Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts

Rating:
Summary: ballad of the whiskey robber
Review: A wonderfully crafted and detailed book, not only of the life of an intriguing character, but also of life on the ground in Hungary at this snip it in time. Although tragic, it is a laugh a minute as we follow this thief and his antagonists around the city and countryside of this amazing place called Budapest.

Rating:
Summary: I'm sorry, but...
Review: Are you sure, that he is a popular criminal in Hungary? As I live here, I just can't find any sings of him being beloved. As he is a bank robber. He was a great sportsman - before. But that doesn't mean much if it's about crime. Sorry, if this may sound a bit harsh, but really, he is no hero at all. At least not in our community.

Rating:
Summary: Calling it a Must Read doesn't really do the book justice
Review: Attila Ambrus is king. True, he may not do so well with relationships. And his hockey goalie skills may leave much to be desired (though not his dedication), and he may have something of a compulsive personality when it comes to drinking and gambling.

But when it comes to robbery, he is the indisputable king.

(In Hungary in the 1990s, anyway.)

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is one of the best non-fiction books I've read. Ever. Hands down. In fact, it's one of the best non-fiction books I will ever read -- it's that good. By some outrageous fluke, Ballad marries truly excellent writing (that of Julian Rubinstein) to an outstanding true story (that of Whiskey Robber Attila Ambrus), a phenomenon that happens all too rarely.

Trying to find his way in the world and piece together a living, Attila Ambrus stumbles upon the fact that his quick mind is suited perfectly to robbing banks and post offices.

The story -- by which I mean the true life story, i.e., the story on which the book is based -- is itself nearly impossible to believe. When I say "nearly," just think: impossible. At numerous points throught the book, I honestly turned back to the front cover to double check the whole "true story" part, because I couldn't believe it.

Everything fits together perfectly.

Mostly.

Julian Rubinstein is an excellent storyteller, and Attila Ambrus is a perfect story-maker.

This is a book that you must read.

Now.

Rating:
Summary: Cops and Robbers of the Absurd
Review: Hungary's most beloved criminal, Attila Ambrus, is locked away until 2016, but even now he is interviewed on television, as a commentator on current bank robberies since he was an expert, and even the dog he had when he was free (and who will probably never see him again) makes the news now and then. Attila won't say what his immediate plans are; he says he'd "be insincere" if he made remarks about planning to escape, but he is working on getting an education, and he loves reading. He has a huge encyclopedia of Hungarian history that even mentions him as a national folk hero. This is despite his alcoholism, addiction to gambling, womanizing, and career as the worst goalie ever in professional Hungarian hockey. The bizarre story is rollickingly told in _Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts_ (Little, Brown) by Julian Rubinstein. This hugely entertaining story would fail if it were fiction; Rubinstein has done lots of research, including hours of jailhouse interviews with the hero, and it is all true, but still incredible.

Attila escaped from Romania to Hungary in 1988, clinging to the bottom of a train. He wound up in Budapest penniless and friendless, and he had a funny accent. With unswerving determination, he caught on to a championship Budapest hockey club. Once he did get a chance to show his stuff on the ice, "... it didn't take long for the team to recognize the new kid's level of talent. Zero...." He didn't get paid, but he doubled as the team's janitor. He also drove the Zamboni, until while driving drunk one night, he drove it into the stands. Desperate for some better life, and for a better place to live than the stable he had found, he got drunk, put on a wig and some mascara, and knocked off a post office. It was easy. He went on to accomplish almost thirty drunken robberies over six years, always unfailingly polite to the tellers, even bringing them roses. Capture, of course, was sooner or later inevitable, as long as Attila kept playing the robbery game, and he was eventually arrested in 1999 and put into the escape-proof downtown jail. He became a television start; in interviews, he was poised, amused, and amusing, and Whiskey Robber television specials, biographies, and t-shirts all sold well. (Some of the t-shirts toted up his score of banks: "Whiskey Robber 28, Corrupt Cops 1".) His case became, as Rubinstein writes, a referendum on the government.

It only became more so when Attila broke from prison (by means of an escape rope made of shredded sheets and shoe laces) and started robbing again, increasing the power of his legend. People refused to turn him in. Even _Sports Illustrated_ got into the act, erroneously celebrating him as "one of the best goalies in his country's top pro league." Of course he got caught again, and has stayed in prison so far. Robbing banks is surely wrong, as is boozing at Attila's level, as is losing all gains to roulette, and Rubinstein never makes the mistake of idealizing the hero of his book, no matter what degree the Hungarians have. He is a troubled and unhappy man, and a talented and ingratiating one, who was puzzled and delighted by his own fame as he made headlines in the crime pages as well as the sports pages. Attila ought to be overjoyed by this hilarious, larger-than-life book portrait, but Rubinstein has also drawn a picture of a society that was battered by communism only to be let down by the capitalist bosses who took over. The hilarious tale is thus a sad one, too, for all its absurdity; hero criminals are only needed by the downtrodden.


Rating:
Summary: A Sweet Ballad in Time
Review: Julian Rubinstein's epic tale of Hungary's most popular criminal, Attila Ambrus, is a joyride that at once reads both as seemingly impossible and equally as compelling.


The story picks up in 1988, when Attila arrived in Hungary to start a new life. Penniless, Attila scraped by with whatever oddball job he could find until, unbeknownst to him, his future life of crime would begin taking shape with his tryst as an ice hockey goalie at the nucleus of his ambition.


Rubinstein infuses this incredible journey of cops'n'robbers with both poignant historical reference points and helpful North American moments of interest to help guide readers through this labyrinth of events. What's more, the author's charming and candid style breathes even more life into this already real cast of colourful characters, and this mostly unrelated family of accidental misfits transforms into a loveable crew of antiheroes.

Readers can only hope that Rubinstein will pick up this story upon Ambrus' eventual release [or escape] from prison.

Rating:
Summary: A Sweet Ballad in Time
Review: Julian Rubinstein's epic tale of Hungary's most popular criminal, Attila Ambrus, is a joyride that at once reads both as seemingly impossible and equally as compelling.

The story picks up in 1988, when Attila arrived in Hungary to start a new life. Penniless, Attila scraped by with whatever oddball job he could find until, unbeknownst to him, his future life of crime would begin taking shape with his tryst as an ice hockey goalie at the nucleus of his ambition.

Rubinstein infuses this incredible journey of cops'n'robbers with both poignant historical reference points and helpful North American moments of interest to help guide readers through this labyrinth of events. What's more, the author's charming and candid style breathes even more life into this already real cast of colourful characters, and this mostly unrelated family of accidental misfits transforms into a loveable crew of antiheroes.

Readers can only hope that Rubinstein will pick up this story upon Ambrus' eventual release [or escape] from prison.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes truth really is more interesting than fiction
Review: Sometimes truth really is stranger (and more interesting) than fiction-like in this thoroughly researched yet often unbelievable book about a professional hockey player turned legendary bank robber.

In 1988, Transylvanian Attila Ambrus arrived in Hungary, after a daring escape from Romania, with little more than the clothes on his back and his dream of a better life. After begging for a try-out with Budapest's professional hockey team, the eager yet not-so-talented Attila was given an unpaid position as the team's janitor, Zamboni driver, and backup goalie. No matter how many legitimate side jobs Attila took, he couldn't seem to make enough money to survive-so, like many others in Hungary at the time, he began working riskier, higher-paying jobs. When his pelt-smuggling job fell through, he needed a way to maintain the lifestyle he'd become used to-so he took up bank robbery.

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is the true story of Attila's rise from penniless illegal immigrant to a sort of Hungarian hero-the mysterious Whiskey Robber, who stole the hearts of bank tellers, TV hosts, and the Hungarian people while repeatedly fending off the Hungarian police.

Rubinstein does an excellent job of telling this spellbinding story in effortless, novel-like style-complete with a full cast of colorful characters. At the same time, however, he also throws in plenty of history lessons and provides memorable North American reference points-everything from movies that were playing at the time to American political events to the reports of Wayne Gretzky's new million-dollar home, while his Hungarian counterparts took on second and third jobs just to make ends meet-to remind you that it's not just another work of fiction.

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is a book that you'll have a hard time putting down-and an even harder time forgetting.



Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: The author did a wonderful job of painting a detailed portrait of the settings(Budapest, Romania, Transylvania etc.) as I'm sure many readers are not too familiar with those locations. I also thought the character detail was excellent.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: a great read...
Review: The more ingredients, the better the chile, right? Whether or not you subscribe to this this theory, the same holds true for this book. Everything that is mentioned in all of the reviews, as well as the cover of the book... the "ingredients" make for a truly wonderful story. At the risk of repeating what was said before, the laughable "professional" ice hockey, the political unrest, the gambling, the characters, the corruption. the outrageous costumes, the drinking, the cops who'd rather be dancing, the Hungarian rappers, and did I mention the drinking... on the surface, with such things to build upon, this story could practically have written itself. Rubenstein, on the other hand, took what he found to another level. With what must've been an exhausting amount of research, he put together a story that reads like a movie. You can practically see the Whiskey Robber as he downs a couple shots of whiskey, enters a bank, vaults over the counter - a bouquet of flowers in one hand, a gun in the other, and announces "this is a robbery." Of course, he's not done with his days work, so he collects his money, calmly walks out of the bank, hops in a cab, and arrives at his teams outdoor rink and throws on the goalie pads.

Whether or not you think the Whiskey Robber himself is a hero or anti-hero does not matter. There are really no "bad guys or good guys" here, just a bunch of extremely colorful characters. A welcome on again, off again history lesson throughout the book gives the reader just enough insight as to how the political and social unrest of the time period (late 80's early 90's) shaped all involved. Overall, a thoroughly entertaining read. I've put down most books I've picked up recently without finishing them, and here I find myself wishing I had another 300 or so pages to read about the Whiskey Robber. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: great book!
Review: The story of Attila Ambrus is unbelievably fascinating. The history of Hungary is bitterly nice, full of historical surprises. To forge the two in one story seems to be a very difficult mission. To do it in a way that is entertaining and teaching in the same time is art. And to do all these by not being Hungarian? That I would say is impossible.
Julian Rubinstein proved to be a great artist who managed to do all what seemed impossible.

His interpretation is simply perfect. I am saying this as a Hungarian who lived in Hungary when the series of robberies happened and who knows how corrupt the country is (was?), which is probably an unavoidable consequence of transition from planned economy to a market economy.

When I first heard from this book, I was particularly curious to find out what a non-Hungarian would think about the stupendous story of the `whiskey robber' but I ordered the book with an immense feeling of discredit. I would have never expected that someone without the cultural background would ever understand those strange Hungarians :-)

Having read the book, I have to admit now that Julian Rubinstein was indeed able to do it so well that sometimes I had the feeling that the book was actually written by an English-speaking Hungarian. I think I could never give a compliment bigger and more honest than this.

I recommend the book to those that want to know more about what it felt like to be a Hungarian after the transition, to those who are curious to know the story of Attila, to those who love exciting criminal stories and great humour.
And if you're Hungarian? Then this book is a must for you! :)