Book Review: No Angel

 
Unfortunately, as demonstrated by yet another high-profile example (read: Angel at the Fence and Oprah), truth in memoir still seems to be an elusive quality. Even allowing for "the truth as I experienced it" type of artistic license, it is becoming increasingly difficult not to assume embellishment in all but the blandest of personal narratives. Happily, however, such skepticism detracts not one iota from No Angel, ATF agent Jay Dobyns's fascinating tale of the years he spent undercover with the Hells Angels. Even if Dobyns did not have extensive documentation to support his account (which he does) and was relying solely on his own memory of the events (which he does not), the book is so viscerally involving that it simply wouldn't matter.
 
At the start of "Operation Black Biscuit," the effort to infiltrate an Arizona chapter of the Hells Angels, Jay Dobyns was a 40-ish married father of two children who'd been working undercover for more than a decade. With a bullet scar in his chest from a weapons bust gone bad, tattoos on both arms and Southern rock band hair, he looked--and felt--the part of "Bird," his badass biker outlaw alter ego. The Hells Angels certainly bought it, ultimately inviting Dobyns and his posse (composed of fellow agents and confidential informants) to become "prospects," the precursor to joining the club as full members (or "patches"). And what a club it is. Dobyns dispatches any romantic illusions of the outlaw biker lifestyle in short order, describing the byzantine and often ridiculous rules of conduct, dress and fealty governing every moment of a Hells Angel's day (much of which is excruciatingly boring and filled with endless meetings, bad food and constant macho posturing). But as Dobyns makes clear, no matter how laughable some of the situations he found himself in (the absurd HA wedding he hosted is one example), the Hells Angels themselves--violent, cruel, misogynistic, marginally intelligent and often drug-addled--are not funny at all.
 
Despite the "hellish" nature of his assignment, Dobyns found himself drawn into the Hells Angels culture, perversely honored when club leaders trusted and befriended him, and his Bird persona began to take over. That we--and he--see this coming from the beginning makes his transformation no less affecting or believable. Dobyns and his talented co-writer Nils Johnson-Shelton keep the pace brisk, the suspense high and fill every page of this memoir with compelling details and facts about everything from the embroidered patches on the Hells Angels' vests to the Harley-Davidsons they ride. But, as the end result of the sting operation shows, the one question Dobyns can't yet answer is whether or not it was worth it.--Debra Ginsberg
 
Shelf Talker: A fascinating view inside the world of the Hells Angels by an ATF undercover agent who spent years becoming one of them--and nearly lost himself in the process.