God of the Rodeo: The Search for Hope, Faith, and a Six-Second Ride in Louisiana's Angola Prison - Hardcover

Bergner, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609601059 ISBN 13: 9780609601051

Publisher: Crown Pub, 1998

Synopsis

Traces a year in the lives of six convicts at Louisiana's most fearsome maximum security prison, revealing both the brutality of their lives and the human emotions that surface as they compete in the annual prison rodeo. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

<b>Daniel Bergner</b> is a journalist and author of the novel <i>Moments of Favor.</i> He lives with his wife and two children in New York City.

From the Inside Flap

had Daniel Bergner seen a spectacle as bizarre as the one he had come to watch that Sunday in October. Murderers, rapists, and armed robbers were competing in the annual rodeo at Angola, the grim maximum-security penitentiary in Louisiana. The convicts, sentenced to life without parole, were thrown, trampled, and gored by bucking bulls and broncos before thousands of cheering spectators. But amid the brutality of this gladiatorial spectacle Bergner caught surprising glimpses of exaltation, hints of triumphant skill.<br><br>The incongruity of seeing hope where one would expect only hopelessness, self-control in men who were there because they'd had none, sparked an urgent quest in him. Having gained unlimited and unmonitored access, Bergner spent an unflinching year inside the harsh world of Angola. He forged relationships with seven prisoners who left an indelible impression on him. There's Johnny Brooks, seemingly a latter-day Stepin Fetchit, who, while washing the warden's car, longs to be a

Edition details

• Publisher: Crown Pub
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0609601059
• ISBN 13: 9780609601051
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 297