Customer Reviews

Sleepers: Movie Tie-in

5 star:		(131)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I suspect that the first 2/3 of this book are true. The vignettes of life on the streets of Hell's Kitchen in the 60s ring true. The section on life in a boy's "reform school" is UNDERSTATED, if anything. In most such places, as brutal as the guards may be, the young thugs you are locked in with are even worse.

However, the last 1/3 of the book - the trial - is at least partly fantasy. As a prosecutor, I can tell you that the trial could not have progressed as described. The key to Michael's strategy was getting ex-guard Ferguson to testify about what a great guy the dead victim was, so that the truth would come out on cross-examination. However, testimony about a dead victim's character is NOT allowed at trial (except in certain cases where the defense is self-defense - but here, it was not). In real life, as soon as the judge heard ex-guard Ferguson begin to testify about the dead victim's character, he would have cut in and stopped the testimony.

I think that Carcaterra really was sent to some juvenile facility and was abused as badly as he describes. I think he wanted to write a book - a very shocking book - that would have an effect on the public's perception of such places and help to bring about change. But a simple autobiography describing the horrors wouldn't be readable, just sickening. A novel, no matter how readable, wouldn't be taken seriously. So he wrote a partially-fake autobiography with a gut-wrenching ending that most definitely has had an effect on public perception of juvenile detention centers. And I bet having his revenge, even if it was just fantasy-revenge, must have felt good. I hope so.

Some people might say that this book goes too deep for a mere teenager to understand, but I would say the opposite, I think that many teenagers around the world can possibly relate to this, and that's what is so mystifying about this book, that this same thing may have happened to THEM. It's sad to think of it that way. After I put the book down, I sat and thought, with my tear stained eyes, about what I had just read. It was a little hard to believe in the beginning, could people's lives really be this hard? Then you realize, it's very possible. The lives of Shakes, John, Michael, and Tommy touched me. I liked how the author described the troubled life of each person and how he didn't hold back, he told the story with out censoring what was true. The descriptions, especially when they are in the "Home for Boys" haunted me, and I kept remembering the part when John is in Shakes' room, his tortured soul ready to give up. He had no other way out, and it's a shame he had to turn out the way he did. I think the movie did well telling the stories of these four boys, and the actors did a great job, but the book took me deeper, it described more about the life of a teenager in Hell's Kitchen, and the misery of innocent souls in a correction center they shouldn't have been sent to. I'm glad there is at least one book that can touch me in the way this it did. I think people should read this book because it will inform people of what really happens outside of their sheltered lives. (some of them) Lorenzo Caraterra did a wonderful job writing this book and thank you for doing just that. -K.F.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this was one of the best books I've ever read in my entire life. Perhaps I feel so connected to it because the four boys involved grew up in the city of New York as did I, although for me it was Brooklyn but what's a few miles. It also is about growing up in the 60's, so I can relate to the time period as well. But the absolute connection for me was the reference to playing stickball and using the sewer lengths to decide who was good and who wasn't. We played the same game but it was called punchball and if you could punch the ball more than 2 sewers, you were unbelievable. Carcaterra brings back many memories as he refers to turning on the "johnny pump" to get relief from the heat in the summer and using a "SPAULDEEN" when playing stickball or off-the-point. No pensy pinkies for these boys.

This is the story of 4 boys growing up in Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan. They have "no money, no summer camps, no vacations...nothing except one another". Theirs was the truest of friendships the meaning of which will never be betrayed by any of them. Michael is considered the brains, John the heart and Tommy the soul of the group. While Lorenzo never credits himself with any qualities throughout the book, he is definitely a combination of all three of these traits. He is also the youngest of the group and not yet a teenager when the story enfolds. They live their life with the Catholic church as their central point of focus and find a friend in Father Bobby. As you're reading this book, you can just picture Robert DeNiro in the title role as the priest in the movie. They do everything that young teenage boys who lived in the city did in the 60's -- play stickball, read comics, listen to Yankee games on the radio, trade baseball cards and play pranks on unassuming people. They never played these pranks, however, on those they perceived to be weaker than them.

One day, one of their pranks proves disasterous and their lives will never be the same. They are sent away to a juvenile detention center called Wilkinson Home for Boys for a year. When they return to Hell's Kitchen after doing their time, they will never be the same. They are haunted by the 4 guards who were assigned to them in the home. Years pass and they are now grown. One becomes a reporter, another becomes a lawyer and the other two become killers. But, they still have one thing in common -- they will always be friends. They say REVENGE is sweet but nothing as sweet as what happens in this book.

Needless to say, I was mesmerized by this book from beginning to end. As soon as I finished it, I rented the video and was mesmerized once again. I have since purchased Carcaterra's other two books and I understand he has another one coming out in January called Gangsters. Yes, I have become a fan. This is a non-fiction book that reads like a novel in the hands of a master storyteller like Carcaterra. I know there was some controversy when the book was published as to whether or not the events are true. For this reader, I could care less. It was a great story whether it's true or not. I will tell you though that I believe every word he wrote.

Sleepers left me absolutely breathless. It takes you into the lives of four boys growing up in Hell's Kitchen. Their childhood games, their favorite pastimes, their unusual role models. Four young boys whose fate was sealed one disastrous summer day by a seemingly harmless prank that went wrong, and would unkowingly change their lives forever. Sleepers made me laugh and cry. It angered me and later on pacified me. It stirred in me so many emotions in the way that few books can. It touched my soul. It made me realize that there are so many things in this world that we take for granted. The chance to have a pizza, to lie down in a park and look at the sky, to just be with the people you care about. Carcaterra's pain is evident. So is his love and loyalty to his friends. It takes courage to come to terms with one's inner demons as Carcaterra agonizingly does through his words. The book wonderfuly comes full circle. It introduces you to four young boys. It takes you into their lives. Just as you begin to care for them, they are swallowed up by a system so disgusting it tears you apart inside. In the end pleasure of revenge however is the best catharsis. A poweful entertaining story told with such passion and pain, Sleepers is not to be missed.

Sleepers portrays a story of four boys living in Hell's Kitchen, who are charged with the attempted murder of a man named Caldwell. It is very vivid in details, and Carcaterra does a great job getting right to the point. I had a hard time putting this book down. I believe this is a true story, because without experiencing this first hand, Carcaterra couldn't have described is so well. It didn't lack in exciting events! A great book! I would definetely recomment this one!

This is the autobiography behind the movie »Sleepers« - and as cruel the movie is, as cruel is this novel. And more.

The reader gets to know much more about the background of the four New York-guys, and there are more shocking episodes than in the movie.

The guys are in fact quite normal boys but still they ARE from one of New York's less good quarters. Therefore, their pranks sometims cross the limits, and one day it turns out so unlucky that they are sentenced to go to a prisonlike institution.

The sadistic and directly evil guards on the institution turn the ives of the inmates to Hell through psychic, phisical and even sexual abuse.

Years later, two of the four friends have turned into criminals. One day, they bump into one of the guards, and they shoot him. The true revenge from the four friends however, only really begins as the following trial begins...

This book is not for people with weak nerves. It is very direct, sometimes a little philisophical, but at no moment over-moralizing in the American way.

A powerful writer and a truly compelling story based on events that may never have actually occured.

Questions have arisen to its authenticity. These questions resulted in an investigation by Channel 7 Eyewitness News in New York (WABC TV) around the time the film was released and after an inviestigation was opened by the Archdiocese of New York. No record of a victim, no records in the courts, no coverage in the media of such a powerful case tried by such a young, dynamic lawyer and a much different story on the boys lives from the priest involved. Names were changed but all parties involved were fairly easy for Eyewitness News to track down after looking into the authors past.

The result is a powerful book written by a former journalist who may have been too insecure to sell his first novel as a work of fiction or to let it stand on its own merits -- a frailty of a number of journalists in recent months.

A good read but take it all with a grain of salt.

I read Sleepers in less than a day, and when I finished it I was perturbed and moved on the most basic of levels, unsure of who to sympathize with. And that's one of the main reasons I loved this book: it avoids sterotypical black and white thinking. Children aren't protrayed as angels, and all adults as demons. There are gray, patchy areas for both. It is a novel of truth.

In the legendary 1960s, young Lorenzo (nicknamed Shakes after Shakespeare) and his pals are on top of the world- roaming the gritty streets of New York's Hell's Kitchen, and, like all boys, getting into trouble. Until the day one of their pranks spirals out of control, and they are charged and sent to an upstate 'school' for juevenile delinquents.

What follows is a tribulation that makes these youngster's misfortune truly look like child's play. The boy's are subjetced to perverse emotional abuse, are raped daily by the guards, are beaten, secluded, and eventually robbed of their innocence. Like "I cried, you didn't listen", this book is an excellent example of how the penal system can turn delinquents into monsters.

In addition to the harrowing story-line, the book also has it's happy moments, and races along at break-neck speed, keeping the reader flipping pages till it's done! No wonder it was made into a movie!

Sleepers, by Lorenzo Carcaterra is truly a powerful and compelling psychological and emotional thriller. It is the story of four friends growing up in one of the worst areas of New York, Hell's Kitchen (Manhattan), during the 1960's. This was a place where, "everyone knew everything about everybody and everbody could be counted on" (pg.17,Ch.2). Thus, the friendship of the four boys blossomed and was built on a trust that would never allow betrayal. The author ably describes how deep and lasting the bonds of friendship can go even when tested in the most horrid of circumstances. They have, "no money, no likes, no summer camps, no vacations. Nothing except one another"(pg.32,Ch.2). The central focus of their lives in Hell's Kitchen is the Catholic Church and they find a friend in Father Bobby. The boys do everything usually done by teenagers in the city during the 1960's, play stickball, read comics, listen to Yankee games on the radio, trade baseball cards and play pranks on unassuming people. It was one of these pranks gone awry that changes their lives forever. They are sent away to the Wilkinson Home for Boys for their crime. They learn that your actions have consequences even if not fair. While at the Wilkinson Home the boys experienced the horrors and abuse exacted by the four guards. They were robbed of their innocense, existed in fear, and were never the same. As fate would have it, they were able to carry out their revenge but couldnot overcome the damage to their individual lives. One becomes a reporter, another becomes a lawyer and the other two become killers. They all had one thing in common, they remained friends. Sleepers is masterfully written. It certainly reveals the horrors of a boys detention facility and makes you think whether retribution and revenge is all that it is cracked up to be. The characters in the story are believable and the storyline itself is very credible. This is a painful but enlightening story. This book is a easy read, very believable and well written.

To me, the hallmark of a good book is that you, the reader, are transported towards a logical conclusion and that the "ride" contains enough surprises along the way. The goal, and the path, are not necessarily obvious at the outset; indeed a really good book reveals itself as you read it.

You could very well describe Sleepers that way. Four friends in Hell's Kitchen in the 1960s; kids trying to stay out of trouble but not succeeding altogether. The way the local priest looks out for them and their friends is heartwarming, and the way the everyday life is portrayed is both believable and scary. But about halfway through the book the BIG EVENT almost hits you in the head and leaves you breathless. What follows is so dark that you would prefer to believe it is not true. The latter part, several years later, is perhaps not up to the same standards as the rest of the book.

For those who enjoyed the description of life in Hell's Kitchen, Carcaterra has also written "A Safe Place". Not as good as Sleepers, but it adds to understanding what poor people in New York endured and how they endured it.

Don't miss out on this one!