I love both the book and the film because of wonderful character development. Four kids living in the toughness of Hell's Kitchen on the west side of Manhattan. Mischievious, yet innocent, these boys are always playing pranks, or having the kind of fun only poor, at risk kids have, splashing into the river, opening fire hydrants, eavesdropping in confessional booths, working for the formidable King Benny and hanging out with a concerned priest, Father Bobby. Much of the first portion of the book reads like a semi-uneventful memoir of the four kids: Shakes, Tommy, Michael, and John, and a loyal female friend named Carol. They, along with the 2 father figures, King Benny and Father Bobby, are like a strange family; mischief, innocence, ruthless protection, and fierce loyalty to one another. There are vignettes in the novel about how Michael blows a stickball game to give a crippled girl a lift in spirit, how the kids stand up to a bully for a mentally challenged friend. By the time the terrible, foolish prank that nearly kills a man happens, you have been exposed to beautiful characters who have biological parents who don't pay have the attention to these kids, and who don't care half as much about them as the formidable mob boss and the compassionate priest. So when these kids are sent to a reform school as punishment for their prank, you've met them, you know them, and you care about them. The guards turn out to be sadistic monsters who beat, verbally abuse, and rape the boys frequently. By the time they are released back to their homes, they are forever changed. Shakes, who aspires to write, works for a local paper, and buries his horror deep down. Michael becomes a lawyer and relentlessly researches the lives of the four guards who raped him and his friends. Shakes and Michael are damaged, but they seem determined not to let what happened kill their spirits. In the meantime, John and Tommy have turned to crime and drugs/alcohol, and have become murderers as well. Still, the remarkable family dynamic remains. The writer, the lawyer, the social worker (Carol), and the two deadliest gang members in the Kitchen hang out together, still loyal to each other, still friends. One evening many years after their year of horror and abuse, John and Tommy happen upon one of the evil guards eating at a neighborhood pub, and kill him right on the spot. They are promptly arrested for murder, and then the most elaborate of ideas is constructed by Michael, with the cooperation of Shakes, King Benny and his men, Carol, and finally, Father Bobby. The connection with the Count of Monte Cristo's story makes for a great parallel. Whether this story by Carcaterra is all true or only partly true, I love this book. Child abuse, child rape, child trafficking are heinous, disgusting crimes. We hear horror stories all the time about the abuse and murder of children who have been placed in special camps or "homes" because their parents believed these places would "straighten them up." The torture/abuse scenes (in the book, less so in the movie) are graphic and hideous. And angering. As they should be. The horrendous fate of the boys' friend Rizzo makes you want to jump into the book and beat the living shit out of those four corrupt pedophiles. I don't care how rebellious or mischievous some kids are. No kid deserves what happens to these kids. It's a satisfying book because of the success of Michael's plan, but it is bittersweet; Michael and Shakes were able to move forward with their pain and not let it destroy them. John and Tommy could not. You NEVER see them as "evil" or "bad". They just could not stop the pain from eating them. They are not "weak" while Michael and Shakes are strong, but they are the leaves that were more easily crushed. Literature is supposed to evoke emotion and connection to the characters and story. This is one of the best memoirs/novels I've ever read.
This book is one of the most funny, exciting, suspenseful, emotional and upsetting books I've ever read. It is written in first person from Lorenzo Carcaterra's (the author) point of view. The book begins with Carcaterra writing about his childhood and his three best friends: John, Tommy, and Michael. He tells us about the mischief the four boys got up to. This section ends with a prank which goes wrong, resulting in the four being sentenced to a year in a juvenile detention centre. The second section tells us what happens whilst they are in the centre. They suffer through torture, humiliation and sexual abuse. The last section is about how the four boys, men at this point, get revenge by exposing the guards who abused them. I experienced so many emotions whilst reading this book. The book was so easy to read in a way that it felt like it was a letter sent to me by a friend. It was easy to connect with the characters as everything worked so smoothly together by the writer's straightforward style. Everything links together and you always wanted to continue reading.Some say that their is a specific section of the book they find most emotional, this is usually the middle section which describes in detail the brutal treatment the boys received. However, I feel like each section is as emotional as the other, in different ways. In the first, you feel a strong sense of love and belonging. In the second, you are scared, sympathetic and disgusted. In the last, you are relieved and thankful. However, these three sections fit nicely together because you can see the friendship has sustained itself and grown deeper due to the traumatic experienced they experienced together as children.I would 100% recommend this book. Such a great read and one of the most heartbreaking yet strengthening stories of all time.
What do You think about Sleepers (1996)?
What can I say about this book? Well written, powerful, emotional, moving. 4 boys, 1967, Hells Kitchen, a prank gone bad. These friends make a choice that brings them to Wilkensen's Juvenile Facility, where, for over a year, they are tortured and abused by the guards that work there. What does a thing like this do to a kid? Years later, they are grown, still living in New York city. 2 of them, Michael and Lorenzo, are able to put the past behind them, at least to some degree, but their friends, John and Tommy walk a path of bitterness and hatred, leading to a meeting at a restaurant with a man they once knew... Sean Nokes, the head guard at Wilkensen's. What does a kid do? "We're not kids anymore." A choice is made, and the 4 boys are once again united in a cause to settle the score. Sleepers is an amazing book, based on a true story, (controversial even, of its legitimacy), but is moving and gripping. I definitely recommend it.
—Jeffrey Chase
This is a book that truly shows the meaning of friendship. The first part of the book is basically a story of four boys - telling us about each boy and letting us glimpse what the future would have held for them... you can only imagine what each would do and how all of them would be friends for life know matter what. The story goes into an event that went terribly wrong and then the consequences ... the horrible and terrible things that happened. I was shocked and horrified at what each boy went through. It made me sick to my stomach and I was close to tears.Revenge ... sweet sweet revenge. I loved this part of the book and I was captivated at the story... At the close of the book Lorenzo tells you where the main players are and what happened to each one. One can only imagine and wish that life had been different for each one... some of them should have had harsher punishments and others one can only imagine a better life ...At the epilogue it brings you back to a happier time and with that close you want to cry all over again... one can only imagine a "what if"...I try don't mind if this book is true or false ... if it was true than I feel horrible for the boys in this book... if it wasn't I can comprehend this as part fictional with part non fiction and be just find... I can assume that the first two parts were true even if some of the things he didn't experience. I am okay with that - I think that this book was bringing an awareness of the horrors of what the boys homes/jail was for the kids around that time. I don't doubt that some of those things still happen which is what saddens me
—Neeka
The author, Lorenzo Carcaterra in his book, "Sleepers" tells the story as himself reflecting back to when he was a boy growing up in Hell's Kitchen (a city in New York) in the 1960's, and a place he and his three other friends were forced to go to after pulling a stupid prank that almost kills someone. This place is a juvenille facility that they soon find out will change their lives forever. There they endure unnecessary verbal, physical and sexual abuse from the guards that watch them.Later as adults two of the friends decide to get revenge when they see one of the guards in a bar. This leads to a big trial, but the friends feel like they can finally have complete revenge and expose the guards.There is not a negative thing to be said about this book. It definitely amounts to "The Count of Monte Criso" in the way of revenge. The way Carcaterra decribes everything,especially his life in Hell's Kitchen, you really get a sense of what he's like and everything relates to his character as a boy. It's not artificial sounding, emotional, and you feel like you just jump into his world and life; reliving it. Everything was tied together well, and was never boring. I read it in like two days because every chapter was left off perfectly, but you couldn't help reading the next few pages and the next... not to sound cliche but, a total page turner!Lorenzo Carcaterra, Sleepers
—Kirsti
