Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Matthew Parker's "Larceny in My Blood," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Larceny in My Blood: A Memoir of Heroin, Handcuffs, and Higher Education by Matthew Parker.

The entry begins:
There are a several reasons why I’d choose Sean Penn to play me in a film of my book.

First off is we are close in age, both of us being born in 1960. Penn is also, like myself, a natural-born iconoclast, and often portrays such characters in film; from the perpetually stoned Jeff Spicoli in the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High to his Oscar-winning portrayal of in-your-face gay activist Harvey Milk in the critically acclaimed 2008 film Milk.

But his performance in the 1985 film The Falcon and the Snowman is the most analogous with me and my book. In the film Penn plays drug addict and larceny opportunist Andrew Daulton Lee who, with the help of childhood friend Christopher Boyce, went from part time dealer and smuggler (hence his moniker “the Snowman”) to espionage in an effort to support his habit. Lee was given life in prison for his crime. After serving 22 years, he made parole and is now out and working as Sean Penn’s personal assistant, in tune with the rehabilitative power of art and creativity which is a major theme in my book.

But perhaps the most striking parallel is that I was in prison with Lee in 1988 and 1989. It was in the medium security Federal Correctional Institution located...[read on]
Learn more about Larceny in My Blood at the publisher's website, and visit the Larceny in My Blood Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Larceny in My Blood.

My Book, The Movie: Larceny in My Blood.

--Marshal Zeringue