Hurricane : The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter

New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company Trade & Reference Division, 2000. Trade Paperback. Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Hurricane recounts the harrowing, inspiring odyssey of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a black boxer wrongly convicted of three murders, from fierce despair to freedom and enlightenment. "On June 17, 1966, two black men strode into the Lafayette Grill, a white redoubt in racially mixed Paterson, New Jersey, and shot three people to death. Rubin Carter and his young acquaintance John Artis were not those men, but they were convicted of the murders in a highly publicized and racially charged trial. "Over the next decade, Carter amassed convincing evidence of his innocence and the vocal support of numerous celebrities (Bob Dylan's song "Hurricane" was but one example). He was freed pending a new trial, only to lose his appeal - to the astonishment of many - and land back in prison. He avoided almost all human contact, until he received a letter from Lesra Martin, a teenager raised in a Brooklyn ghetto. "Against his bitter instincts, Carter agreed to meet with Martin, thus taking the first step on a long, tortuous path back into the world. Martin introduced Carter to an enigmatic group of Canadians, including a strong-willed woman with whom he later began an intense unlikely romance. In the process, the Canadians helped wage an international battle to free him. This authorized biography of Carter by former Wall Street Journal and New York Times reporter Hirsch brings an objective historical perspective to the boxer's story. Scrupulously researched and expertly crafted, Hirsch's updated account of Carter's life is both a rich portrait of a complex man and a clear-eyed telling of a remarkable life. Despite his success in the ring, or because of it, Carter was a man with a bad reputation when he was wrongfully accused of a gruesome triple homicide. As a defiant black man with a mean streak, a criminal record and flamboyant tastes, Carter jarred the sensibilities of many whites in his hometown of Paterson, N.J., and Hirsch explores the role that race played in determining his fate. Carter's hellish ride through the judicial system and the heroic efforts to free him make for fascinating reading. Hirsch used the Canadian edition of Lazarus and the Hurricane (reviewed above) as a source for much of his material, and some scenes are straight out of the earlier book. But Hirsch also explores the nature of Carter's relationships with the Canadians, including his romance and marriage to Lisa Peters, which is treated as a mere footnote in the Canadians' account. When Carter finally became a free man in 1988, he spent several years living in the Canadians' commune, but their controlling nature led him to believe he had traded one prison for another, with a debt of gratitude tying him down. He eventually severed ties. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. A nearly biblical tale of persecution, punishment, and redemption . . . Anyone curious about the persistence of Carter’s notoriety or the accuracy of the movie will find all the answers in Hurricane..