Ballad of the Whiskey Robber

By: Julian Rubinstein

Narrated by: Eric Bogosian, Demetri Martin, Tommy Ramone, Jonathan Ames, Gary Shteyngart, Arthur Phillips, Darin Strauss, Samantha Power, Hachette Assorted Authors

An award-wining and "outrageously entertaining" true crime story (San Francisco Chronicle) about the professional hockey player-turned-bank robber whose bizarre and audacious crime spree galvanized Hungary in the decade after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

During the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest, Attila Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. Arrayed against him was perhaps the most incompetent team of crime investigators the Eastern Bloc had ever seen: a robbery chief who had learned how to be a detective by watching dubbed Columbo episodes; a forensics man who wore top hat and tails on the job; and a driver so inept he was known only by a Hungarian word that translates to Mound of Ass-Head.

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is the completely bizarre and hysterical story of the crime spree that made a nobody into a somebody, and told a forlorn nation that sometimes the brightest stars come from the blackest holes. Like The Professor and the Madman and The Orchid Thief, Julian Rubinstein's bizarre crime story is so odd and so wicked that it is completely irresistible.

"A whiz-bang read...Hilarious and oddly touching...Rubinstein writes in a guns-ablazing style that perfectly fits the whiskey robber's tale."—Salon

©2004 Julian Rubinstein (P)2006 Time Warner AudioBooks, a division of the AOL Time Warner Book Group

Critic reviews

"Rubinstein has found a story of the sort that would make even the most dry-mouthed journalist slobber. Sometimes sad, often hilarious and always absurd, Ambrus's tale microcosmically condenses the politico-historic oddities of his place and era into one entertaining and tidy narrative... With a keen eye for the ridiculous, fearlessly high-speed prose and an extraordinary wealth of reported detail, Rubinstein conducts the affair like an unusually thoughtful carnival barker."—New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

"Outrageously entertaining... An essential absurdism is never far from the surface... A rip-roaring cops and robbers saga with a Mitteleuropean heart."—San Francisco Chronicle

"The antagonistic protagonist of Julian Rubinstein's picaresque romp is a real person who defies belief... Rubinstein rides the momentum in appropriately riotous fashion, but he wisely never lets his vivid style overshadow a tale that burns up the pages on its own momentum. Nor does he succumb to sentimentality when exploring the tale's pathos—and believe it or not, there's as much of that as there is burlesque. A memorable tragicomedy."—Boston Globe

Fantastic

I loved this book. It was excellent on three levels, maybe more:

1. The bare facts of the story are wild and entertaining. You gotta love Attila.

2. The writing was superb. Julian Rubenstein has an understated writing style that allows the events and characters to speak for themselves. I'm tempted to track down some of his sports writing just to enjoy the prose.

3. The reading and production actually enhanced the already great writing. I think it was the author himself who was the main narrator--if so, he might want to consider switching careers. He's a lot more enjoyable to listen to than some voice actors I've heard. The occasional interjections of dialogue by other voices took a bit of getting used to, but I ended up loving that as well.

Highly recommended.

This story screams Coen Brothers movie!

Everything about this book is great. The performances are fun, the music is excellent, the story is so over the top crazy, it's hard to believe it's true. Thoroughly enjoyed the listen. Several times I thought, how has this not been made into a movie? It feels very Fargo-ish, that's what made me think of the Coen Brothers. It moves fast, so there is no way a listener could get bored. Highly recommended!

A poor boy makes … not so good

The story of the Whiskey Robber, a refugee to Hungary from Transylvania, is a riotous trip full of incompetent Budapest police, bumbling sidekicks, and some very clever moves by the Whiskey Robber. Lots of fun!

Good true story

Excellent history intermingled with a true story. The narrator could have just a bit more inflection.

Truth is better than fiction

I loved this story. Each time I found myself thinking, "This is too farfetched," I remembered that it's actually a true story! The reader is great and even the music, which I usually find distracting, is very professional and adds to the feel of the story.

Funny

The book reads like a novel but is actually a fact filled story. It chronicles the life of the Whiskey Robber, Attila, who apparently had some notoriety in Hungary during the late 1980's. Attila has his own imperfections, and we are were cheering for him even though we wish he could just get it together in his life. The book is generally amusing. The beginning of the book is a little slow but the book ends very well and is worth the wait. The reader could have more spring in his voice, but the many other voices that are used are excellent. Good for a light read.

Great Book

Well narrated and humorous. The incompetence of a fledgling free market state police force vs a bank robber, with. A drinking problem.

Fantastic production & crazy-but-true crime tale

The audio edition of this book is fantastic--really a radio comedy/drama. It is introduced by Attila Ambrus himself, the eponymous Whiskey Robber, as he served time in jail for his string of non-violent bank robberies in Budapest in the 1990s. The author is the main narrator, with voices supplied by a wildly diverse array of people from comedians Dmetri Martin and Eugene Mirman to author Gary Shteyngart, and music by One Ring Zero.

It is the crazy-but-true story of how Attila, a hapless and basically unpaid professional hockey goalie (as well as a pen salesman, pelt smuggler, and serious drinker and would-be high roller), applied himself to the profession of bank robbery, becoming a national folk hero as he left the overworked and under-equipped police sputtering in his wake. Great characters, detailed reporting, and a wry style drive the story along irresistibly. The author even manages to work in a quick background history of Hungary and paints a cynical picture of 1990s Budapest, when the influx of western-style capitalism only changed the style of corruption.

A most enjoyable roller-coaster ride, highly recommended for anyone who is traveling to Hungary, who enjoys true crime reporting, or who just wants a highly entertaining true tale.

Clever, funny, yet informative

This book does several things well.
1. The humorous narration can make you laugh out loud.
2. The story of the tumultuous life of Attila Ambrus, his family, friends and acquaintances is emotionally gripping. Rubenstein does an excellent job of making Ambrus come to life and--despite all the anarchy--make sense. Though a criminal, Ambrus is an innately intelligent survivor worthy of biography in his own right.
3. The socioeconomic context of post-Soviet Hungary is well-researched and accurately analyzed. Most westerners still know very little of what the people of these ex-Soviet satellite countries have gone through and are still experiencing. This is an important subject about which much can be learned painlessly through The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber.

This is the book I tell people about when they ask “What’s your favorite book?”

I love, love, love this book. I loved it when I first read it years ago in paperback. I bought it again when I got my first Kindle. And I was delighted to find it here on Audible as an audio book.

I first stumbled onto this book years ago in a bookstore. I was there to buy another book, but they were having a 2-for-1 sale so I wandered around until I randomly picked this one off a table and thought it sounded interesting.

I was half way through the book before I realized I was reading a non-fiction book instead of a novel.

Rubinstein’s research is so thorough, the subject material is so interesting, and the writing style is so compelling that it felt like I was reading a modern work of fiction.

Of the three versions I have, the audiobook is by far my favorite.

Unlike most books with a single narrator, this audiobook has a whole cast of characters. It’s like listening to a combination book and old-fashioned radio drama.

If it seems like I’m being over the top in my praise of this book, it’s because I really do enjoy it that much.

I have never left a review on Audible or Amazon before for a book like this. But this one absolutely deserved it.