Customer Reviews

Stone City

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rich characterizations, a very gritty setting, and a believeable plot make "Stone City" one gripping read.

A middle-aged college professor is sentenced to a huge state prison for killing a child while driving drunk. How does such a person survive in this environment? Who will be his allies, and who will be his enemies? A casual comment made over one morning's plastic breakfast spins him into a situation most of us could never imagine in our wildest - or worst - dreams.

Author Smith has a real handle on the social setup of prison, which is fascinating in itself. The men inside are complete creations, and the reader is allowed to react to them however he or she chooses. Even the main character is not wholly sympathetic, while some of the more surprising characters are.

I've read "Stone City" several times and every time I just can't put it down.

I read this several years ago and it's always stuck with me. A brutal book about life inside the "joint" where double-crosses rule the day, predators thrive and the innocent die violent deaths. You will find it impossible to wash the ending of this book out of your mind. Better than the HBO series "Oz" and that's meant as a huge compliment.

I, too, read this book a number of years ago and have never forgotten it. I have heard it described as one of the best, if not THE best, book on prison culture (at least in fiction) ever written. It is fascinating from start to finish and you cannot help but wonder "how in the world did the author discover this stuff"??? A real insider's look at prison life.

I read this book a few years ago and it really stuck with me. Very powerful and moving story of a destroyed life due to one too many martinis. Later I read Cheever's Falconer and noticed a couple of the details of prison life were very similar (okay, exactly the same - assume there is a source in common). By the same token one of the characters in HBO's OZ got put away for the exact same reason the professor in Stone City. Drunk driving and a little girl on a bicycle. Small world. Tribute I think to the power of this novel.

Maybe a slow build, but a hell of a climax. As good as Hunters' "Dirty White Boys," and that's saying a lot. Similar to Willocks' "Green River Rising," which is also quite a compliment. Stick with it, you won't be disappointed.

Shhhhh. Be quiet.

Can you hear that? It's the sound of my heart breaking.

I first caught wind of this book from Marcus Sakey over at the The Outfit. He had this to say about STONE CITY:

"... the book is astonishingly good. Achingly good. Painfully, how-the-hell-does-he-do-that good."

I love Sakey's debut novel (The Blade Itself: A Novel)... and his influences (namely, Dennis Lehane). So praise like this made me sit up and take notice.

He was right. STONE CITY is that good.

A college professor, Charlie Bauman, goes to prison after killing a teenage girl in a drunk driving accident. It's a short hitch, but prison is prison. He manages to make an unassuming life for himself in the can by teaching inmates to read and write. With a year left on his sentence, things look pretty good for him.

That is, until two otherwise disconnected inmates are murdered in similar fashion.

It's then that Bauman gets recruited separately by both sets of prison leadership---the State's Attorney and Warden, and the heads of the convict factions---to find out who the killer is. The State thinks it's an inmate. The inmates think it's a hack. Either way, Bauman is in way over his head... but his investigation begins nonetheless.

With the help of a punk with ties to one of the recently offed inmates, Bauman navigates the, at times, extraordinarily complex political and social prison landscape to find the killer. At every turn, things are never what they seem and the threat of death is ever present.

Keep in mind, the story takes place entirely in prison, and Smith makes sure we see it all. This book was funny, and sad, and frightening. Most of all, it was surprisingly human.

I'm not kidding... it broke my heart.

I have been to prison and this book in its day to day descriptions of life inside are rivetting and true to form. I can almost relive my time inside with the vivid words. The interpersonal relationships are colorful and acurate. Would think this auther did some time!

I am a lawyer. I have visited clients in prison. I read this book many years ago and, like the other reviewers, have not forgotten it. A powerful look at entry to prison life from the point of view of a protagonist who was, until covicted, an average law abiding citizen.

Like a previous reviewer, this book also broke my heart. I went out and purchased every book I could find by this author. They all were wonderful. Then he seemed to drop out of sight. An internet search revealed he hasn't written a book since 2004. Please don't give up, Mr. Smith. There are still a few of us out there who love great books.

Set in a world in a prison, a professor is forced by the three set of gangs in the prison to catch who is offing without their sanctions other prisoners. This is a true page turner, with a ending that will pop your eyeballs.