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You Can Run But You Can't Hide by Duane "Dog" Chapman E-mail
Book Reviews - Non-Fiction
Friday, 14 November 2008
 First Published: 2007

Rating: Good

"My name is Duane Lee Chapman. My friends call me Dog--Dog the Bounty Hunter. For more than twenty-seven years, I have made a living hunting down more than seven thousand fugitives."
 
So, Dog the Bounty Hunter wrote a book called You Can Run But You Can’t Hide. Sounds like it’s destined for the dusty back corner of a thrift store bookshelf, doesn’t it? Actually, I thought it was pretty good. Dog isn’t the best storyteller in the world, but with the help of a co-author he manages to tell a pretty good story of his life.

A little background for ye uninitiated: Dog the Bounty Hunter is a show on A&E, and it’s also the nickname and title of Duane Chapman. He and his wife, Beth, hunt down people who have jumped their bail and give them a little tough love. Their teams includes a couple of Dog’s twelve children and some long-time friends. Basically, it’s a lot of cursing followed by a lot of Jesus--it’s one of the few shows I would watch regularly if I still had cable.

Anyway, back to the book. It opens in Mexico with Dog pouncing on serial rapist Andrew Luster, heir to the Max Factor fortune. Within a few pages, though, it goes straight to Dog’s childhood, where we learn about his parents--his mom was a devout Christian and his dad beat him regularly--and what led him to gangs and drug addiction.  Dog ends up serving time for murder-one--a murder he had no part in, but was convicted for due to a Texas law that said that everyone present was guilty.

The middle portion of the book follows the rollercoaster that is Dog’s life after prison--wives, kids, affairs, divorces, drugs, poverty, bail bonds, bounty  hunting, and several initially successful attempts to turn his life around. To be frank, Dog is a pretty immoral character during his young adult years, but his saving graces are his love for his kids, God, and his momma, and his often-absent drive to make something out of his life. Somehow I always found myself rooting for Dog--although judging from some of the reviews on Amazon (“I’ll never watch his show again! What moral depravity!”), not everyone feels that way.

The last hundred or so pages follow the hunt for Andrew Luster and the aftermath. I liked this part the best--although the reader already knows the outcome, it’s still fun to read the story of how Dog hunted Luster down.

Dog isn’t a writer by profession, so I’m not going to harp on the technical aspects of how he told his story. Yeah, there was a little too much repetition for my taste, and some non sequiturs, but this isn’t meant to be Pulitzer-prize-winning literary fiction--it’s a blunt and inspiring account of how a man turned his life around and got on the right side of the law. I’d definitely recommend You Can Run But You Can't Hide if you’re a fan of Dog's show.

Oh, and the book has pictures.

 [Buy You Can Run But You Can't Hide at Amazon.com]

 
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