The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion

As the football match I was going to tonight has been postponed due to fog what more excuse do I need to start the official Edward Bunker thread here at TPHAS. And yes, I do realise that the notion of Hamilton-esque books and authors gets ever more tenuous but what the heck?



From Wikipedia...

Edward Bunker (December 31, 1933 – July 19, 2005) was an American author of crime fiction, a screenwriter, and an actor. He wrote numerous books, some of which have been adapted into films. He was a screenwriter on Straight Time (1978), Runaway Train (1985) and Animal Factory (2000).

He started on a criminal career at a very early age, and continued on this path throughout the years, returning to prison again and again. He was convicted of bank robbery, drug dealing, extortion, armed robbery, and forgery. A repeating pattern of convictions, paroles, releases and escapes, further crimes and new convictions continued until he was released yet again from prison in 1975, at which point he finally left his criminal days permanently behind. Bunker stayed out of jail thereafter, and instead focused on his career as a writer and actor.

Bibliography
No Beast So Fierce (1973)
The Animal Factory (1977)
Little Boy Blue (1981)
Dog Eat Dog (1995)
Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade (1999) – issued in US as Education of a Felon (2000)
Stark (2006)
Death Row Breakout: and Other Stories (2010) – published posthumously

Further reading
Education of a Felon 2000

I'm pretty sure I've only read Dog Eat Dog and I only have hazy recollections of that. I also saw the film adaptation of The Animal Factory - and Reservoir Dogs (obvs).

Shall I just read em all?

Or is it more of a cherry pick scenario?

This is a good article...

http://www.crimetime.co.uk/features/e...


Which contains this summary of the books....

No Beast So Fierce (1973) (No Exit Press)

A view of the world from a criminal perspective. Described by Hollywood wunderkind director, Quentin Tarantino, in exultant terms as "the best first person crime novel I have ever read," this searing debut novel relates the life and crimes of one Max Dembo. In it, Bunker examines the ambivalent relationship between society and criminals. Despite his genuine desire to go straight after being released from prison, the world seems to conspire against Dembo, creating pitfalls and erecting insurmountable barriers to effectively prevent him from rejoining the human race. Dembo's criminality ostracises him from so-called ordinary, law-abiding citizens. The only people that accept him unconditionally are fellow law-breakers. Max wants to get a regular job in order to live and eat but prison has given him no skills or experience. Hassled by his mistrustful, obnoxious parole officer, the stigmatised Dembo resorts to the only life he knows, that of robbery, violence and hard drugs. As visceral as an iron bar in the solar plexus. Ouch!

The Animal Factory (1977) (No Exit Press)

Bunker's riveting sophomore novel tells the story of the middle class, college-educated Ronald Decker, who finds himself sent to San Quentin on what he thought would be a relatively minor drugs charge. The harsh, sordid reality of prison life administers a sharp jolt to Decker's psyche. It's even more of a profound shock to his somewhat delicate bourgeois sensibilities to be considered punk jailbait in the company of bona fide convicts but Decker is quickly transformed from guileless milksop to knife-wielding hard-nut by the paternalistic, protective helping-hand of veteran inmate, Earl Copen. A film version of this novel starring Willem Dafoe and Mickey Rourke with actor Steven Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, Fargo) at the director's helm is currently in production.

Little Boy Blue (1981)(No Exit Press)

A thinly-veiled autobiographical novel depicting the misadventures of eleven-year-old tearaway, Alex Hammond, whose ping-pong vacillation between foster homes and corrective institutions mirrors Bunker's own tragic childhood and adolescence. This novel features some of Bunker's best insights into the causal factors of criminality. An elegiac tale of lost childhood and wasted youth.

Dog Eat Dog (1997) (No Exit Press)

Bunker's most recent piece of fiction is a tense, action-packed page-turner which focuses on the strained friendship between Troy, Mad Dog McCain and Diesel. All three are hardened criminals who plan an armed robbery that goes awry. Thematically, the book focuses on friendship, fealty and society's somewhat jaundiced and hypocritical view of criminality. The book also contrasts highly-skilled, old school, professional criminals who took pride in their work with the modern generation of drug-addled, blundering opportunists with no regard for human life.

As hard-boiled as they come.

Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade (1999)

Bunker's long-awaited autobiography is a compelling trip to penal hell and back, the hell being the criminal way of life that Bunker endured right up until his early forties. Grim, gripping, funny, imbued with pathos but never sentimental, Mr Blue is an extraordinary read.

I haven't read any of Bunker's books yet, but Straight Time, the movie based on No Beast So Fierce, is excellent.