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A review by ironi
Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
5.0
Holy shit. I literally can not talk about this book. Each word I write doesn't manage to quite convey everything I think and feel. I'll just say this; this book is absolutely incredible. This book is going to stay with me for a long time. I feel like this review might be slightly spoilerly. Not anything major, I mean, everyone knows how this ends but still, read at your own risk.
The first part isn't too interesting but it's incredibly important. It sets the stage, in a way. The author has a way with words. The writing manages to describe, I can't quite place it. It's simple and reads like an article but it really makes you feel. With just enough details, you can visualize everything, from how Michael speaks, to the way the neighborhood looks, just by his words.
And then the second part. I finished my Holocaust paper so I thought the days of me crying in libraries were done. Man, I was wrong. I sobbed. Literally, sat in my favorite corner in the library and sobbed because this book was so painful. After reading [b:Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison|58173|Fish A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison|T.J. Parsell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388931713s/58173.jpg|273723], I thought I couldn't read anything that was more gruesome. I thought I had hit rock bottom, that the scenes in that book were the worst scenes I'd ever have to visualize. I was wrong. From his thirteenth birthday, to the last night, I was shaking and crying and slowly losing more and more faith in humanity. The writing's power makes it all seem so vivid, so real.
But then the third part comes up. And it's fueling. It fills you up with hope. This story has a heroic build. It's amazing, the way you see them be kids and pretend these things and then they face real life villains and win against them. As a reader, this pleases me. I like seeing the villain lose. I love seeing heroes triumph against evil in clever and witty ways.
But more than that, it fills me up with thoughts. It challenges me to think about my own moral compass, about where I draw the line and where I don't. It shows the complexity of human spirit, the strength yet the ugliness of human nature.
This book strengthens my resolve that prisons aren't okay, that there are other ways. I just keep wondering about systems. Lorenzo (I really love that name) and his friends grew up in an environment that's okay with minor rule breakings, like stealing hot dogs. When they're in a place that condones violence,like Wilkinson it breeds violence. And in the end, the violence in Wilkinson was what pushed John and Tommy to become violent. But didn't the childhood in Hell's Kitchen make Lorenzo and Michael feel that it's okay to lie in court?
And was it okay? This book raises so many important questions. Clearly Wilkinson are absolutely in the wrong and need to be stopped. But in the same time, is it okay to kill someone that committed a very horrible, very wrong wrong against you? When do we draw the line? When is it okay morally to kill someone that did something wrong against you and when isn't it? I mean, this book portrays their actions in court as heroic. Laws exist so everyone gets trialled equally, so there's a system that answers the call for justice objectively. But is that really so? Could a murder be moral?
And don't get me wrong, I was rooting for them. I, too, have a love for the underdogs. I love seeing a person who was pushed down get up, fight, and win. In fact, I still think they qualify as heroes. I'm just not sure heroes are moral.
At the same time, I'm just thinking about what could this book mean about our justice system. Do John and Tommy (if they were alive) need to pay for their crimes? How can we, as a society, help? Is this a book about heroes defeating an evil or a bunch of people without respect for rules, breaking the law for their own rules about revenge?
The author paints Hell's Kitchen as an amazing place. He portrays it honestly, showing bad sides too but the general vibe is that it was a good place growing up, that the people are good, and so on. I just keep thinking about if that's true. Are laws really necessary to keep people in line? It seems the answer is obviously yes but no law stopped the guards for doing their heinous deeds.
Ok, I could go on all day and I think in my mind, I probably will. There's just so much to think about, so many questions that it raises about our society, our systems, our morality. This book has some difficult parts but I definitely recommend it. The rough parts are horrible but the third part is so incredible, it makes you feel better.
Oh, I listened to Moving Mountains "Abby Normal" and "Let's Shake on it" by Favorite Weapon and both of them really work with this book.
I guess it's time to give The Count of Monte Cristo another chance, I stopped in the middle last time.
The first part isn't too interesting but it's incredibly important. It sets the stage, in a way. The author has a way with words. The writing manages to describe, I can't quite place it. It's simple and reads like an article but it really makes you feel. With just enough details, you can visualize everything, from how Michael speaks, to the way the neighborhood looks, just by his words.
And then the second part. I finished my Holocaust paper so I thought the days of me crying in libraries were done. Man, I was wrong. I sobbed. Literally, sat in my favorite corner in the library and sobbed because this book was so painful. After reading [b:Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison|58173|Fish A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison|T.J. Parsell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388931713s/58173.jpg|273723], I thought I couldn't read anything that was more gruesome. I thought I had hit rock bottom, that the scenes in that book were the worst scenes I'd ever have to visualize. I was wrong. From his thirteenth birthday, to the last night, I was shaking and crying and slowly losing more and more faith in humanity. The writing's power makes it all seem so vivid, so real.
But then the third part comes up. And it's fueling. It fills you up with hope. This story has a heroic build. It's amazing, the way you see them be kids and pretend these things and then they face real life villains and win against them. As a reader, this pleases me. I like seeing the villain lose. I love seeing heroes triumph against evil in clever and witty ways.
But more than that, it fills me up with thoughts. It challenges me to think about my own moral compass, about where I draw the line and where I don't. It shows the complexity of human spirit, the strength yet the ugliness of human nature.
This book strengthens my resolve that prisons aren't okay, that there are other ways. I just keep wondering about systems. Lorenzo (I really love that name) and his friends grew up in an environment that's okay with minor rule breakings, like stealing hot dogs. When they're in a place that condones violence,like Wilkinson it breeds violence. And in the end, the violence in Wilkinson was what pushed John and Tommy to become violent. But didn't the childhood in Hell's Kitchen make Lorenzo and Michael feel that it's okay to lie in court?
And was it okay? This book raises so many important questions. Clearly Wilkinson are absolutely in the wrong and need to be stopped. But in the same time, is it okay to kill someone that committed a very horrible, very wrong wrong against you? When do we draw the line? When is it okay morally to kill someone that did something wrong against you and when isn't it? I mean, this book portrays their actions in court as heroic. Laws exist so everyone gets trialled equally, so there's a system that answers the call for justice objectively. But is that really so? Could a murder be moral?
And don't get me wrong, I was rooting for them. I, too, have a love for the underdogs. I love seeing a person who was pushed down get up, fight, and win. In fact, I still think they qualify as heroes. I'm just not sure heroes are moral.
At the same time, I'm just thinking about what could this book mean about our justice system. Do John and Tommy (if they were alive) need to pay for their crimes? How can we, as a society, help? Is this a book about heroes defeating an evil or a bunch of people without respect for rules, breaking the law for their own rules about revenge?
The author paints Hell's Kitchen as an amazing place. He portrays it honestly, showing bad sides too but the general vibe is that it was a good place growing up, that the people are good, and so on. I just keep thinking about if that's true. Are laws really necessary to keep people in line? It seems the answer is obviously yes but no law stopped the guards for doing their heinous deeds.
Ok, I could go on all day and I think in my mind, I probably will. There's just so much to think about, so many questions that it raises about our society, our systems, our morality. This book has some difficult parts but I definitely recommend it. The rough parts are horrible but the third part is so incredible, it makes you feel better.
Oh, I listened to Moving Mountains "Abby Normal" and "Let's Shake on it" by Favorite Weapon and both of them really work with this book.
I guess it's time to give The Count of Monte Cristo another chance, I stopped in the middle last time.