Carlito's Way/ After Hours

Carlito's Way/ After Hours
by Edwin Torres



(please note that these books were authored by Judge Edwin Torres, not bad poet Edwin Torres)

Turned into the not-so-bad (but totally overshadowed by Al Pacino's other Hispanic drug dealer performance in Scarface) film, these are some of the best written crime novels I've ever read. Told in Carlito Brigante's idiot savant patter, the books create a likeable character who lives by his balls and damn everything else. Often funny, sometimes sad, it is remarkable that these novels about a Puerto Rican drug dealer were written by a sitting judge. The language is Spanglish mixed with jive (there's an invaluable glossary in the back) and is a clear root for James Ellroy's style. Why these books have faded into obscurity is beyond me.