What do you think?
Rate this book
The Crossing Guard
Through such seminal plays as Streamers, Sticks and Bones, and Hurlyburly, David Rabe has given powerful voice to the often violent conflicts in the American psyche. In The Crossing Guard, adapted from the original screenplay by Sean Penn, he has written an unforgettable novel about parenthood, revenge, and forgiveness.
At the Two men on a collision course. John Booth, a man just released from prison, and Freddy Gale, a man so possessed by his thirst for vengeance he will stop at nothing. Not even murder.
At the Freddy's beautiful and sympathetic wife, coping in her own way with the circumstances that have ruined her marriage. And Freddy, on two separate but equally powerful journeys - one, to find out how a man in America comes to terms with irrepressible agony, and the other his manic quest to find John Booth, a man waiting with a gun.
At the Two men on a collision course. John Booth, a man just released from prison, and Freddy Gale, a man so possessed by his thirst for vengeance he will stop at nothing. Not even murder.
At the Freddy's beautiful and sympathetic wife, coping in her own way with the circumstances that have ruined her marriage. And Freddy, on two separate but equally powerful journeys - one, to find out how a man in America comes to terms with irrepressible agony, and the other his manic quest to find John Booth, a man waiting with a gun.
301 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1995
12 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Want to read
May 2, 2012This is one of my all time favorite movies! I never knew that one of my all time favorite playwrights penned the novel. "Holy Hot Cross Buns, Adam West! I gotta get this book in my grubby little ink-stained paws like now!!"
That's what I typed on my mind's eye's home page (to transfer later onto here for you good Goodreads reader folks a short while ago. You should've seen my fingers! They were like a set of octuplets paired with a couple of stumpy thumb-twins on space-bar duty (those thumbs of mine must be smokers, cuz it looks to me like their growth was somehow stunted). (this is an odd pre-re-view, idn't it?)
ANYWAY...(as Chuck Klosterman says in between bowls of sex and Cocoa Puffs) my exuberant fingers were typing again with wild unrestrained glee, literally overflowing with optimistic and hopeful jauntiness, bouncing off the white letters on black squares with their clickety-clack back-up music (well, just a nonrhythmic beat really) on my wireless keyboard yesterday...
They, if I didn't know any better, looked "Inspired" when I realized that David Rabe had written the novel for "The Crossing Guard." Must find. Must find now. (or one of you, dear goodreaders, one of u can save me this task/errand by saying, hey, Travis, I own this book, here let me mail it to you.
That would be great. Highly unexpected and seriously unlikely, but why not ask the GoodRead Gods (& U) before I go searchin'?
Uhmmmm, shit. I hope he wrote the book first. There is nothing I loathe more than those "novelizations" that screenwriters will pound out during Post-Production. Correction: there is only one thing worse: "novelizations" that are printed & published only because some soul-less producer hires some hack-LA-writer to type (notice I didn't say 'write'), after seeing (usually only a portion of) the rough cut of the film (w/out music or any final touches) and then, if they're lucky, reading the screenplay.
Oooooh, modern times are making it harder and harder for integrity to stay afloat. Seems like the only reason it's still bobbing on the surface is because the water has become so murky and filthy that "integrity" is now unable to sink. It's not floating anymore. It's not even on water. It's all an illusion. Integrity is actually resting (not quite comfortably, but resting nonetheless) on sludge and grim...the film that rests on the ceiling of the shores, that has become thick enough, out here in La-La-Land, so that now, Miracles like Walking on Water, don't seem so much like miracles anymore....more like Gimmicky Movie Magic. Smoke and Mirrors.
I announce this the oddest pre-review ever (at least written by me).
So, do you have the book or not? You. Yes, you. I'm staring right at you. Of course I mean you.
Who else would I mean?
PART 2:
FUCK! I just did some research, and it is just Rabe's interpretation of Sean Penn's script. Still want it, but not nearly as amped anymore.
That's what I typed on my mind's eye's home page (to transfer later onto here for you good Goodreads reader folks a short while ago. You should've seen my fingers! They were like a set of octuplets paired with a couple of stumpy thumb-twins on space-bar duty (those thumbs of mine must be smokers, cuz it looks to me like their growth was somehow stunted). (this is an odd pre-re-view, idn't it?)
ANYWAY...(as Chuck Klosterman says in between bowls of sex and Cocoa Puffs) my exuberant fingers were typing again with wild unrestrained glee, literally overflowing with optimistic and hopeful jauntiness, bouncing off the white letters on black squares with their clickety-clack back-up music (well, just a nonrhythmic beat really) on my wireless keyboard yesterday...
They, if I didn't know any better, looked "Inspired" when I realized that David Rabe had written the novel for "The Crossing Guard." Must find. Must find now. (or one of you, dear goodreaders, one of u can save me this task/errand by saying, hey, Travis, I own this book, here let me mail it to you.
That would be great. Highly unexpected and seriously unlikely, but why not ask the GoodRead Gods (& U) before I go searchin'?
Uhmmmm, shit. I hope he wrote the book first. There is nothing I loathe more than those "novelizations" that screenwriters will pound out during Post-Production. Correction: there is only one thing worse: "novelizations" that are printed & published only because some soul-less producer hires some hack-LA-writer to type (notice I didn't say 'write'), after seeing (usually only a portion of) the rough cut of the film (w/out music or any final touches) and then, if they're lucky, reading the screenplay.
Oooooh, modern times are making it harder and harder for integrity to stay afloat. Seems like the only reason it's still bobbing on the surface is because the water has become so murky and filthy that "integrity" is now unable to sink. It's not floating anymore. It's not even on water. It's all an illusion. Integrity is actually resting (not quite comfortably, but resting nonetheless) on sludge and grim...the film that rests on the ceiling of the shores, that has become thick enough, out here in La-La-Land, so that now, Miracles like Walking on Water, don't seem so much like miracles anymore....more like Gimmicky Movie Magic. Smoke and Mirrors.
I announce this the oddest pre-review ever (at least written by me).
So, do you have the book or not? You. Yes, you. I'm staring right at you. Of course I mean you.
Who else would I mean?
PART 2:
FUCK! I just did some research, and it is just Rabe's interpretation of Sean Penn's script. Still want it, but not nearly as amped anymore.
Displaying 1 of 1 review