Cry me a green river

I must say that this is the flattering appreciation of James Ellroy ("The greatest novel ever written on the prison") prompted me reading, although I was a bit wary anyway (this slogan already used for "the Beast against the walls" of Edward Bunker).

I loved it.

Yet we find the expected traditional ingredients of a vision of the prison world: animal abuse, racism, moments of friendship, power relations
The story takes place in Green River Penitentiary, Texas. Its director John Hobbes, having failed in its model prison dream, loses her mind and chooses to lead the prisoners with him into chaos by creating the conditions for a riot.

In the wave of violence engulfing the prison, some souls who survive will be taken in the destructive maelstrom: Ray Klein, doctor convicted of rape, Earl Coley his assistant in the infirmary, Ruben Wilson, a former boxer moral eminence of the Black community, Juliette Devlin, a passing psychiatrist who is conducting a study on the prison world ... They are going to run, fight, make alliances, kissing and close your ears and eyes to survive and remain human.

Roman irritating and great. The relatively conventional writing the beginning gives way to a vintage style (very) dry, with a punch as and when the riot turns what in hell battleground. Some passages that would get elsewhere as implausible or repetitive, give instead its strength in this novel by turning it into an almost hypnotic and surreal work.

This is not the 1st time that a work deals with violence in prisons, but this is probably one of the few times that the lack of benchmarks, juxtaposing moments of pure amok and lightning of Humanity creates an atmosphere as nightmarish as detached from reality.

The analysis of the motivations of the different characters is quite extensive and without ever falling into the victimization, the author does not forget that these behaviors are to the environment. For this sprawling prison is at once the setting for a dramatic behind closed doors, but also one of the actors of the dehumanization of the perverse system that exacerbates violence against those who are different, which is lower.

Some scenes are remarkable: when a young guy crying face the disease that humiliates with a body that abandons him, when innocent people accept their fate with tremendous dignity when even the "hero" let speak their dark side, when lost in a transvestite identities discovers the ultimate betrayal

A punch book, if we agree to let embark.