![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearSleepers is a book by Lorenzo Carcaterra about events from his childhood that led to his later involvement in a murder trial. It's a very unpleasant book, detailing extended physical, mental and sexual abuse of teenage boys at a reform school in the US in the 1960s. Carcaterra sets the scene will, describing his early years in Hell's Kitchen and painting a sympathetic portrait of the bond he shared with his three best friends. The sections set in the reform school are horrifying and the later part about the murder trial (during which he and one of his friends worked to exonerate the other two) is cleverly put together.
I struggled with the moral stance taken by the book, though. Obviously, as one of the boys affected, Carcaterra wanted to mitigate the presentation of their blame in events. And they absolutely didn't deserve what happened to them during the year they were imprisoned.
But they did commit wrongs, and the two of his friends who were put on trial did become hardened criminals. I'm sure their experiences contributed to that, but the author's path after he regained his freedom demonstrates that there were other roads available to them, despite the trauma they endured. So, while I am sympathetic towards what they experienced, I find I cannot condone or excuse their prior or subsequent actions.
A very interesting but difficult read, which raises a lot of questions about culpability and the long-term consequences of abuse.
I struggled with the moral stance taken by the book, though. Obviously, as one of the boys affected, Carcaterra wanted to mitigate the presentation of their blame in events. And they absolutely didn't deserve what happened to them during the year they were imprisoned.
But they did commit wrongs, and the two of his friends who were put on trial did become hardened criminals. I'm sure their experiences contributed to that, but the author's path after he regained his freedom demonstrates that there were other roads available to them, despite the trauma they endured. So, while I am sympathetic towards what they experienced, I find I cannot condone or excuse their prior or subsequent actions.
A very interesting but difficult read, which raises a lot of questions about culpability and the long-term consequences of abuse.
