bad guys are the gentlemen, the good guys are the bumblers, and nothing is quite what it seems, but that won’t keep you from laughing out loud every couple of pages. Weirdness has never been quite so winning.” —ELLE “Julian Rubinstein’s richly enjoyable true-crime saga… Mr. Rubinstein narrates all these farcical goings-on with a sad affection peeking through, even for the dumbest and most corrupt characters. But primarily he maintains that marvelously sardonic Eastern European resignation, that ironic tone of voice that always seems to shrug and say, ‘So what did you expect?’” —Dallas Morning News “Grade: A. An all-too real political fairy tale… Underneath all of the action and intrigue that makes Ballad nothing short of a page-turner, there’s a subtle commentary on corruption and capitalism… With such high stakes and the story’s built-in suspense, Rubinstein’s Ballad never borders on a lackluster history lesson, nor does his attention to political injustices ever interrupt the fiction-like flow of Ambrus’s story. Though being resigned to a life of quiet desperation was Ambrus’s greatest fear, Ballad is proof that the Whiskey Robber will remain anything but irrelevant.” —Rocky Mountain News “Never was there a more entertaining case history of the fall of communism… Wholly enjoyable.” —Kirkus Reviews “Hilarious.” —Playboy “Masterful… A quirky, engrossing look at the chaos of post-Cold War Hungary and the growing pains of capitalism. It is a wild ride with over-the-top gangsters, pelt smugglers and cops.” —Newark Star-Ledger “The pace, ingenuity and comical sense of the absurd deployed to tell the story of ice hockey player and bank robber Attila Ambrus makes this book read like a novel. But Attila Ambrus is real… His extraordinary story is told here with a hint of Louis de Bernieres and a lot of panache.” —Daily Mail (UK) “A book that reads like some fantastic crime novel, chronicling the very real actions of an extraordinary man trying to survive and make a lasting name for himself in transitionary times… Ballad is a rollicking crime story, a commentary on the effects of the fall of communism on the former Eastern Bloc, and a beautiful portrait of historic Budapest.” —Small Spiral Notebook “A ripper of a crime story and it’s one that can stand next to any of history’s great outlaw tales… The reporting is exhaustive, the pace is fast, and the main character is as bizarre as any you’re going to meet. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is a fabulous read.” —Edmonton Journal “Rubinstein’s eye for whimsical detail imbues his deftly sketched cops-and-robbers saga with a rich palpability. And he keeps the story tight and lively, despite its plot twists and complex cast of characters… One heck of a good story.” —BlackBook “Readers who normally shun nonfiction will embrace the story for the marvelous storytelling and terrific characters… In short, Rubinstein is a terrific storyteller.” —Boulder Daily Camera “A madcap joyride… Rubinstein has written a great crime story.” —5280 Denver’s Magazine “A terrific first effort by Rubinstein… Readers will find themselves trying to figure out who should play the Whiskey Robber on the big screen.” —Library Journal “This is a funny, moving, edge-of-your seat true story that beautifully captures the mood and ethos of post-Cold War Budapest. I loved it and Willie Sutton would have too.” —Donald Blinken, US Ambassador to Hungary, 1994-98 “The vivid and riveting story of Attila Ambrus, Transylvanian-born immigrant, outlaw and gentleman, also provides a key to the still inexplicable and mad passage of communism to capitalism… This is a grand thriller, perhaps the first of a genre.” —Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator and author “Punchy, hilarious and apparently even true, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber gives hope to anyone who ever smuggled an animal pelt, climbed aboard a Zamboni or pondered whether truth can be better than fiction. Mr. Rubinstein has committed a high-wire, bravado act of journalism.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story, Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook “Funny, heart-breaking, gripping, incredible and it implies volumes more: the distillation of a people or an era, or the failings and promise of money, freedom, fame. Any novelist making this up would be duly executed.” Arthur Phillips, author, most recently, of The Tragedy of Arthur “Attila Ambrus is one of the funniest and most phoenix-like characters to agitate for our attention in quite some time. Julian Rubinstein tells Ambrus’s flipped-out tale with real verve and sympathy.” —Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng, and others “Bittersweet, comic-tragic, sadly funny, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is Julian Rubisntein’s wonderful saga of Hungarian cops and robbers, where, if crime doesn’t pay, it at least beats playing hockey goalie.” —Frank Deford, author and NPR commentator Rubinstein is “one of America’s best… The chance to glimpse into the world of an artist with such deep range is certainly undiluted manna.” —Sante Fe Reporter "An instant classic." —Globe Mail (Canada) "Outrageously entertaining." —San Francisco Chronicle "Rubinstein has found a story of the sort that would make even the most dry-mouthed journalist slobber. Sometimes sad, often hilarious and always absurd, Ambrus's tale microcomsically condenses the politico-historic oddities into one entertaining and fairly tidy narrative. With a keen eye for the ridiculous, fearlessly high-speed prose and an extraordinary wealth of reported detail, Rubinstein conducts the affair like an unusually thoughtful carnival barker." —New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) "Punchy, hilarious, and apparently even true ... truth can be better than fiction." —Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutant "(A) punchy, preposterous tale of a cut-price Sundance Kid of the Eastern bloc ... Rubinstein relishes every misstep taken by his anti-hero on the way to a long sentence." —The Times "Those who shy away from the "true crime" section of the bookshop ... may nevertheless like to try Ballad of the Whiskey Robber ... I particularly enjoyed Rubinstein's descriptions of the hapless cops ... funny ... the book is entirely free of schmaltz, which allows some unexpectedly tender moments." —Daily Telegraph "A funny and thrilling slice of modern history, told with all the charm of Butch and Sundance's flamboyant escapades." —Independent "An extraordinary story ... told here with a hint of Louis de Bernieres and a lot of panache." —Daily Mail "An hilarious, absurd parable for our times." —Word "A true caper of burglaries and broken hearts in the Eastern bloc." —Wanderlust "This stuff just can't be made up." —Maxim "One of the quirkiest and most riveting narratives. Weirdness has never been so winning." —Elle "[The book] got fantastic reviews in the US on publication ... I am sure it will have a similar success here." —Bookseller "A fast-paced and exquisitely detailed true-crime lark." —Outside "Fabulous stuff." —The Times, Ross Leckie "Offers that simple pleasure, a great story." —Esquire "This is a grand thriller, perhaps the first of a genre." —Andrei Codrescu, NPR
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About the Author
Julian Rubinstein has made a career finding and bringing unforgettable characters to life and breaking bizarre and often dangerous stories from faraway places. Whether with a fleeing Indian tribe in Brazil, with the Hell's Angels in Canada, or with John McEnroe in his art gallery in SoHo, Julian has consistently proven able to get the story no one else could. His journalism has earned inclusion in the BEST AMERICAN CRIME WRITING anthology and two citations from BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING. He began his career as a sports reporter and writer, first for The Washington Post and then Sports Illustrated. He has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Arts & Leisure Section, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, Outside, Salon, and Details, where he is a contributing editor. Born in the Bronx and raised in Denver, he currently lives in New York City. BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is his first book.
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Product details
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (September 13, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316010731
ISBN-13: 978-0316010733
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 1 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
105 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#267,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This story is a hilarious comedic romp and adventure. It is especially amazing because the "Whiskey Robber" was a real person and it is a true story! There are some sad aspects in the sense that the reader sees the intimate struggles of people with hardly any money, scarce resources, and a corrupt and inept government and police. But overall the tone of the story is light, humorous, and very entertaining. The whiskey robber himself is brilliant, almost admirable, but foolish at times, too, and the police are comically misled repeatedly. The picture on the cover with the long hair and the missing tooth must be one of the robber's disguises; in his photos he does not look remotely like that. In fact, in reality he is handsome and quite the ladies' man. This story would make an excellent movie - plenty of action, close calls, police chases, and love affairs.
I have read this book in 1 day. I grew up in the same area as Attila, was born about 50 KM from his home town of Csikszereda. One thing Julian Rubenstein did so perfectly, that in my humble opinion makes this book a must read for everyone, is he captured the essence of what it means to be Szekely. I am not sure if he meant to do that, but by describing Attila and the way he makes his way in the world is the same faith 650,000 other Szekelys see the world with as well. Its not something that can be described. Its something that has to be lived - yet Julian was able to describe it. I'm not a writer, as he is, so I won't attempt to, just go read the book. I am not saying what Attila did was right - but at least he always knew the difference between robbing a bank or hurting a person and he never crossed the line. Well... he was also really stupid for what he did because he lost 10+ years of his life in prison, but desperation will do a lot to a man - especially a Szekely who is born with enough pride to fill five other people.But regardless of the subject matter, absolute kudos to Julian for his writing. I hope he writes another book, I would love to read it, he is a terrific storyteller. This is shown in his dedication to the research he did about the subject matter. Finally, someone has not only managed to write a book about Transylvania and specifically about the Szekelyfold that doesn't mention the vampire folklore, but actually he took the time to understand the region and portray us in a positive light instead of one we usually are portrayed in. Backwoods, homeless, useless peasants who don't know how to tie their shoes right. Finally, someone wrote a book in which the Szekelys are portrayed as human beings. That alone makes this, IMHO, a masterpiece. But I could be just a tad biased.
I read this book in 2010 while living as an expat in Budapest. Another American put it in my hands and told me: You gotta read this book! Seriously funny, good, and TRUE stuff. Very well written by an American journalist. Gives you a good idea of the last days of communism and first days of democracy in the Eastern bloc, at least in Romania and Hungary. Communism, incidentally, was not practiced the same in all the Eastern bloc countries. Romania was far more oppressive than Hungary, which is why this poor guy--of Hungarian descent and stuck in Romania--hides under the carriage of a train to escape to Hungary. Once in Budapest he becomes a hockey player and then a bank robber. You're not supposed to sympathize with a thief, but in this case you can't help it. He eventually does get caught. I read that he's making pottery in prison now and will be released in 2016. Hollywood should make a movie about this book. Great story! Read it! (Oh, btw, I loved the book so much, I had to buy my own copy.)UPDATE: I just found out that the robber was released in January 2012.
I would have never read this book had my book club not selected it but I loved, loved this true story...so well researched and written. very entertaining...a very male dominated story but all the ladies who read the book were quite endeared by the Whiskey Robber, his life story and exploits. Such an interesting character and story. I was particularly intrigued because it mainly takes place in Budapest and I was raised ethnically Hungarian. A bit of history woven in very well, Communism, post-Communism, the introduction of Capitalism. It's interesting how you begin to cheer Attila Ambrus on. Julian Rubenstein is a masterful writer. Kozenem szepen (thank you very much).
Julian Rubensten the author says in an interview he couldn't believe no other writers were jumping on this true story of a Hungarian hockey player "supplementing" his income by robbing banks in the early 1990s. Most reviewers have already summarized the plot. If I can only add some things: This is more than a page-turning comedy full of colorful criminals and real-life Keystone Cops. This is a tragedy about a man who, dismissed by his father and ridiculed by his teammates as a homeless peasant, wanted to be loved, to be accepted and to be a somebody and who used his talents, cunning, and imagination to become a grotesque criminal. Atilla, the main character, is so endearing, which attests to Rubenstein's great writing skills.Lovers of comic novels such as Confederacy of Dunces, The Gingerman or any of the farcical novels of Thomas Berger and Magnus Mills should love Ballad of a Whiskey Robber.
This biography of Attila Ambrus, famous Hungarian bank robber, has enough "hold my beer" moments to satisfy any Jeff Foxworthy fan. The part-time hockey player (The Chicky Panther) happened into a life of crime in the void created by communism's fall in 1990s Hungary.I kept thinking of the old Aykroyd/Martin "Two Wild and Crazy Guys" skits on SNL - imagine if they became bank robbers! It didn't help that Ambrus's pursuers were police with little or no resources (they worked part-time at jobs like dance instructors or coroner's assistants to make ends meet).Rubinstein never lost my interest and kept a funny (but not snarky) tone throughout, which made it obvious why the Hungarian people adopted this bumbling drunk as a national folk hero.
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Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts, by Julian Rubinstein PDF
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts, by Julian Rubinstein PDF
