Product Description

Prison Stories is a vivid look into the brutal and vicious world of Prison. It takes the reader inside the belly of the beast, giving real life accounts from the netherworld of corruption and violence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88352 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 276 pages

Review
"Seth Ferranti writes with the bluntness and slangy-ness of street lit but with a much more penetrating gaze into the world of prison." - Ethan Brown, author of Queen's Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler "Prison Stories outlaw rawness mixes well with hip-hop's street essence. Fans of Iceberg Slim's pimp tales or HBO's 'Oz' series will really dig this." - Elemental Magazine "Prison Stories is very real. I love Seth Ferranti's writing." - Wahida Clark, Esscence best selling author of Payback is a Mutha "An episode of 'Oz' couldn't capture prison drama the way Seth Ferranti does in Prison Stories." - Don Diva Magazine "Prison Stories is what 'Oz' and 'Prison Break' weren't real enough to be." - Kwame Teague, author of Ghetto Sam and the Dutch series "Prison Stories reveals a world of fearless convicts, inconspicuous snitches and deadly gang rivalry." - The Ave Magazine "With Prison Stories, Seth Ferranti now finds himself among urban fiction's top writers." - urbanbooksource.com --Praise for Prison Stories

In 1991, facing a mandatory sentence of at least 20 years for leading a small LSD dealing operation in suburban Virginia, Seth Ferranti faked his own suicide and went on the lam, a desperate stunt that tacked on an extra year to his bid when he was eventually caught two years later. Since then, the self-described "prisoner in the war on drugs" has spent his time chronicling the prison experience for various magazines and writing this very lightly fictionalized novel. Prison Stories follows a newly incarcerated white suburban drug dealer who tries to maintain his hustle in a federal penitentiary while avoiding the business end of a shank. Ferranti intersperses his slang-heavy narrative with slice-of-prison life vignettes that show why snitching is always a bad idea, how to turn baby oil into an ugly little weapon and how to gain and keep respect through equal measures of politeness and violence. Don't expect a heartwarming story of redemption; expect an unbelievably addictive tale of how things really operate in prison, and how one man is surviving it. A- Ben Goldstein --Giant Magazine

We've all heard - if not lived - grim tales of prison life, but you can almost smell the stench of a month in "the hole" through actual inmate Seth Ferranti's words. According to him, the daily ruckus on his cell block is a reflection of street life, though on a smaller scale, and he's bound to make believers out of most readers. The story of Ferranti's life behind bars is interesting, to say the least, as threats from correction officers and rival inmates force him to make difficult (and often regrettable) choices to stay alive and build his rep. Plenty of blood is shed in this intense record of the harsh realities of the penal system. Even in prison, drug-dealing and gambling are profitable - though dangerous - pastimes, and a painful death is assured for snitches. For the sake of Ferranti's safety, one can only hope that he changed the names to protect the not-so-innocent - Blaine Martin --Smooth Magazine

Customer Reviews

Couldn't put it down
I read this book just about straight through. It was a good story, and well-paced. I only gave it a "four", however, because if he is trying to educate people about the prison system, he needs to include a glossary. I don't speak Spanish either, so between the prison jargon and the Spanish, I sometimes didn't know what was going on. I couldn't look the Spanish up in a dictionary either, it wasn't that kind of Spanish. Even a Hispanic friend of mine didn't know that dialect.
Other than this, it was enjoyable. Oh, and the editor needs to learn the difference between "then" and "than."

Behind Those Walls
Seth "Soul Man" Ferranti gets up close and personal of what prison life is like. He takes us through the day to day life of inmates and the survival tactics in the penal system. Its not your usual urban stories that some of us read about. We are given the raw, raunchy explicit details with much intensity that will keep you reading from beginning to end. There is no sugar coating to what is going down behind the prison walls.

Prison Stories is "real talk" that is a must read, especially for our youth. It reminds you of the HBO series "OZ" but Prison Stories is the real deal. I commend Mr. Ferranti for writing about his and others experience behind those walls. His style is of writing is very detailed and enjoyable. Many of us take our freedom for granted. Once you read this novel you will sit back and think how blessed we are not being caught up in the system.

Tangerine, Reviewer
Reader's Paradise Book Club

In The Belly of the Beast!!!!
In Prison Stories author Seth Ferranti takes readers deep into the belly of the beast. Federal Prison is a nightmare but imagine living that nightmare when you're a suburban white boy. How does an average man survive amongst the killers? Is rehabilitation possible or will far worse lessons be learned behind bars? As an inmate serving time in a federal prison author Seth Ferranti will have readers guessing how much is fact and how much is fiction?

Prison stories chronicles one inmate's incarceration while also offering intermissions where Mr. Ferranti tells the tales of the many other faces he's met while doing his bid. It's an effective method of story telling that highlights Mr. Ferranti's gift of describing the indescribable. Prison Stories is very somber subject matter that will definitely draw readers in but the saddest part of the read is that after finishing the book readers will know that these characters including Mr. Ferranti are actual people who are still living in these situations filled with mayhem, murder and corruption.