![]() A state of messiness became my comfort because it meant she had slept through the night. She would wake in the middle of the night and scrub the house from top to bottom. My mother had been a nervous and unhappy woman since that time, though she had pretended otherwise. Perhaps that was why my father left my mother and me here when he moved to New York when I was boy. Its geography of strangling peninsulas and awkward lakes restricted travel. For example, when Godfrey agrees to join Bagley on a robbery that takes them to Canada, a forced backstory pushes itself in after this decision: The writing itself, however, fluctuates between unnecessary tangents and a few beautiful phrases. It is only Stillman’s present situation as code-breaker for the allied forces that has an unknown future, and yet this plot is second to Stillman’s past. We also know almost at the beginning of the novel that Bill Bagley ends up in jail and damaged from drug-use, and so the narrative loses its tension and excitement. Most of the action in the novel has already played out in the past, as told through Godfrey’s journal, and so there is no suspense, as we know the gang always gets away with the money, despite the chases and shoot-outs. ![]() Further, Stillman later remarks that the memory of Bagley had kept her going through all her “loveless years” (46), which reduces her own strength of character and determination. Her own seduction is never fully elaborated on, and so the reader is even more confused as to Bagley’s appeal. What’s worse, Lena Stillman, an apparently strong and independent woman, falls for him as well and somehow remains in love with him even after she leaves him. The reader’s very first impression of Bagley is thus one of disgust, and yet we are supposed to understand how Godfrey is drawn to him. Still, the soft-spoken and mild-mannered Godfrey is charmed by Bagley immediately, even though the altercation is his first introduction to him. She leaves crying, and Bill Bagley says: “That woman is a whore and a liar,” and then “Didn’t you see her painted bitch face?” (14, 15). Godfrey observes an interaction with him and another woman who apparently is telling Bagley that he has a child, which he blatantly denies but which Godfrey suspects is the truth. We are first introduced to the notorious Bill Bagley through Byron Godfrey and the first impression of him is quite dislikable. Though Stillman is the main character, Bill Bagley is the main focal point of the story. He sends Stillman his journal cataloguing all their heists, and it is this journal that makes up at least half the novel. We are introduced to a thorough narrative of Stillman’s past through Byron Godfrey-or By God as Bagley calls him-another member of the Clockwork Gang who was in love with Stillman. Alisa Smith’s Speakeasy tells the story of Lena Stillman’s past as a member of Bill Bagley’s Clockwork Gang of bank robbers, and her present occupation of elite codebreaker at the Esquimalt base during World War II.
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