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Rating: 
Summary: Blew me away
Review: Conversations with the Capeman, the story on which the musical Westside Story is loosely based, blew me away. I literally read this 500+ page book in two days. I almost could not sleep for want of finishing it on the first day.
The life of Salvador Agron provides a window into humanity that society tends to overlook when confronted with a crime in light of the death penalty. Mr. Agron's life can be viewed as social commentary that makes this a very important look at our penal system but more importantly it renders him human.....not an evil animal. The loyalty that Salvador garnered from people he didn't even know was overwelming. This is the first book that ever brought me to tears to the point that I could barely see the words on the page while reading the last two chapters.
I subsequently bought Paul Simon's Songs from the Capeman and was pretty impressed by the way that he captures Salvadors life in music.
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Summary: A Captivating Capeman
Review: I just recently finished reading this book and i was at a loss for words. It was overall shocking. But thats what I loved most about. It was all truth it captured his (Salvadors) life as it happened,which was most important,and the words were his own. We know what he suffered through and what he cherished most. I can honestly say when I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I loved it. Its a great read!
Rating:
Summary: A Captivating Capeman
Review: I just recently finished reading this book and i was at a loss for words. It was overall shocking. But thats what I loved most about. It was all truth it captured his (Salvadors) life as it happened,which was most important,and the words were his own. We know what he suffered through and what he cherished most. I can honestly say when I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I loved it. Its a great read!
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Summary: Behind the Capeman
Review: In "Conversations with the Capeman," Richard Jacoby explodes the myth of theCapeman, the myth Paul Simon, in his failed musical, tried to sweeten with distorted facts and sentimentalisms.The reality of the man, Salvador Agron, is far more complex and moving and especially relevant to the current debates on our inadequate and dehumanizing criminal justice system, which has not undergone a fundamental change in over fifty years. The story of Agron is the story of today's prisoner, you and me, behind steel bars or behind a desk. It is the story of the existential anti-hero who dares to step forward and say, "I did it!" even though he has no recollection or knowledge of what it is he was supposed to have done. But by saying "I did it, I'm to blame, let me burn in hell." is to offer oneself as the scapegoat to the collective guilt of mankind. It wasn't the crime that shocked the nation in 1959, it was the willingness to claim responsibility for something he knew nothing about. Jacoby's narrative is searingly authentic, a work resulting from a personal vow to Agron who asked him to tell his story, a work of imaginative journalism, daring to reveal the inner workings of the mind of a man he knew so well. Yet it is also a timeless work on the eternal theme of human frailty, self-transformation and redemption in the midst of ruin. If you don1t read this book, the next time you face your metaphoric parole board, you will have nothing new to say and you will be sent back into the isolation hole to wait in darkness and despair, continuing to deny the collective sin that connects each and every one of us.
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Summary: A Journey
Review: In Conversations with the Capeman, Richard Jacoby brings to light with concise objectivity, and yet a fierce sense of empathetic compassion for his fellowman, the bizarre and wretched existence of Salvador Agron. Jacoby, through both letters and a personal observation of Agron during their twenty year relationship...takes his readers on a horrifying journey with the capeman. From the mean streets of New York's Spanish Harlem where he roamed 'till the age of sixteen as a mindless, illiterate young predator...throughout his twenty odd years where he experienced the entire cycle of hell in New York's prison system. From the initial empty minded rebel, to the well read psuedo-revolutionary, tutored by elders in Marx..Lenin..Mao..Franz Fanon, etc. ... to Jesus Christ for some sense of redemption, to homosexuality to fill the emptiness in a soul where nobody had ever truly lived. And finally, culminating in death shortly after his release from prison. Salvador Agron was never to know a serene existence. But as small miracles would have it, the dehumanization process was over, and somehow, I couldn't help but lay this book down with the feeling that the "Capemans" ultimate victim was, Salvador Agron.
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Summary: A MUST for any book-lover
Review: It is a MUST READ! It's the fabulous story that recounts Salvador Agron's life in prison, where he was, what happened to him and where he went and what his fate was after prison. The author actually went to Puerto Rico to see where Salvador grew up. This story brought me to tears on several occasions and learned about the treatment of prisoners, life behind bars, and how people are treated when released. Half of this book is written by Salvador himself with his writing, his poetry and an OP-ED piece he wrote for the New York Times. It is something that should not be missed out on.
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Summary: A compelling story
Review: It is a wonder how a book like this wasn't published before. To tell such a compelling story with such first hand information is the way it should have be done. Richard Jacoby, a friend Salvador Agron counted on, was as good as his word. He gave an account of Salvador's life that couldn't have been told by anyone else. Not always do we get to have inside information on a person, especially a convicted criminal, society doesn't allow that...Here we have it all, every account that needs to be said is written down, everything that you wanted to know about life in prison, and life on the street for a young man who really didn't have a chance in an era that was new to everyone. Good job Richard, definitely take a bow for this true to life book.
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Summary: finally!
Review: This book is long over due! Finally the world can see what Salvador's life was really like; how he suffered through abuse and opression, a victim of society's racism, hatred and neglect. I've had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Jacoby as well as Salvador's sister and they have worked so hard to get this story out there because it needed to be told whether or not it offended people. It does not disrespect the victims, it gives a rehabilitated man a voice for many who have gone through the same life. The musical was a nobel attempt on Paul Simon's behalf, but due to controversy and threats there was no way he could possibly include the kind of stories and ideas that Richard Jacoby includes in his brilliant work. This is a book that only comes once in a lifetime and it should be read by anyone who cares about the human soul and how it can be destroyed and reconstructed. Through his words we realize that redemption is truly in sight if one looks into another's soul.Bravo, Richard!
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Summary: Powerful
Review: This insightful, sensitively written book which brings to light Salvador Agron's life that was imprinted by race, sexual abuse and the condemnation of society gave me not only a new awareness of the criminal justice system, but of human redemption as well. Reading Conversations with the Capeman was a powerful eye-opening experience.
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Summary: A window into a life
Review: This moving account of Salvador Agron's life is almost impossible to put down. I look forward to sharing it with students. Though raw in places, it is a powerful cautionary tale for any teenager straying into dangerous territory. It is also a story about a boy our society let slip through the cracks.
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