The 25th Hour

Rating:
Summary: A fast-paced, exciting read
Review: Wow. This guy's got talent. You can tell the author spent a lot of time in NYC, and probably did a hitch at Otisville, too. Monty is so true-to-life, and I am still having nightmares about Uncle Blue. This book is gripping. I guess Benioff must be a first-time author -- I can't find anything else by him, but I'd snap it up in a minute if I could.

Rating:
Summary: Publishers Weekly November 20, 2000
Review: In 24 hours, handsome 27-year old drug dealer Monty Brogan will enter Otisville Federal Prison to do seven years hard time. His father wants him to run. His drug-lord boss, Uncle Blue, wants to know if he squealed. His girldfriend isn't sure what she wants, and his two best friends know one thing for sure: after he goes in, he will never be the same. In this character driven crime novel, first-time novelist Benioff dazzles with a spell-binding portrait of three high school buddies confronting the consequences of their carefree youth on the streets of New York. Monty really wanted to be a fireman, but fell in love with "sway," the deference afforded a young man with important connections. For the past five years, he's been selling drugs for Uncle Blue in Manhattan, to moneyed and celebrity clients. His pal, maverick bond trader Frank Slattery, thirsts for serenity, but dreams of avenging old wrongs while fighting his covert lust for Monty's Puerto Rican girlfriend. Despite Monty's dismal future, shy Jakob Elinsky, an ethical, awkward high school English teacher, envies his friend's self-assurance with women as he struggles to control his own secret hunger for a talented writing student, 17 year-old Mary D'Annunzio. The three friends spend one last night together dancing and drinking at Uncle Blue's nightclub. Brillantly conceived, this gripping crime drama boasts dead-on dialogue, chiaroscuro portraits of New York's social strata and an inescapable crescendo of tension. Monty's solution to his agonizing dilemmas will shock even hardened suspense lovers.

Rating:
Summary: Character study with no real conflict
Review: The lead character, Monty Brogan, is a drug dealer sentenced to seven years in prison. Out on bail, he spends his last full day of freedom contemplating his life, his failures, attending a going away party for himself at a swanky nightclub, saying goodbye to his friends, and facing the drug dealer who believes Monty may have ratted him out. This character study is well-written, and all the characters--even the minor ones--are well drawn and true to life. David Benioff really captures the feel of New York City, the cold of a NY winter, the physical and emotional beating all the characters take (Benioff switches character POV chapter to chapter). But if you're expecting something exciting to happen, don't hold your breath. This is a character study, and frankly half-way through the book I was wondering when something would happen. There really isn't any conflict to speak off--except for maybe whether Monty will turn himself in at the end or not. If you go in to this book just expecting to know some characters deeply, be a part of their lives for 24 hours, share their history, unfulfilled dreams, and inside jokes then you will be fine.

Rating:
Summary: Character development in the backdrop of NYC
Review: The 25th Hour delves the reader into not only the world of a "convict soon to be", but into a rich character study as we meet and focus on the significant persons in Monty's life. For me, a major portion of the character study was New York itself, which in my opinion is one of the defining characters of The 25th Hour. Each character is brought to life in a unique way and is memorialized not only in Monty's mind, but the reader's as well.These persons seem to come to life in the backdrop of New York City. I found myself going back and re-reading and actually thinking through the principle charcaters in the book. I am not a big fan of sequel books, but I am very intrigued and would be so very interested in Monty's post-prison experience.It would be fascinating to pick up the character development as well as the story line.This was an excellent novel and I recommend it to the reader who gets absorbed and lost in character development.

Rating:
Summary: 3 Old Pals Roll Thru NYC in 24 Snowy Hours......
Review: First, the bond trader who's just made a killing for going against the conventional wisdom about the forthcoming unemployment report. Second, the very frustrated private school English teacher, who earns about 3.3% of the aforementioned bond trader.Third, the movie star handsome lady's man who got into drug dealing when young, and through a snipper has 24 hours left before heading to a 7 year federal prison term. We meet the local Ukrianian mafia, some shady club owners, a brainy & foxy high schooler, and many other well drawn, realistic characters crusing through this wintry 24-hour NYC scene. Near perfect, especially for a first novel, and the ending is actually borderline beautiful as our drug dealing anti-hero has to finally decide what to do with his young life.

Rating:
Summary: SAD
Review: This is a story about sad individuals and their sad lives. They have no redeeming values whatsoever. A waste of time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Left me feeling flat
Review: THE 25TH HOUR is exremely well written but it suffers from the all-too-frequent malady of the character-driven novel: nothing much happens. The story revolves around a drug dealer who has been convected in federal court and is living out his last 24 hours of freedom before he must report to prison. So he gets together with his dog, his father, his two best friends, his girlfriend and some of his drug-dealing cohorts to -- Well, there really is no appropriate way to mark such an occasion, is there?

Along the way, we learn about his life, his friends' lives, his girlfriend, how he rescued his dog -- all the things that make us interested in these people. But the problem is that they don't do much of anything. It seems like they're all on the verge of making some momentous change, of somehow steering their lives -- which have all gone off track; they don't know how -- back in the right direction. The teacher is going to shrug off his paralysis and grab a little gusto. The workaholic investment banker is going to figure out what's really important. The drug dealer -- who of course the reader likes despite his profession -- is going to hatch a plan for getting out of going to prison.

But none of this stuff quite happens; it just almost does. Even at the end, as the drug dealer is riding with his father toward prison and his father suggests taking a wrong turn and he imagines the life he might have if he were to run -- even then he doesn't really do it. Or maybe he does. We never know. This novel was a good read, but it left me frustrated and unsatisfied, and wondering how in the hell they found enough action in it to make a movie out of it.

Rating:
Summary: Not impressive
Review: I read this book after having seen the movie and I'l say that this is one of two books where the movie was better. Benniof's characters were more musing and thoughtful than they were complex. There wasn't much of a conflict for the Monty especially. He was so aloof it was disturbing. I didn't feel that he was tortured enough. I didn't even get the sense that he was really all that cool, which is the impression it seems Benniof wants to give. Monty just seems lazy and detatched from the lives of everyone around him. While there are refernces to things that seem to have had an impact on his life in huge ways (e.g. his father's being an alchoholic) these things just seem to be filler to keep the story moving another few inches. This is not a terrible book though. It's just not outstanding.