Like many, I was first introduced to this book when I saw the popular movie starring Al Pacino, Sean Penn, and Penelope Anne Miller. I received the book as a Christmas present, that particular paperback being a movie tie-in reprint with Al Pacino (Carlito) on the cover. I think I gave away the book to the library when I moved a couple of years ago. Film Ink's edition, showcasing a typical street in an ethnic neighborhood, impressed me. I've always been fascinated by some of the provocative photography on book covers these days.
The saga of Carlito Brigante's life (in essence the film Carlito's Way) is actually chronicled in two books, the first titled Carlito's Way, wherein Carlito in 1st person narrative describes his rough-and-tumble childhood and induction into New York's ruthless criminal world, culminating in Carlito's arrest, conviction, and sentence of thirty years in Riker's Island. Yet no one can accuse Brigante of being simply a heartless killer. We get to sympathize with his plight; he is undoubtedly the hero of Torres' tale.
The next installment, titled After Hours (written in 3rd person this time), is actually the setting of the movie, beginning when David Kleinfeld, Carlito's Alan Dershowitzesque attorney, gets Carlito out of prison on a technicality. The David Kleinfeld character is another reason to read this book after seeing the movie, as things in the book turn out quite differently for most of the characters affected by Kleinfeld's machinations. There's also some additional fleshing out of characters and episodes not included in the movie, including Brigante's trip to Spain, where the brash hombre shows off his bullfighting skills. I'm not giving anything away.
Like the Shawshank Redemption, the movie also highlights the profound changes in American everyday life and culture (and with it the criminal world) during the twentieth century. The two books trace Carlito Brigante's criminal career, from the swinging and colorful 1940s, when Carlito existed on small-time armed robberies and switchblades, all the way to the sleazy lava-lamp lit cocaine infested 1970s, an appropriate prelude of the Me Decade. Central to the story is the role New York's Italian Mafia plays in the life of Brigante. Brigante, a Puerto Rican, is eventually admitted to their exclusive innermost circles, but because he is not a Sicilian is never elevated to the status of a "Made Guy," which ultimately leads to his downfall. Via subplots and secondary characters Torres notes the rise and fall of the Cosa Nostra's influence in the Big Apple.
I thought that Miller brought a lot to the somewhat hapless role of Gail, Carlito's longtime love-interest and confidant. I found it much more believable that Carlito's girlfriend would be a stripper and aspiring dancer. In the book her character is an elementary school teacher, which makes the idea of Carlito persuading her to go to the Bahamas a bit implausible.
In an interview contemporaneous with the film's release, Torres said that his novels were inspired by his exposure to countless Carlito Brigantes who had walked through his courtroom throughout his career on the bench. Torres also includes a vocabulary of Hispanic street slang and underworld terms.
An extremely capable writer of prose, Torres pens a stimulating, readable, and believable portrait of life in the Barrio. Barrio is Spanish for jungle, in this context the urban jungle-ghetto that wickedly and unknowingly nurtures the self-destructive psyche of a career criminal who knows nothing but a life of violence and self-preservation.
Splendid!