Author: Peter Kalafatis

Publisher: All and None Press

ISBN: 0615135145

When Peter Kalafatis was thirteen years old he ran away from his Brooklyn home. He was fed up with the verbal and physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his parents and though he implored his younger brother, Archie, to stay home, the two spent a cold night in 1983 wandering the streets of their neighborhood. Eventually, as the night wore on, Archie’s breathing became so labored, due to his asthma, Peter had to carry him home.

Kalafatis lasted two more years, enduring abuse at home, and racial violence at his school before packing his bags and hitting the streets for good. This was the beginning of his rebel life; a life that would envelop him in a fog of drugs, gangs, and street violence. Eventually, his brother would join him and be consumed by his own life on the streets.

In 2005 Peter’s mother found Archie dead in his apartment. His brother’s death was earth shattering news for Peter. Especially since he had spent the previous ten years removing himself from the streets and removing all the traces of the streets from himself; but had been unable to help his brother out in a similar manner.

The loss of his brother opened up a vein in Peter’s mind that ran with the blood splattered concrete he used to call home. It brought back memories, opened wounds, and clouded his thoughts as he tried to reconcile the death of his brother with the greater class struggle that he felt he’d been fighting his entire life.

So angry was Peter over the death of his brother that he began plotting his revenge, a violent culmination of his thought process, part retribution, part political statement, that threatened to destroy everything he had worked so hard for.

At times philosophical, at times polemic, A Rebel Life: Murder by the Rich tells, in visceral detail, the story of Peter Kalafatis. His passage from angry child into a youth of mindless rebellion, to that of a mature, responsible, adult who can clearly see and elucidate the elementary injustices in our society.

Centered on the loss of his brother, Kalafatis uses recollections, reconstructions, and allegorical dreams to convey his message of disaffection with the status quo, while relating several incidents from his own past. Throughout, he constantly returns to his notion of where the ultimate responsibility for his brother’s death lies: at the feet of the rich.

While his exploration of structural injustice is not new, his ability to put a personal face on it helps drive the message home. His story also clearly demonstrates the difficulties every political radical faces when trying to evangelize friends, relatives, and neighbors, and rally them to an unpopular or unfamiliar viewpoint.

But the most intriguing part of his story, of his time living on the streets, is often overshadowed by his overzealous, neo-Marxist peachiness. Rather than showing us the class war in action, Kalafatis spends a lot of time editorializing about it, which is unfortunate because his story of life, tragedy, survival, and release from the streets would be enough to sustain this book.

A Rebel Life: Murder by the Rich is an interesting exploration of socioeconomics and urban conflict in the home, family, and community. It combines the readability of a novel with the educational content of a political tract and discusses many important issues. This book is an important contribution to understanding the causes and consequences of youth rebellion and violence.

The above review was contributed by: Christopher Friesen-Writer and Book Reviewer from Canada. To read more of Chris's reviews CLICK HERE

To read Christopher's Interview with the author CLICK HERE