Amazon Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rebel Life, May 20, 2007

    

         

                        Once I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down! The book grips you from page one, and has a perfect flow that carries you smoothly to the end of the book before you know it, and leaves you wanting to read more. I hope that Peter Kalafatis doesn't end his career as a writer here, because he has talent! Definitely one of the hottest new writers to appear on the literary scene.

No dramatizing, hype or glamorization of the punk scene in the 80's. Peter paints a very realistic picture, and serves as a warning for kids who are about to jump into the abyss of an anarchist type lifestyle. It's not pretty, but it gives you a glimpse into a lifestyle that most will only see on television or in the movies. If you didn't give poverty and it's far reaching ramifications a thought before, after this book you will
have tons of things to ponder.

This is definitely a book I highly recommend to everyone from all walks of life. If you're growing up poor, this is a book you'll relate to, and if you're not, this is a book you should read to understand what others go through.

A Rebel Life would make the perfect book for High School English. It's a book that kids would be more interested in than the tired boring classics like The Old Man and the Sea, and it's a book that serves as a cautionary statement for kids who are about to embark on a life of drugs. If teachers introduced children to books like this early on, I think more of them would become readers AND make some of the troubled ones see that the seemingly innocuous decisions they make today could forever impact them. With drugs abuse on the rise, real life stories such as this one serve as a warning about what can happen to your life after drugs come into it.



    

                        The author does an outstanding job of allowing the reader to feel as if he is part of the struggle that the main character goes through. As i got deeper into "A rebel life" it became harder and harder to even put this book down. This book stands alone in its pursuit at educating its readers on the great points made by the author, between the struggles felt by the poor and the basic structures of our society. This was an absolutly wonderful book and i recomend it to everyone.     

                        You see it at every level of society: conform or be rejected, sometimes violently, and with no alternatives. Peter Kalafatis' book makes stunningly candid and frighteningly accurate observations on the world today.
More and more I have been noticing the growing differences between the classes, and the complete eradication of the middle class altogether. This violent extraction of an entire social class will produce waves of turmoil that ripple through the future of our society. But it is not just the other classes that destroy the middle class (the rich exploiting and the poor feeding off of) it is ourselves as well. "A Rebel Life" examines the repercussions of what is happening in the war of the classes - it lifts up the flowerpots and examines in detail what crawls underneath - and it is us...
Whoever you are, whatever you do, you need to read this book!
    

                             This book was amazing. From the minute that I picked it up I didn't want to put it down. It has so much heart to it, and each page is worth turning. Not for a minute did I want to quit reading this one. The way Kalafatis expressed himself was great, and each new letter made you feel that much closer to him. Each page assured you that he was a real person. I would read this book again with no questions asked. Great book! Buy it! Read it! Find out for yourself.     

                        I ordered this book and finished it in one day.The other reviewers were extremely accurate when they said it was hard to put it down.Peter Kalafatis has created a fast paced masterpiece that not only shows brutal honesty but an uncanny talent for allowing the reader to actually visualize the story at hand through his writing.He brings out very good points about about the system as well as his feelings about the tragic death of his brother.I highly recommend it.     

                        Set aside time, because you won't be able to put it down. A Rebel Life is a heart wrenching reflection on growing up in a system that is designed to crush those who can't conform to it, and demoralize those who do to reluctant resignation. It deals with guilt, grief, rage, anger,loss, and loyalty. This is a no excuses book, and takes a blunt look at the roles we all play and why we play them. Its a piercing tribute to a life cut short.     

                        This book was gripping and cinematic from the first page, opening in a happy place before a disturbing phone call changes the authors life direction completely. Once at odds with his own troubled past, wherein he lived off the grid of society. A disowned dropout, a violent skinhead, a semi-absentee teenage parent, and eventual suburban gang organizer. Our narrator finds himself mulling over the different paths of his life when he finds out that his beloved younger, and recently estranged brother has senselessly died by what appears to be a self inflicted drug overdose. Between the time of the phone call, and the time of the funeral he begins to realize that it was he, not necessarily his brother who had made the wrong choices as of late. He had been lulled into conforming, while his brother still slipped past all of the traps that attempt to make you woosie with material love and the desire to aquire. It was now clear to him that his brother got the ultimate punishment for his sins of disobediance. Society saw fit to kill him. It was murder by the Rich against a true rebel.
How would our narrator seek his revenge? You will burn through the pages in one painful, yet beautifully written sit until you find out in the last page how he chooses to manifest his rage.
This book is an instant classic.     

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful: