Lazarus and the Hurricane - Softcover

Chaiton, Sam; Swinton, Terence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140285393 ISBN 13: 9780140285390

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 1999

Synopsis

Immortalized in the Bob Dylan song "Hurricane Rubin Carter, a number one contender for the world middleweight boxing crown, became a civil rights cause célèbre in the mid-seventies when he was wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in New Jersey. After public outcry forced a retrial, Carter was the victim of a second travesty of justice, when he was reconvicted, and given the same triple-life sentence.

When Lesra Martin - a youth from the Brooklyn ghetto who moved to Toronto with a group of Canadians - learned of Carter's plight after reading the boxer's memoirs, The Sixteenth Round, he told his new family the tragic story. The group soon took up Carter's cause and worked tirelessly to win his freedom.

A riveting legal drama and a powerful story of hope and humanity, Lazarus and the Hurricane is the story of justice gone wrong and the incredible dedication needed to set it right.

About this title

Review:

In 1979, Lesra, a 16-year-old African American boy from an impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood, befriended three thirtysomething Canadians in the borough on business. The boy, whom the Canadians flew to Toronto to visit them, had led a life so far from the comforts of nature that he stumbled trying to walking on a lawn. Charmed by the exuberant and obviously intelligent Lesra (Lazarus), and aware that without decent health care, a safe environment, or an education he would have little or no hope of success in his dangerous neighborhood, this exceptional group of people invited him to live with and be educated by them. Lesra thrived under their watch--but the story of Lazarus and the Hurricane is only beginning.

After finally being taught to read, at age 16, Lesra immerses himself in The Sixteenth Round, the autobiography of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. The African American prizefighter was tried and convicted in 1966 for murders he didn't commit (the book's title refers to his bouts with the legal system as he tries to get himself exonerated). Lesra and his Canadian "family" pursued both a cause and a friendship with Carter that would transform all of their lives. The Canadians are active but not particularly distinct personalities in this book--a group of do-gooders who don't want too much credit. And Lesra, though he is finely described in early chapters, also falls away from the center of the story once Carter comes into view, for the Hurricane is a centrifugal force that cannot be ignored. Widely read and sensitive, but also pleasure-loving and intensely vital, Carter is the reason readers will be unable to forget this story. And they shouldn't. As Carter revives his fight with the support of his new friends and generous lawyers, working through a byzantine maze of court rulings and appeals, the shortcomings of America's legal and prison systems are made painfully clear. The compelling, bittersweet story in Lazarus and the Hurricane should be a call to action. --Maria Dolan

From the Publisher:

A basis for THE HURRICANE, a major motion picture from Universal Pictures

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140285393
• ISBN 13: 9780140285390
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384