Hemingway said, "A man should never write what he doesn't know." In the mid-fifties, Harlan Ellison--kicked out of college and hungry to write--went to New York to start his writing career. It was a time of street gangs, rumbles, kids with switchblades and zip guns made from car radio antennas. Ellison was barely out of his teens himself, but he took a phony name, moved into Brooklyn's dangerous Red Hook section and managed to con his way into a "bopping club." What he experienced (and the time he spent in jail as a result) was the basis for the violent story that Alfred Hitchcock filmed as the first of his hour-long TV dramas...This autobiography is a book whose message you won't be able to ignore or forget. "Harlan Ellison is the dark prince of American letters, cutting through our corrupted midnight fog with a switchblade prose. He simply must be read." --Pete Hamill "Ellison writes with sensitivity as well as guts--a rare combination." --Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint
Memos from Purgatory
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Ellison from 1961
April 21 2005
By F. Orion Pozo
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Memos From Purgatory is two books in one - both of them memoirs rather than fiction. The Gang is the first book and goes back to 1954 when the 20 year old Ellison went "undercover" in a Brooklyn street gang for ten weeks. His depiction of gang life is very well done, but the writing is a bit dated by the constraints of the censorship of the time. It is all here, from his initiation, through his relationships with the gang members, up to the rumble with a rival gang that drove him off the project for good.
The second half of the book called The Tombs is from a time seven years later. Ellison was an established writer living in New York when he gets arrested and spends a day in the New York prison system before he makes bail. This seems to have been a harder experience for him than the ten weeks in the gang. He fears that he is going to lose his mind because of the panic reaction to being incarcerated. Since one night in jail doesn't seem to be so tragic, his whining can make this section of the book difficult to read. My personal guess is that Ellison was a control freak and being in jail was more than he could take. Yet his descriptions of the people he meets there is richly rewarding. His criminals, winos, derelicts, and guards are well portrayed and typical of the style of writing that has made him famous.
What makes this book a classic is the visceral and emotional writing style that Ellison employs. Even when I disagree with him most, in his diatribe against two gay black men in The Tombs, I am still taken with the power of his writing.
The second half of the book called The Tombs is from a time seven years later. Ellison was an established writer living in New York when he gets arrested and spends a day in the New York prison system before he makes bail. This seems to have been a harder experience for him than the ten weeks in the gang. He fears that he is going to lose his mind because of the panic reaction to being incarcerated. Since one night in jail doesn't seem to be so tragic, his whining can make this section of the book difficult to read. My personal guess is that Ellison was a control freak and being in jail was more than he could take. Yet his descriptions of the people he meets there is richly rewarding. His criminals, winos, derelicts, and guards are well portrayed and typical of the style of writing that has made him famous.
What makes this book a classic is the visceral and emotional writing style that Ellison employs. Even when I disagree with him most, in his diatribe against two gay black men in The Tombs, I am still taken with the power of his writing.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Tow completely different sides of the same coin
Jan 16 2013
By Bordeaux Dogue
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
marvellosuly written, by a master wordsmith.
However, considering that the story is purportedly real, based on the Author's real experience, the first part seems lived, and described by, a completely different person than the one that wrote the second part.
The second half is weak, written by a weak character, which is rather odd, for me.
Brilliant prose, however.
However, considering that the story is purportedly real, based on the Author's real experience, the first part seems lived, and described by, a completely different person than the one that wrote the second part.
The second half is weak, written by a weak character, which is rather odd, for me.
Brilliant prose, however.
5.0 out of 5 stars
never disappoints
Nov 21 2012
By Pamela Dinnocenzo
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Anything Harlan chooses to write is wonderful, albeit often annoying. People who like good writing will appreciate Harlan, even if he is often a jerk. He is never a tedious jerk.
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