Sleepers

Rating:
Summary: A True story told Brilliantly
Review: ... I saw the film after the book, and I personally don't think the film did the book as much justice.

This true story shows you how kids can grow up and shape into different individuals through an unfortunate accident.

Set in Hells Kitchen, a man has been is shot in a bar, two men have been identified at the scene with witnesses and charged for his murder. A specific lawyer has been assigned to the case subtly with the help of a writer, who is sure that he can win these murderers' case. The story unravels...

Before all this, a group of boys are introduced with sentimental character, good nature and hope, which is later transformed after one of their small-time mischevous antics go wrong. After years of teenage torment and suffering that were behind closed doors of a place that was meant to help them, they have grown up.

The way this was written was just brilliant. The way it unravels, and the journey you endure with these characters becomes an emotional attachment. This book contained great moments, the whole novel can be quite joyful at times, but mostly quite saddening. Justice goes both ways in this novel, and the writer has told it as it is. And that's what really makes this book.. it's story-telling of a real-life tragedy that can affect anyone.

Rating:
Summary: A horrific account of a man's life
Review: Adam Bolduc
I give this book five stars.

Sleepers

When I started to read this book it wasn't that exciting. Then the book started to get good. In book one, the author goes into his life with his friends and his life in Hell's Kitchen. The women were portrayed as cheaters, the men as violent drunks. Lorenzo's father did time in prison for the murder of his first wife. Most of the people in Hell's Kitchen were Irish and Italian. Lorenzo and his friends collected baseball cards and did other things that teenagers did. On one hot summer day the boys were hungry, so Lorenzo asked the vendor for a hotdog and takes off so his friends could eat and drink what they could. When the chase is over, the boys and the cart are at the entrance to the subway. The cart was too heavy and fell down the stairs and nearly killed a man. The boys got sentenced to do time in The Wilkinson Home for Boys. Every day the boys were beaten and raped. The third part describes what happened after all four boys were out of the home. If you want to know what other things happen in the book, you'll have to read it for yourself. I would recommend this book if you like books with crime, abuse, and dirty cops.

Rating:
Summary: You must read this one! I couldn't put it down!
Review: Amazing! I could not believe how powerful this book was. Lorenzo Carcaterra can write! This novel is about four young men who do a little childhood prank that winds them up in a correctional home for boys. There, they are abused, beaten, and raped by the guards that are suppossed to protect them. About a decade later, two of the boys have turned into cold blooded murderers. It is the result of their time at the home for boys. One night they walk into a bar, and run into one of the guards that forever changed their lives. The rest is breathtaking. There is only one terrible part in this book, and that is the fact that it is a true story. It is written by one of the few people who have gone through hell and lived to tell about it. It is an excellent tale about friendship, hate, and most of all, revenge. GO OUT AND READ THIS ONE!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: An experience that we will never forget!
Review: At the beginning of the book was boring. After the racing part, the names of the characters, and what they do for fun, there, is where the interesting part starts. Tommy, John, Michael, and Shakes were very good friends in those times and anything that went through their mind had to be done. These guys were like regular guys who look for adventures and fun, but sometimes it didn't turn out to be fun. They take it so seriously that they end up paying the price of the consequences.
They loved to pilfer stuff and that's what made up the majority of their problems. The last assault they made was stealing a hot dog, which they paid for with jail. They hurt the guy who was selling hot dogs accidentally, but nothing could help them get away with it in court.
They went to jail and here are where their problems, internal conflicts, and external conflicts began. They had to suffer the experience of being trapped in a jungle of criminal guards performing atrocities that will never be forgotten. The rapes that the guards have done to the boys were horrific and unbelievable. The guys couldn't say a word or other wise they would have suffered more pain and punishments.
After they got out of jail, the guys were extremely different; they weren't the same. Jail had changed them in many different aspects. One of the reasons John and Tommy took their revenge on Nokes in a bar, was because of the rapes.
John and Tommy, paid the price again, they went back to jail. Shakes and Michael were trying to do their best to explain the judge why they killed Nokes. Michael had graduated as a lawyer in those days, so he opened John and Tommy's case back again. Here, is where I should stop because I don't want to spoil the end.
I could say that, if I want to rate the book from 1 to 10, I could say this book would take a 9. I recommend this book for anyone who loves to know what life in jail is like, and what are the consequences of troubles.

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Read
Review: I am reader who is up to reading anything, as long as it is interesting. True stories have not always been my style, until I read "Sleepers." Once I started reading the extraordinary book I simply could not put it down. Carcaterra does an amazing job of explaining his childhood years. How he grew up in Hells Kitchen in New York City, and how he and his three friends had to hear about the murders, drugs, and beatings that were going on in Hells Kitchen. Though the boys had to go through hard times, they were still able to have fun and stay relatively innocent children. They read comic books played games in the street, ate candy, and watched wrestling matches in Madison Square Garden. Until one small prank to steal some lunch resulted in a severely injured person and a year at an up state Juvenile facility. Once there, the four boys were beaten, tortured, and raped by their guards; the only people the boys had to keep them safe. This true story kept me reading and interested throughout the whole book. Though it was an uneasy read at times, the book resulted in justice. It resulted in justice for the people who suffered at the hand of the guards for a year, and justice for future children who had to attend the facility. "Sleepers" is now one of my favorite books and Carcaterra is one of my favorite writers. This tale of overcoming the odds is an amazing read.

Rating:
Summary: WHOA!
Review: I don't know what to say, but OH, MY GOD! I found the movie of this shocking, but I heard the book was much more so. THAT'S AN UNDERSTATEMENT! Take "Stand By Me", "The Shawshank Redemption", & "A Time To Kill", & mix them all together, & you have Sleepers with one HUGE exception: EVERY WORD OF THIS IS TRUE! I used to think that the claims that some criminals were a product of their lives and enviroment was..., UNTIL I READ THIS! I can understand why John Riley & Tohmas Marcano turned to a life of crime. The details of what they endured in Wilkinson's gave me nightmares! Also, even though I knew the outcome from seeing the movie, I cried for them after concluding this. (The ONLY other book that ever moved me to tears was "Stephen King's Bag Of Bones".) I finished this book in 2 days, & the only reason I didn't do it in one was because I fell asleep with it in my hands! ... Even (AND ESPECIALLY!) if this is fiction, Mr. Carcatera is one of the most gifted writers & storytellers I have ever had the pleasure of reading! I hope he publishes more!

Rating:
Summary: Like a smack upside the head
Review: I saw the movie and years later picked up the book and I can say that if the movie was too much for you then the book will alternately make you cry and cringe. I have no idea if this is a true story or not--if it is, I can imagine that there must have been some very angry people in and around New York when the book came out. Relatives or other inmates of Wilkerson should have come forward to confirm or deny the story. Relatives of the victim who was hit by the hotdog cart should've come forward.

Apparently none of these things happened so I don't feel comfortable calling the book a memoir but frankly, it almost (but not quite which is why I can't give it 5 stars) doesn't matter. This a towering book of probably part fact and part fiction (the trial scenes are imposible) that you will not forget. Carcaterra is a brilliant writer and the book is worth every penny. For me, that's the bottom line.

Rating:
Summary: Read the Book First!
Review: Seriously, the movie WAS great with an all star cast, but you will never truly understand the richness of the characters unless you read the book first. Let the movie be a treat after you've read the book. The setting: Hell's Kitchen in the 1960's. Boys will be boys and when Lorenzo "Shakes" and his friends goof around, pranks are usually the entertainment of choice. On the last of these "occasions" Lorenzo and his three friends decide to steal a hot dog from a street vendor, thinking they can outrun him. Things didn't go as planned. The boys push the vending cart around and unintentionally let it fall down some stairs at a subway entrance. The cart falls and kills a man on it's way down. This is where the book begins a sort of "Part 2".... all summer frolicking ceases and the boys are tried and convicted. Instead of jail they have a much worse fate ahead of them. They find themselves within the hard, gloomy shell of the "Wilkinson Home for Boys". The boys' anxiety of the place soon turns to absolute terror. They are not really bothered by the other kids , but buy the prison guards. They beat, torture, and regularly rape Lorenzo and his friends. Lorenzo remains sane by continuously fantisizing of revenge, inspired by his favorite book, The Count of Monte Cristo. He mentally prepares for the day they are released. Release does come...the story is not ALL so depressing, because the boys DO get revenge. They leave the school and eventually head their separate ways, never really discussing what happened to them. Not until in their late twenties do they meet again in Hell's Kitchen. Two of the boys have become "thugs", one of them became a lawyer, and Lorenzo a journalist. Together again, they decide to avenge themselves in court via strategic law techniques thought through buy their childhood friend who became a lawyer. I won't give away more details from here on because what happens next is the most powerful essence of this book. Lorenzo..AKA.."Lorenzo Carcaterra" IS the author of this book. Yep that's right it is a true story. The Count of Monte Cristo would be proud.

Rating:
Summary: Sleepers:A Must Read
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: I didn't want to do anything but keep reading it!
Review: 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.