Rating: 
Summary: Why is this book out of print?
Review: A classic prison narrative. San Quentin, race riots in prison, the whole 60's to 70's violence and despair between races. When I read this book, I felt I could trust everything the author was bringing me, even though the insider view of prison life is cloaked in a tale of fiction. This book should be back in print.
Rating:
Summary: A prison classic.
Review: An extremely realistic book about the life in San Quentin prison written by an ex prisoner who transfers his first hand experiences to the reader. Characters,prison environment and incidents are very well crafted and shaped. This book is strong enough to put the fear of God into even literally the most hardened reader.You will not even think of emptying your car's ashtray to the streets after reading this.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful manifesto against the prison industrial complex
Review: Edward Bunker's "The Animal Factory" is not just a great novel about prison life, but a powerful critique of America's penal system. While the book is over 20 years old, it is more timely than ever, with the United States now holding more people in prison than any other country on the planet, both in terms of percentage of population and total numbers."Factory" chronicles how an intelligent, thoughtful, non-violent drug offender becomes a cold-blooded killer in little over a year. The San Quentin of Bunker's novel is an arena where anyone can die at any time, many times just hours before being released/paroled. It is a world where any slight to your character must be responded to with force (and oftentimes murder), or you are seen as weak and instant prey for prison rapists. Bunker's novel demonstrates that U.S. prisons are "factories" for super-predators, turning out far more dangerous criminals than those who enter. While many of the book's arguments are not neccessarily original or ground-breaking, "Factory" condenses these themes brilliantly in a lean and intensely written narrative that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. "Factory" should be required reading by just about everyone, but especially those people who believe that the solution to crime is to pass more laws and build more prisons. Also highly recommended: "You Are Going to Prison" by Jim Hogshire; "The Hot House" by Pete Earley.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful manifesto against the prison industrial complex
Review: Edward Bunker's "The Animal Factory" is not just a great novel about prison life, but a powerful critique of America's penal system. While the book is over 20 years old, it is more timely than ever, with the United States now holding more people in prison than any other country on the planet, both in terms of percentage of population and total numbers. "Factory" chronicles how an intelligent, thoughtful, non-violent drug offender becomes a cold-blooded killer in little over a year. The San Quentin of Bunker's novel is an arena where anyone can die at any time, many times just hours before being released/paroled. It is a world where any slight to your character must be responded to with force (and oftentimes murder), or you are seen as weak and instant prey for prison rapists. Bunker's novel demonstrates that U.S. prisons are "factories" for super-predators, turning out far more dangerous criminals than those who enter. While many of the book's arguments are not neccessarily original or ground-breaking, "Factory" condenses these themes brilliantly in a lean and intensely written narrative that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. "Factory" should be required reading by just about everyone, but especially those people who believe that the solution to crime is to pass more laws and build more prisons. Also highly recommended: "You Are Going to Prison" by Jim Hogshire; "The Hot House" by Pete Earley.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book
Review: Everyone,
This is a good book. However, I expected a little more from it. When I bought this book I was expecting to see a real look at prison society and life. It was a little too politically correct for me. I was expecting a gritty California prison novel, but I was greeted with a look at prison from the eyes of what seemed to be a middle class author and not a convict. It just didn't seem all that real. It seemed like I could have thought up the ideas myself. But, it was a really great read and I will buy more Edward Bunker books. His writing is addictive(I finished the book in less than 2 days), and I really want to read another to see how different or similar it will be. I would recomed this book for anyone who enjoys crime novels or prison novels, but I will read another one of Bunker's books before I tell people that he is worth reading more than once.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: Everyone,
This is a good book. However, I expected a little more from it. When I bought this book I was expecting to see a real look at prison society and life. It was a little too politically correct for me. I was expecting a gritty California prison novel, but I was greeted with a look at prison from the eyes of what seemed to be a middle class author and not a convict. It just didn't seem all that real. It seemed like I could have thought up the ideas myself. But, it was a really great read and I will buy more Edward Bunker books. His writing is addictive(I finished the book in less than 2 days), and I really want to read another to see how different or similar it will be. I would recomed this book for anyone who enjoys crime novels or prison novels, but I will read another one of Bunker's books before I tell people that he is worth reading more than once.
Rating:
Summary: A good book that could've been great
Review: Few writers can describe more effectively the horrors of prison - the Animal Factories that turn minor offenders into hardened criminals and murderers - than Edward Bunker. This is the first and only of his books that takes place entirely inside the walls of a prison. I expected more. Bunker's weakness has always been his dialogue. "The Animal Factory" features his worst attempts at writing dialogue. His descriptions of prison life are vivid and real. The words he forces into his character's mouths bring the flow of the narrative to a screeching halt. This is particuarly pronounced in the relationship between the new arrival - a young man who has been sentenced on a drug charge - and the hardened convict who befriends him, a relationship that doesn't ring true. "The Animal Factory" is not without its merits. As we see the young convict, Ron, change his values and actions in order to survive, it's hard not to view prison as anything but a another phase in the making of a career convict. Bunker effectively portrays prison as a breeding ground for a more violent, desperate brand of criminal. Unfortunately, the weaknesses of this book outweigh the merits. For readers who have heard of Bunker but have not yet read him, I wouldn't recommend "The Animal Factory" as a starting point. Try "Little Boy Blue" - Bunker's best work - instead.
Rating:
Summary: bringing it all back
Review: Like edward Bunker I've spent time in prison for armed robbery and i'm here to tell you that no one has been able to capture the boredom, frustration and quicksilver outbursts of violence that characterize prison better. He is simply the greatest "crime" writer ever. He's been there. He's done it. A fiercly determined and talented man, Edward Bunker is an inspiration to me.
Rating:
Summary: bringing it all back
Review: Like edward Bunker I've spent time in prison for armed robbery and i'm here to tell you that no one has been able to capture the boredom, frustration and quicksilver outbursts of violence that characterize prison better. He is simply the greatest "crime" writer ever. He's been there. He's done it. A fiercly determined and talented man, Edward Bunker is an inspiration to me.
Rating: 
Summary: The Solzhenitsyn Thing
Review: So it aint Solzhenitsyn, and there should probably be a law against making the comparison - which I'd be all for: can you imagine that first day inside? "What you in for?" "Comparing Eddie Bunker to Alexander Solzhenitsyn." (Con whistles in admiration.) Eddie Bunker was a rotten crook who pulled a bank job and got caught. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was locked up in a gulag under a despotic regime that didn't allow freedom of speech. (I'm generalising here, but stick with me, okay?) Bunker got his just desserts (some might say). Solzhenitsyn (again I'm generalising but) was in the wrong place at the wrong time. You might also think that you have to buy into what is quickly developing into a culture of admiration for nasty ne'er-do-wells. People (and by people I mean: publishing executives, film moguls, idiots) like to romanticise the villain. Just watch "McVicar" or "The Krays" or even "Chopper" (which, credit where credit's due, is a great movie). Read any of the chancy memoirs written by the gallery of supposedly lovable rogues (your Mad Frankie Frasers), who would like to give the impression that they only ever dispatched those who "deserved" it. Watch "Lock Stock & Two Mightily Over-rated Barrels." Read anything by Jake Arnott or James Hawes. You don't, though. You don't have to buy into all that to like Eddie. (Although you'll have to get over the psychological obstacle of it: the publishers want you to think that Eddie is part and parcel of that whole thing. They include stupid quotes from stupid lad mags on the cover. They print the title in a font that aims to resemble the kind of print left by an ink-stained stamp. "The Animal Factory" has a grainy prison shot. Other Bunker novels have splashes of blood on them. You wonder why they didn't just go the whole hog. Write EDWARD BUNKER IS TOUGH or HE'S BEEN THERE, BABY, AND HE'S HERE TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT!) All of which does Edward Bunker a grave disservice. He's a great writer. Regardless of anything else - regardless of the fact of his having a past - he is a great writer. The Solzhenitsyn thing is apposite. There are, in fact, many similarities between this book and "...Ivan Denisovich". Bunker has a tremendous eye for details. It would be the easiest thing in the world to write an Elmore Leonard-lite prison novel revolving around authentic prison dialogue (authentic, yes, because Bunker has been there, I know). He doesn't do that, though. It would be easy to write and easier to sell. What I think is this. In "Waiting for Godot", Vladimir says "What do we do now?" and Estragon replies "Wait." I would imagine that that question - What do we do now? - gets asked a lot in prison. You've got time on your hands. You don't even have Godot to pretend to look forward to. Seems to me that Bunker read. His writing is informed with other books. "The Animal Factory" is as self-referentially canonical as T.S. Eliot would have any book be. I don't know the in's and out's of Bunker's life (and I'm quite happy with that), but I reckon he read a lot and started writing as a way to fill the otherwise empty hours. It could have been that - without prison, without mixing in a hard-boiled, ugly crowd - he would never have wrote anything down. Could be any number of things. Whatever the reason, Bunker started writing and his hard, authentic voice is stripped of sensation and mightily persuasive. Bunker's characters are the flotsam spewed out of the machine that Sherman McCoy gets sucked into mid-way through "Bonfire of the Vanities" (mid-way through "Bonfire of the Vanities", just after Sherman gets arraigned, he emerges from the court house feeling dead, feeling chewed up and spat out but mostly dead - and that's the product that fills Bunker's books - all these lost misinformed souls in a different kind of gulag).
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