Ballad of the Whiskey Robber

I realize that its been a little while since my last post, which is party a function of the snow days we've been having lately. To some people, snow days would seem like an excellent excuse to curl up with a book, but, given that a large part of my reading is done in the car on the way to work, not going to work sort of impedes the progress. But, I finally finished reading Ballad of the Whiskey Robber...
On a recent visit to a Barnes & Noble to kill some time, Matt and I came across this Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, which, by the way, is a book about a Transylvanian pelt smuggling, hockey goalie, bank robber... that's also 100% true. After sneaking into Hungary from Romania (he was born in a little town in Transylvania), the Whiskey Robber (Attila Ambrus is his real name) starts working for the local hockey team, first as janitor, then Zamboni driver, and finally as a (terrible) goalie for 8 years. Throughout this period, he also becomes one of the greatest bank robbers in Hungary's history.
One of the most striking aspects of the book is that it takes place from 1988 - 2001, which is not only a time period that I actually remember (and never heard anything about this guy), but is also during the fall of Communism in Hungary. As the new, democratic, capitalist society takes hold in Hungary, it also brings with it a new wave of unemployment, desperation, and crime, which sets up the perfect scenario for a man who has nothing to lost to start robbing banks. The police force is grossly undermanned, and often has to share less than 3 working cars, and the banks are very rarely equipped with alarms or cameras.... So actually robbing the banks is not at all difficult. But Attila takes to bank robbing with a fierce dedication, carefully mapping out each location and assigning it a difficulty rating based on the number and gender of employees, cameras, and distance from the police station. Although Attila's personality contributed to his career choice (bank robber, as it says on his myspace page), the circumstances of the time definitely played a role as well. It was also interesting to read how the U.S. was (1) obsessed with the O.J. Simpson trial and Monica Lewinsky during this time period, and (2) declared Hungary to be a model country for the transition to democracy, even when 1/20 people would wake up in the morning to find their cars stolen and Attila was able to rob 29 banks over 8 years.
Arguably an even more interesting point is how much of a popular figure Attila became over the years. Due to extreme government scandal, many people saw him as an antiestablishment figure who wasn't robbing banks so much as just redistributing the wealth. Even though he never actually gave money to the poor, many people call him a "modern-day Robin Hood." And today, when I googled him, I found interviews, his myspace page (see link above; maybe I should think about finally getting one of these?), and youtube videos with comments from people who love him. He is currently serving a 17 year prison sentence in a maximum security prison, but people all over the world celebrate his birthday (October 6) by toasting him with some whiskey.
Its another example of a book with characters with a grossly different perspective on the world... And a good framework in which to think about the influence of circumstance on one's path in life. Even as Attila starts to break down from being on the lam for so long, he continues to rob banks (albeit usually sloppily drunk) because it is the only way he can think of to procure enough money to leave the country. "It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way." -Rollo May, psychologist (1909-1994)