3 out of 4 stars
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Life of crime is adventurous and fun until you get caught, and once you are caught you can forget going back to living a normal life. Gringo: My Life on the Edge as an International Fugitive is the life story of Dan “Tito” Davis. Peter Conti has transformed Dan’s manuscript into a very engaging story with his crisp writing skills. This book falls into those category of books that you don’t want to put down unless you have finished it.
Dan Davis comes from a poor family in South Dakota. His parents had grown up in the era of Great Depression and lived their lives in poverty. However, they ensured that Dan got into school. While in fifth grade he wanted to be a horse racer (Jockey) but eventually he ended up as a drug dealer. The millions of dollars he earned from selling drugs made him greedy for more. He started selling White Crosses during his college days. The amount of money he earned and the opportunities that came his way led him to sell weed, cocaine and marijuana. Eventually, he got caught and served 102 months in prison. After serving his time in prison he was rescued by his mom. Along with his mom, he started an ice-cream parlor in South Dakota which he later expanded and sold pizzas. When it started snowing in South Dakota, he moved back to Las Vegas where he got involved into selling marijuana. He got married to his second wife and when life was set sailing smooth one of his friend from pre-school Marvin Schumacher paid him a visit, a friend whom he never thought would rat him out to the feds. When Marvin got caught he blew the whistle on Dan which got him back to prison. This time he knew he would be imprisoned for a long time. He eventually got out on bail and vanished into Mexico. From Mexico, he traveled through countries where poverty and crime were at its peak. Throughout this period he survived in difficult circumstances mostly in fear of being caught or kidnapped.
Peter Conti gives us an insightful and gripping story of Dan. The story begins from his parents life to his childhood then to his life in the university, his experiences while he was running from one country to another facing life threatening situations and exposing the poverty and crime that existed in some of the third world countries. The story flows in a chronological order and you won’t feel disconnected or lost at any point. It is so gripping that you won’t let the book out of your hands. Some of the experiences that have been mentioned in the book, I could only imagine in the movies and not something someone may have faced in their life.
I liked the way Peter Conti has been true to the story and brought the raw experiences pretty much live to the readers. I loved that throughout the book, Peter Conti did not try to put Dan in a positive light. He put the incidences that Dan went through in his life as raw as he could. The story gets into a very adventurous turn at quite a few scenarios, especially whenever Dan had to fly from one place to another with fake documents and it is quite interesting to see how he succeeded to travel from one country to another. Another scenario is of a lady passenger going into labor in a bus and delivers twins. I quite liked reading about his experiences in Medellin and his desperate need to learn Spanish to survive in Latin America.
The story has many interesting twists and turns that holds your attention throughout the read. It totally keeps you on the edge. The difficulties of living in poverty stricken third world countries and the dangers and fear of being on a hideout is very well portrayed. Peter Conti brought out the essence of different cultures of the countries where Dan traveled as a fugitive. The story also gives an insight into his failed marriages and the women who came into his life during his life as a fugitive.
I would rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because of the few grammatical errors otherwise it could have been a perfect 4. However, it doesn’t distract one from the flow of the story. It is an adventurous, gripping and on the edge story. This book is for those who love to read crime stories, autobiographies and memoirs. Having said that I would like to say that anyone who comes across this book can give this a read and it won’t disappoint.
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Gringo
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