back-marking schumi

...did I mention Golf anytime ??

...Giving Woods and Vijay Singh a run for their money :-)..watch out guys for the new Tiger on prowl

Sleepers - Lorenzo Carcaterra

...our office e-magazine has hosted a couple of my reviews (books & movies)..let me start posting them...here's to start with...

Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
For the outsider Hell's Kitchen is the epitome of lawlessness; poverty, narcotics, murders, prostitution, you name it. But ask a Kitchener , he would say there is no place safer on earth than Hell's Kitchen. One would probably feel so about his hometown, no matter where the "Hell" he is, but there is a difference when so bloody a place like this can be called anything closer to a home.
But the place is notorious for churning out some solid fiction characters, the likes of Don vito Corleone (The GodFather), Gail Wynand (The Fountainhead), to name a few, whose notoriety roots back to their troubled chilhood lives in Hell's Kitchen, partially influenced by the authors' own lives.
"Sleepers" is not about Hell's Kitchen; Its about four teenage friends growing up together in Hell's Kitchen, growing up the way that naturally comes/happens to a Kitchener , but their lives drastically transformed after being placed in a juvenile prison.

A "normal" life in the Kitchen is what the outsider would call "adventurous" and this was no different for Tommy, John, Michael and Lorenzo (yes it was the author's story). They go to school, go to Church, play ball and even a semblance of humanity is evident, thanks to their local Priest Father Bobby. At the same time they are also not out of trouble, petty crimes are the order of their day.
In one of these petty crimes, stealing hot dogs from a cart on the street, an adventure going berserk and almost fatal, stamps a 8-12 month sentence for the four at the Wilkinson Home for Boys, a juvenile prison, concealing a reputation known only to those who have spent time there, but are too ashamed to bring it to the outside world.
From here the author proceeds to narrate their everyday story comprising of events too stark and grave and disturbing, the very mention of which could bring jitters to anyone let alone experience the hell. Each day is made as a day to remember, a day to be ashamed for the rest of their lives, a permanent scar; courtesy, four prison guards, ironically called the correction officers. The pleasure the guards gain by torturing the prisoners is so incredible, has to be experienced to believe, the credibility of course rests on the reader and imagination running riot is part of the package. Father Bobby couldn't help them, neither could King Benny, the local gang lord; it was a punishment to be endured and a stronger heart to triumph and come out unscathed in a set up as terrible and grueling as this. Some scenes are not for the weak hearted.
What ensues then is a series of events, set up 10 years down their prison term, involving a murder and an a high tension court room drama. But life has never been the same for four...
The book has also been adapted as a Hollywood drama with Robert De Nero, Brad Pitt and Kevin Bacon in the lead roles.