2 out of 4 stars
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When choosing a new book to read there are many things to consider since you are going to set aside your precious time to read it. The title, the blurb about it, and the author are just a few of the things to consider. When I saw the title, Gringo: My Life on the Edge as an International Fugitive by Peter Conti as told by Dan "Tito" Davis, I know it was worth setting my time to read it. When I finished reading this, I knew I was right.
Dan begins the story about his life in a small town in South Dakota. It was a life that the young people of today would envy. As he grew up though and met the wrong kind of friends, he became brazen. As long as the authorities don't know what you were up to it was okay. Then suddenly he finds himself a fugitive running to stay free. The feds were running after him for a crime he didn't even commit.
As he dodges the law hopping from one country to the next in Central and South America, many questions teemed in his mind. Who could he trust? Who was on his trail? As I read on I thought, will he ever get caught?
The whole narrative was something out of the ordinary. I like how the two authors collaborated to make this narrative come alive. The way they describe the various scenes and sceneries were such that you could easily imagine it in your head. It is not your typical fugitive story, not so much blood and gore on this one. Still, it came up to par with its catchy title.
There were underworld lingo and prison lingo tastefully chosen and used in a context that made this piece of art an enjoyable read. They also used many slang words that were new to me. Most of the slang used was easy understand from the context.
Use of bad words was many as could be expected with the title. Still, there are plenty of narratives that use bad words more than they do here. I like that they have Endnotes to define the unusual words that they have used.
I would give this a 2 out of 4 stars. I believed that the book could have been better if they have elaborated the last few chapters just a little. As it is, the ending was too abrupt. There were few grammatical errors noted. The few mistakes found didn't affect the story at all, in my opinion anyway.
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Gringo
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