Little Boy Blue — Edward Bunker

Here is the quintessential story of a young hoodlum's coming of age in post-Depression America, from the undisputed master of the genre.

“Bunker is a true original of American letters. His books are criminal classics.” ―James Ellroy

“The best first-person crime novel I've ever read.” -- Quentin Tarantino

Alex Hamilton is young, intelligent, savvy, and independent -- but also subject to violent fits of rage. Raised within the confines of a system that has done nothing but provide him with pain, his frustration and anger are completely natural -- and inherently dangerous. Rebellious since his parents split up, Alex is constantly running from foster homes and institutions, yearning to be with his father, a broken man who cannot give his son the home he desperately needs. As Alex is pulled between well-meaning but exhausted social workers and viciously cruel authority figures, his emotions and actions are forever careening off these two disparate influences. Only one constant remains: his no-good, criminal-minded peers, who are all too ready to plant illegal ideas in a young, bright mind that's already well on its way to social deviancy. Little Boy Blue vividly documents this destruction, allowing the reader to sift through the wreckage of a childhood gone terribly awry.

Praise for Little Boy Blue

“Bunker shoots straight -- his direct and transparent prose captures the “primacy of violence” that defines life in the slammer . . . Bunker clearly articulates the “code” of prison life and the pathology of the career criminal in raw, muscular prose.” ―Kirkus Reviews