Tattoo the Wicked Cross

by Floyd Salas

On a California prison farm for juvenile offenders, prisoners and guards live lives filled with violence, terror, enforced discipline, rebellion, despair, and, sometimes, hope.

Genres: Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Andrew Vachss · Rating 5 out of 5]

A genuine American classic.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you read a book when you were very young, that you found randomly on a shelf, and it opened up a world and people you didn't know existed? That was this book for me. Prison, prison rape, urban disenfranchised youth.

[Liam Ostermann]

Here are some of the praise this novel attracted when it was first published:

"An extraordinarily evocative novel set on a California juvenile prison farm. One of the best and most important first novels published during the last ten years." —Saturday Review of Literature

"Without peer . . . a work of genius, but because of its subject matter, a classic without a genre. Some books leave impressions; this book leaves scars." —Andrew Vachss, Change, Justice Department Magazine

"A classical first novel. An ugly, beautiful, nauseating, terrifying, profound, disciplined exploration of the depth of the human heart." —New American Review

"A masterwork." —Forgotten Pages of American Literature

"Powerful and disturbing." —Publishers Weekly

"A natural talent of tremendous strength." —Kirkus

"A work of art." —Walter Van Tilburg Clark (a highly regarded American Novelist, who wrote the 'Oxbow Incident' which was made into a film)

"This is a savage novel and a work of art, a powerful, ugly, poetic, brilliant, compassionate rendering that even the squeamish should read because its important message rings loud and clear -- and unfortunately true." —St. Louis Globe-Democrat

"This novel . . . . is a strange crucible. From its center we may pluck out a glowing ember of aspiration. If we can bear the intensity of the light, we may look into the flames and discover with what precious fuel we have fed these fires." —Fred Cody, San Francisco Chronicle

More detail about the novel is provided below:

“This is a remarkable first novel. Floyd Salas projects the reader into the slender body of his fifteen-year-old prize-fighter hero Aaron D’Aragon. We see through Aaron’s eyes the structured underworld of a California prison farm dominated by sadistic perverts operating under the protection of the no-squeal code of their victims. Aaron D’Aragon is a spirited gamecock of an adolescent being gradually torn apart by the desires to retain the faith of his dead mother and his contempt for the hypocritical world that has destroyed both mother and faith.

"Salas has gone to the heart of the dilemma that faces a human being blocked on the one hand by evil that outrages a deep sense of justice and on the other by the violence of that sense of outrage which destroys his humanity — crucifixion upon the wicked cross, the Satanic tempter speaking with the voice of genuine righteous indignation.

"Even as Aaron D’Aragon falls short of that recognition which constitutes the salvation of the tragic hero in the midst of destruction, recognition of our common human nature floods the reader with the conviction that in his very damnation, Aaron renews our faith in the human spirit.” New American Review"

All of which certainly aroused my curiosity and I have the book on order - I'll be honest that I provided so many reviews because the information that the novel was about a 'slender' 15 year old boxer in a story that sounds easily like lubricious porn unless you knew it was from a rewspectable publisher and had received mainstream reviews - I'll be curious to read the book. Yesterday's masterpieces can be lost classics or just junk so until I read it the optionsare wide open!

[John McNair · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I read of this book in a 1967 TIME magazine book section. It was a notable book, then. Interested me, and I easily found it in a Kindle version. I had a lot of difficulty with the book, though. It hasn't necessarily aged all that well from it's late 50s, early 60s timeframe (although that timeframe is perhaps immaterial) - speech, culture, practices, thought, beliefs. But that is not what was annoying. What was annoying was the imagery and descriptions the author used - there were just too many words! I found myself racing along, speed-reading (I was trained in speed-reading), trying to get to THE POINT. It was hard at times. No trouble with the plot and what took place. I understand reform schools were (are?) places where shit happens. No, it was the amount of unnecessary words the author used to paint his picture and lay out his plot. Irritating and annoying. I nearly gave up a few times but pushed through and at the end - I was so very glad I was finished!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a happy subject and very well written.

[Karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

not an uplifting topic and well written, raw from the source.