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Η συμμορία Μπονό
Το βιβλίο αυτό εξιστορεί τις περιπέτειες της «Συμμορίας Μπονό», μιας γαλλικής αναρχικής ομάδας, η οποία έγινε διαβόητη επειδή διέπραξε ληστείες τραπεζών, χρησιμοποιώντας για πρώτη φορά αυτοκίνητο. Στις παραμονές του Α’ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου, μερικοί νεαροί αναρχικοί, εμπνεόμενοι από τον ατομικιστικό αναρχισμό του Μαξ Στίρνερ, συσπειρώθηκαν στο Παρίσι αποφασισμένοι να ξεκαθαρίσουν τους λογαριασμούς τους με την αστική κοινωνία και να βιώσουν την ζωή τους στο ακέραιο, ανεξαρτήτως των αναπόφευκτων - και τραγικών - συνεπειών. (. . .) Ο συγγραφέας ξετυλίγει την ιστορία με τρόπο που σου αιχμαλωτίζει το ενδιαφέρον και μολονότι δεν κρύβει τις συμπάθειές του, τηρεί τις αναγκαίες αποστάσεις τεκμηριώνοντας τα γραφόμενά του βάσει ιστορικών πηγών. (ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΠΑΡΟΥΣΙΑΣΗ ΣΤΟ ΟΠΙΣΘΟΦΥΛΛΟ ΤΟΥ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΥ)
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 6, 2019
I received a copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway. This review is a couple of years late.
I knew absolutely nothing about the Bonnot gang before I opened this book. For that, I'm glad that Parry rescued this little-known bit of anarchist history from the dustbin of history.
That said, this is a better book to read continuously rather than broken up by several days (and several other books). There's a plethora of characters who appear and disappear throughout the chapters; few are described extensively making them hard to keep track of.
Reading about all the (violent & sometimes) deadly infighting among early 20th century anarchists in France is depressing. Even more depressing is the scant attention paid to female anarchists active at that time. For instance, the anarchist known as Libertad was lovers with two sisters, who were co-publishers of the journal l'anarchie. They broke up and, during a melee, one of the two sisters kicked him in the stomach; he died from that kick. But the author does not mention which sister kicked him nor do either of them get any more than a cursory description despite being co-publishers of an anarchist journal (that seemed important at the time) and one of them *having landed a singularly deadly kick on her ex-lover*.
Similarly, though Rirette Maîtrejean wrote a memoir (Souvenirs d'anarchie) after her acquittal, Parry doesn't tell us much about her life other than as Kibalchich's partner (and co-defendant). Even basic questions like, who cared for her two young daughters while she was incarcerated? What happened after she published her memoirs? Parry noted that she remained an anarchist for the rest of her life--what was her relationship to the anarchist movement and how did her arrest/trial change that? How did she support herself and her two daughters after Kibalchich was convicted?
I knew absolutely nothing about the Bonnot gang before I opened this book. For that, I'm glad that Parry rescued this little-known bit of anarchist history from the dustbin of history.
That said, this is a better book to read continuously rather than broken up by several days (and several other books). There's a plethora of characters who appear and disappear throughout the chapters; few are described extensively making them hard to keep track of.
Reading about all the (violent & sometimes) deadly infighting among early 20th century anarchists in France is depressing. Even more depressing is the scant attention paid to female anarchists active at that time. For instance, the anarchist known as Libertad was lovers with two sisters, who were co-publishers of the journal l'anarchie. They broke up and, during a melee, one of the two sisters kicked him in the stomach; he died from that kick. But the author does not mention which sister kicked him nor do either of them get any more than a cursory description despite being co-publishers of an anarchist journal (that seemed important at the time) and one of them *having landed a singularly deadly kick on her ex-lover*.
Similarly, though Rirette Maîtrejean wrote a memoir (Souvenirs d'anarchie) after her acquittal, Parry doesn't tell us much about her life other than as Kibalchich's partner (and co-defendant). Even basic questions like, who cared for her two young daughters while she was incarcerated? What happened after she published her memoirs? Parry noted that she remained an anarchist for the rest of her life--what was her relationship to the anarchist movement and how did her arrest/trial change that? How did she support herself and her two daughters after Kibalchich was convicted?
March 4, 2015
A well put together history of the Bonnot Gang, a French illegalist anarchist group responsible for the first robberies involving getaway cars.
Parry begins with chapters laying out the political and economic situations in France (and other parts of Europe) in the years preceding the group's activity. He also describes the philosophers who inspired the illegalist thinkers of the time period. He tells the life stories of the individuals involves and then weaves together all of these parts into the story of the groups coalescence and ending.
If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, I highly recommend it. I have to admit though, after getting to know all of the characters, I was very much saddened by their fates, although I already knew the story before I read this account.
Parry begins with chapters laying out the political and economic situations in France (and other parts of Europe) in the years preceding the group's activity. He also describes the philosophers who inspired the illegalist thinkers of the time period. He tells the life stories of the individuals involves and then weaves together all of these parts into the story of the groups coalescence and ending.
If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, I highly recommend it. I have to admit though, after getting to know all of the characters, I was very much saddened by their fates, although I already knew the story before I read this account.
January 12, 2012
While not as gripping as Without A Glimmer of Remorse, this provided a lot of info on illegalism. I feel like my interest in this subject is waning a little, however, and have never liked reading history books very much. However, the author has some moments where he uses the experiences to ask important questions about anarchism. Some friends in Montreal are going to be reprinting this as a huge zine, and so I was reading an OCR copy in order to edit the mistakes, which made reading it a little painful.
January 4, 2008
Rebel Press, back when they were active, published more than one book that was a huge influence on me as a kid- this is one of them. Truly an incredible read.
February 19, 2016
More names than the first chapter of a book in the Old Testament. Dry as fuck you can't remember who's who. Cool story, though.
October 1, 2025
In his intro the author warns that "In the good old tradition of liberal historiography the story that follows is very much my own," but my impression throughout was that the book was quite well researched and so most probably pretty accurate as far as it went, i.e. there were no dialogues obviously added for colour or anything like that.
I'm being a bit stingy awarding stars, but this is because, as others have commented, there are clearly some interesting figures involved here whose subsequent writings should have been quoted more to make this a bit less of a cops-and-robbers true-crime story with a difference (e.g. Souvenirs d'anarchie by Rirette Maitrejean).
I was struck by the language of the narrative, a kind of vernacular academese including words like bloke and nutter (the latter a translation from French). I think the author's attempts at translation were flawed, e.g. "Paradis éphémère que voile la sombre chimère" rendered as "Ephemeral paradise hiding the dark chimera" surely confuses subject and object. I imagine this limited French has impeded research and explains the lack of quotes from relevant source material. The author describes one book as "unfortunately only available in French", but hopefully he has adopted a less bleakly monolingual perspective in later editions. ;-)
I'm being a bit stingy awarding stars, but this is because, as others have commented, there are clearly some interesting figures involved here whose subsequent writings should have been quoted more to make this a bit less of a cops-and-robbers true-crime story with a difference (e.g. Souvenirs d'anarchie by Rirette Maitrejean).
I was struck by the language of the narrative, a kind of vernacular academese including words like bloke and nutter (the latter a translation from French). I think the author's attempts at translation were flawed, e.g. "Paradis éphémère que voile la sombre chimère" rendered as "Ephemeral paradise hiding the dark chimera" surely confuses subject and object. I imagine this limited French has impeded research and explains the lack of quotes from relevant source material. The author describes one book as "unfortunately only available in French", but hopefully he has adopted a less bleakly monolingual perspective in later editions. ;-)
December 22, 2023
An excellent book that has a lot of missing details from other accounts that I've read. I was reading the second edition which has even more information than usual and I haven't even gotten to the epilogue or the appendix right now. This is a must read for anybody who's interested in the Bonnot Gang.
August 21, 2018
It was okay.
February 5, 2023
I actually read the second edition, which does not seem to be on Goodreads.
May 31, 2008
Bonnie & Clyde with anarchist politics. Excellent!
January 27, 2012
too many names! otherwise great.
July 23, 2008
Riveting history of an exciting and tragic time in France.
It was hard to put this one down.
It was hard to put this one down.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews