Patty's Got A Gun: Patricia Hearst In 1970s America

The Sunday Age

Sunday December 7, 2008

Lucy Sussex

PATTY'S GOT A GUN: PATRICIA HEARST IN 1970S AMERICA

William Graebner

University of Chicago Press, $29.95

Once upon a time, heiresses really knew how to rebel. For later generations, think Paris Hilton being kidnapped by left-wing terrorists, then joining them in robbing banks. Patty Hearst had much more to her than that, a complexity that as author Graebner notes is rare among today's media darlings. She was perhaps not very interesting in herself, but her morphing affected everything from US gun culture to the emergent right v left culture wars. In this taut and effective book, Graebner relates the sensational events, the media frenzy of the trial, Patty's imprisonment and release. He then reads her: as victim; as affected by Stockholm syndrome; and as a survivor. None of these theories entirely fit, because the lady is not easily pigeonholed. Was she brainwashed? Probably. Could she have escaped? Possibly. He fruitfully discusses her time on the run as affected by a very American paranoia. Less attention is paid to gender, her passiveness as approved feminine trait. In the end Patty was not what people wanted her to be: neither her parents, captors, nor the media. In this factor and more, she retained a still, steely integrity.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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