Metal Beer Horror

(New Jersy) January 2008

A REBEL LIFE: Murder By The Rich
Written by Peter Kalafalis
Published by All Or None Press, January 2007
168 Pages, First Edition

Dave Wolff from AUTOEROTICASPHYXIUM ZINE had sent me a message through MySpace a while ago, asking me if he had sent me a copy of something called "A Rebel Life". I didn't know what the hell he was talking about, thinking it was something related to the death of DAMAGEPLAN / former PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbot. I honestly had no idea what he was talking about, but I felt something creep into my gullet and start to choke me, thinking that it was some sort of tribute cd with terrible bands doing terrible versions of terrible PANTERA songs "in tribute" to the fallen guitarist. Little did I know that it was a book, thinking to myself "Great...now I gotta read about this terrible guys terrible death" and not thinking anything more of it.

To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement as the book I recieved had absolutley NOTHING to do with what my original perception was. No...this was something different...something more fierce, yet still loaded with deep heartfelt emotion and even a bit of educational value. What I recieved was a book with meaning , substance, and a message which we all should heed and take to heart.

"A Rebel Life : Murder By The Rich" is the true life story of author Peter Kalafalis, his younger brother Archie, and all of the shit that they dealt with which led to rather tragic and unfortunate events in their lives which culminated in Archie's death from a drug overdose which, the author feels, was indirectly caused by "the system" which keeps the rich content and the masses (aka: the middle class and the poor) under their thumbs. His anger at "the system" came from him watching his parents (Greek immigrants) toil for people who, he felt, were keeping his parents down and were slowly killing their vision of the american dream day after day. At the age of sixteen, he hit the streets of New York City and fell into a life of hardcore punk rock music, drug abuse, and violence for the sake of violence as a way to rebel against his parents and "the system" which they had , unwittingly, become pawns in...a "system" which he wanted absolutley no part of.

Ten years later (and after having his younger brother, Archie, follow in his footsteps), he decided that he had enough of the nihilism and decided to join "the system", leaving his former life behind him. While Peter left his life behind to become a part of a system which he passionatley hated, his brother stayed behind and ultimatley paid the price for his refusal to bend and conform to a system which he felt he had no use for while his older brother caved in to it. The refusal to leave everything behind is what Kalafalis blames his brothers death on. Kalafalis also expresses his own remorse, feeling that if he didn't do what he had done his brother might still be living today.

In reading the book, you can tell that the author is being genuine, sincere, and "real"...this is not a work of fiction, created for the sole purpose of "entertainment". This WAS Kalafalis's life...NY Hardcore, pointless nihilism, misplaced anger, drug abuse...everything you read here happened, but is written in a way to seem like it is a work of fiction. THAT is what makes his story so engrossing. You can tell that it is personal and that his story is both heartfelt and remorseful. Kalafalis never comes off as seeming like he is fake or phony. Despite the political substance of the book (the class struggle between the middle class and the poor who the rich use to acquire more wealth while giving nothing back to those who truly work for everything) it seems like he doesn't neccesarilly preach to the reader, either. His writing style has alot to do with it.

He paints portraits with his words that make the reader feel more like they are observing the events that take place instead of being placed as an outsider or being told how to view his world. I felt more like I was a fly on a wall, watching everthing going on firsthand, instead of feeling like I was reading a book. Kalafalis has a very "visual" style of writing...almost cinematic in a strange sense. This is the kind of story I could imagine a young Martin Scorsese making into a film...almost like a modernized, semi-political "Mean Streets". The words he carefully uses to paint his backgrounds for the events which take place here is marvelous and truly shows Kalafalis as someone who really took his time writing this book instead of just throwing something together in a haphazard way and saying "here's my story". His descriptions of events and places are never glamorous or pretty because the events and places weren't glamorous or pretty. This is raw and dirty reality...none of his actions are ever glorified and it never seems like he is patting himself on the back or celebratory in his actions.

When he describes his feelings is when the book is at its apex mainly because he doesn't resort to the literary trick of "well I did that, BUT...". NO! Nothing is ever justified or explained to put a happy ending on a bad situation and it's this honesty with himself and the readers which is what keeps the reader enthralled in this seedy slice of life that Kalafalis has carved out for us. You can feel his remorse, blaming himself almost as much as "the system" for the passing of his brother, and it stays with the reader until the end of the book. It is because of this that the book is a success...it would be easy to just say "well, "they" did this to my brother" and leave it at that. The fact that Kalafalis takes so much of the blame (after all, if he didn't leave in the first place, none of this probably would have happened) makes him truly human and makes this book the page-turner that it is.

Kalafalis is clearly wearing his heart on his sleeve here, angry at a system designed to keep the working class down, yet smart enough to realize that nothing is going to change any time soon ("blood for blood" is what they WANT us to perpetuate, so he refuses to give into the simple solution of bloodlust) unless there is a true revolution where we, as a society, tear "the system" down only to build it all back up again and use "the system" as a level playing field for all involved within it.

The political leanings on display here are typical for many of todays youth who are confused about where they stand in life and what their personal internal politics are and what they should be instead of what they being told they should be. When I was sixteen years old, I kind of felt like I was in the same boat as Kalafalis was...emotionally confused and not seeing an end to the problems around me because I was too blind to realize the simplest of truths. I believed in the same things that Kalafalis says that HE believed in...anarchy, misguided politics, confusion and misplaced conflict, mindless agression and hatred, so I can relate even more to the story because when I was at the age Kalafalis starts this book at I wasn't much different in my way of thinking and seeing the world.

I know I'm not a smart enough man or a good enough writer / critic to give this book the praise that it truly deserves, and I'm not enough of a reader to really compare this with much else that I have read in my life. Having said that, Kalafalis's book is a triumph in every sense of the word. It's a parable about the dangers of drugs, it's a call to arms for the working class to band together and face the real enemy in all of its more insidious forms. It is also telling the reader that there is hope for all of us to break the system and life the kind of free life which we are all entitled to through the rite of birth. Most of all...this is a tribute to a life which many people who spew out hackneyed "fuck the system" kind of bullshit don't have the balls to live for themselves. In the words of the author...

"Live as a true individual and change the world"