The Prisoner's Son: Homage to Anthony Burgess [Paperback]

Jerome Gold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1995

In the indefinite future, an impoverished United States has sold its Southwestern and Pacific Coast states to Mexico. Seattle is giverned by administrators and police sent from Mexico on hardship tours. Human life has been brutalized. At night, gangs control the streets. Idealistic revolutionaries are no less brutal than the gangs. The Prisoner's son portrays a bottoming-out of society, an America that is pathological at every level. The protagonist, Sam Brave (readers of The Inquisitor will recognize Sam as Bill Brave's son), is kidnapped by a gang of revolutionaries in retaliation for something bad that Sam did to them. If the revolutionaries are psychopathic, Sam is not the nicest guy in the world either. His imprisonment--based on the Patricia Hearst case--results in his taking on the coloration of his captors--to an extent. The plot of this novel, dealing with an attempted assassination, is based on an act of terror committed by the People's Will party of nineteenth-century Russia. Thus, while The Prisoner's Son is (social) science fiction, it is based on historical events.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A horror novel in which the monsters are not just human beings but social forces, where blood is spilled..." -- J. G. Eccarius, The Stake

"A taut, muscled novel which exposes...the process of moral corruption - in bureaucratic organizations and in individuals..." -- Dr. Sue Ann Johnston, Western Washington University

"At long last the great novel of bureaucracy has been written." -- David Willson, Author of REMF Diary

About the Author

Jerome Gold is the author of three novels, including Sergeant Dickinson, The Inquisitor, and The Prisoner's Son; two collections of stories: Of Great Spaces (with Les Galloway) and Prisoners; and two collections of interviews with people involved in independent publishing, Publishing Lives and Obscure in the Shade of the Giants. He has published short stories, essays, poetry, and reviews in Left Bank, Chiron Review, Hawaii Review, Poets on the Line, Fiction Review, Boston Review and other literary journals. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: Black Heron Press (October 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930773373
• ISBN-13: 978-0930773373
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,629,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Day In The Life, February 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Prisoner's Son: Homage to Anthony Burgess (Paperback)

The imagery almost seems true to life except that the actual decay of civilization as depicted in this book hasn't actually occurred (yet). The story is unsettling, so much that the reader can't avoid feeling as though he could be one of the characters...or perhaps wish he was. Who wouldn't want to live in a world of complete chaos where the government is so corrupt that the average citizen gets away with whatever crime or decrepit act he wants as long as the authorities don't care (what authorities)? Overall, a very realistic story, and well written. Thank you for your honesty Mr. Gold!