Outside Valentine, by Liza Ward

Outside Valentine
Liza Ward

In 1957, Charles Starkweather and his fourteen-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, went on a killing spree in Nebraska. Eleven people (including Caril Ann's mother, stepfather, and sister) were dead by the time they were caught. Starkweather was eventually executed, but still lives on through the various movies he inspired (Natural Born Killers and Kalifornia, among others). Caril Ann served her time in prison before being released to live out the rest of her life in relative peace.

Liza Ward grapples with these crazy days by combining fact and fiction. She intertwines the story of Caril Ann with two others, Lowell and Susan, whose significance slowly becomes apparent. Each chapter is narrated by one of these three characters, Caril Ann's as the murders occur in 1957, Susan's from 1962, and Lowell's from 1991. It was interesting to see how the effects of Starkweather and Caril Ann continue up to the present day. No action is without permanent repercussions.

Clearly Ward has taken liberty with the facts of the case, and while I cannot deny that the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Starkweather, I cannot help but feel that Caril Ann gets off easy in Outside Valentine. It's all too obvious that Ward sympathizes with Caril Ann--but, amazingly enough, all Ward's sympathy still cannot transform Caril Ann into a likable character. In fact, Caril Ann is an absolutely detestable girl whose passivity is as much to blame as Starkweather's violence. Ward constantly harps on Caril Ann's victimization. I understand she was only fourteen at the time and was swept away by Starkweather's murderous impules.

However, Ward's Caril Ann is amazingly clearheaded and rational throughout the book: she knows their actions are wrong, and it's only when she doesn't feel like doing it anymore does she try to stop it. Except that she doesn't really try to stop it--Caril Ann, recognizing the jig is up when the police have surrounded them, runs like a little bitch to the police, crying for help all the while--but only after altering her appearance so as to seem less guilty. I just can't feel pity for someone who "never did a thing." By the end of the book, I was tired of the victim song, and it ruined what could have been a better novel.

In a nutshell: The book's jacket states that Outside Valentine is a novel "that is capable of redeeming the losses it so devastatingly conveys." Really? Eleven people were murdered for pretty much no reason except that Starkweather wanted to kill them. The book ain't that good.

Bibliolatry Scale: 3 out of 6 stars