Sleepers
By:
Lorenzo Carcaterra
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Lowest New Price: $3.60
List Price: $7.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Description:
"Undeniably powerful, an enormously affecting and intensely human story."
--The Washington Post Book World
"A GUT-WRENCHING PIECE OF WORK. . . Carcaterra's graphic narrative grips like gunfire in a dark alley."
--The Atlanta Journal & Constitution
"In his controversial memoir SLEEPERS, Carcaterra remembers harrowing months in the Wilkinson Home for Boys and the elaborate vengeance he and his friends exacted against the guards. He tells it all in spare, stylish prose . . . [with] relentless momentum and sheer drama. . . . SLEEPERS is a thriller, to be sure, but it is equally a wistful hymn to another age."
--The Washington Post Book World
"A TERRIFYING ACCOUNT OF BRUTALITY AND RETRIBUTION, searing in its emotional truth, peopled with murderers, sadists, and thugs, but biblical in its passion and scope."
--People
"SLEEPERS is so many things: a Dickensian portrait of coming of age in Hell's Kitchen, a terrifying and heartbreaking account of the brutalization of youth, a shocking--and disturbingly satisfying--climax worthy of the finest suspense novel. A brilliant, troubling, important book."
--Jonathan Kellerman
"COMPELLING."
--USA Today
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: 1996-03-02
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
First you'll laugh... - Then you'll bite your lip.
You'll cry.
You'll scream with rage.
Finally, and before he ever says it, you'll know they can never get even...
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Best book I have EVER read - I recently bought this book again. When I read it years ago, I passed it on because it was just too good not to share. I plan on re-reading it. Gives you a (60's) look into life in Hells Kitchen as well as life in a corrupt juvenile detention center. I could not put this book down and look forward to re-reading it. This book is a definite must read!
Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Lurid?: Perhaps. Well written? Not really. True?: Absolutely not. - I read this when it first came out, and I remember being disappointed in the basic style and technique of the book. It's just not very well written, and the prose is clumsy. As an "Autobiography" however, I was willing to cut the author some slack, considering the undeniable power imbued into the events described. Ultimately, the book deals with the age old theme of immigrants struggling against a system that exploits them unfairly, only this time coupled with a thoroughly satisfying revenge and suspense plot in the third act. So while the writing isn't the best, the plot is so larger than life, it makes for a enough drama that this was ultimately turned into a relatively successful movie --
assuming one is willing to practice a healthy amount of suspension of disbelief.
While Carcaterra has continued to argue that he changed things to protect both the innocent and the guilty, what he can't do is undo the mistake he made in insisting that he is the protagonist of his own story, because that ties him to his own school records, and to the students he attended with.
Given this information, any good Detective would be able to match the descriptions with the alums of the school, most notably the lawyer, and yet investigators have been unable to find anyone who fits the profile, linked to any case having to do with a Hell's kitchen or Westies related murder.
Not to mention the fact that Carcaterra only missed 19 days of school in his eight years at Sacred Heart, and couldn't possibly have been sent to a year of reform school in upper state NY! Caught red handed, Carcaterra goes on to claim that the records were falsified, and yet, investigators who reviewed them found no basis in the claim.
I could go on, but this was all refuted extremely well back in 1996 when the book was first published. I'm sure the author is at a juncture where admitting the truth is simply not an option, however, the summary in this article does the job much better than I could, and is clearly much better researched than "Sleepers" : http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/OSV/osv0114.html
At the time, a group of established true-crime authors -- Jack Olsen, Harry N. MacLean, Ken Englade, Dennis McDougal, Lowell Cauffiel, Gera-Lind Kolarik and Joseph Bosco issued a press release calling for the book to be re-classified as fiction. In their press release they wrote:
"If the names, dates, places and people have been changed, as well as the what, where and when, and if all the details are fictitious, what is the basis for publishing this work as a true story? What is true about it? For centuries, authors have written imaginative books based on life experiences. They are called novels."
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Powerful Stuff. - This one is hard to put down, and when you finally do, it's time to run out and get the movie. Carcaterra would have made Dickens proud with the charachters, and the story, although extremely disturbing, is intriguing and compelling. Much has been made of the authenticity of the novel, but regardless, it's a very interesting read and I recommend it to anybody.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
My Review of Sleepers - This book was exceptional! I am not sure which I like better.... Book or the movie?!
Powerful. A must read!
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