Sleepers Author Lorenzo Caracaterra

Sleepers - by Lorenzo Carcaterra

By the year 2004, a vast and shockingly graphic volume of demonstrable data has been publicized as to the sexually deviant behaviors of Roman Catholic Priests - men supposedly messengers of God, and certainly trustworthy - over the past thirty to forty years. And so, looking back to the 1960s, it should come as no surprise that if "men of God" harmed young boys, then prison guards in a reformatory - also believed to be trustworthy - could also have abused youthful offenders incarcerated in those grim institutions.

Still, deviance aside, a story such as this one is greatly enhanced by the irony - an irony resulting from twisted, sadistic anti-social behavior - in which boys imprisoned for violating society's laws then themselves become victims of the far greater crime of physical torture and sexual assaults. To be busted for stealing a hot dog cart which gets away and nearly kills a man, and then be thrown into a veritable Hell on earth for punishment, is certainly breeding grounds for mixed messages on how laws and justice really work in a society.

For this story to have value beyond the grim fascination projected through the descriptive narrative and skillful character development, one must be able to imagine being a "sleeper" - e.g., an underage kid thrown into a reformatory for at least nine months. When that fictional transformation is completed by the reader, one can then begin imagine the hideously brutal scenes that have created a lifetime of nightmares for author Lorenzo Carcaterra. Why Carcaterra? Because the book is reportedly a true account of his early life.

There are, meantime, skeptics, when it comes to Carcaterra's assertion that the book follows along fairly precisely his own horrifying circumstances in reform school. What leads to suspicions about Carcaterra's veracity are lines like: "We followed every pro-sport with religious fervor and adolescent passion..." juxtaposed with a line on the next page... "We cared little for Knicks basketball and barely tolerated Giants' football."

That is a contradiction of seismic proportions; and there are others, too. Another example is the statement that Carcaterra and his friends "Never saw the tiny, airless fourth-floor room [the hot dog vender] lived in...its only comfort a tattered collection of pictures from home, crudely taped to the wall nearest the worn mattress of his bed."

Well, it begs the question, if the boys never saw it, how does Carcaterra know what it looked like? Perhaps that is nit-picking, but it does do some damage to the story. Another tiny error in his presentation is the fact that Carcaterra says he listened to Bob Seger's "Against the Wind" in 1979 - but it wasn't released until 1980.

Looking at the big social picture during those years, and the book's tales of violence against youth: were the terrifying scenes of sexual mayhem at the Wilkinson Home for Boys just fictionalized to fit into Carcaterra's plot? One wonders, for example, would the guards at Wilkinson truly put on a massacre of the prisoners, disguised as a football game - in front of townspeople gathered at a football stadium?

On the subject of priests, which were mentioned at the opening of this essay, it's impossible to know whether Father Bobby, a Hell's Kitchen neighborhood priest, molested or raped any young choir boys during his ministry. But is it revealed that he agreed to perjure himself under oath to protect Tommy and Johnny during the murder trial. Sociologically, the act of lying by Father Bobby can at least be partially explained by the fact that external events tend to determine behavior more often than internal psychological issues. So, Father Bobby knew how inhumanely the boys were treated at reform school; he also knew he had taken an oath to uphold justice and be truthful in his Christian work.

But, the reality of how cruelly local Hell's Kitchen boys were treated struck home to Father Bobby in a fiercely external, loyal sense - in effect, that reality was a stimulus for Father Bobby. And hence he abandoned his priestly duties (his psychological loyalty to the Church) in order to help the boys achieve a kind of seat-of-the-pants justice - which was his sociological "response" to original injustice made "just" by the killing of the evil reform school guard.

Michael, meanwhile, certainly did not follow the dark post-reform-school paths trod by friends John and Tommy. Hints of why he didn't can be found in his pre-reform-school personality - his habits and interests. He was "the best student among us" (9) according to the author, and those "Black Irish eyes" of Michael tended to "bore holes through their targets." The metaphor suggests a highly focused individual - who actually aimed his glares and stares with a purpose. Michael's attitude during the go-cart races in Hell's Kitchen (15) tell a good deal about his gung-ho side: "Don't think brakes...Think speed." And, when asked how to stop the go-cart, once it gains maximum momentum, his explanation was: "You'll hit something...don't worry."