In the Belly of the Beast
Cover of the paperback edition
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| Author | Jack Henry Abbott |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Prison life |
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Publication date
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1981 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 23020567 |
| 365/.44/092 B 20 | |
| LC Class | HV9468.A22 A37 1991 |
| Followed by | My Return |
In the Belly of the Beast is a book written by Jack Abbott and published in 1981.
Jack Abbott was an American prisoner and the book consists of his letters to Norman Mailer about his experiences in what Abbott saw as a brutal and unjust prison system. Mailer supported Abbott's successful bid for parole in 1981, the year that In the Belly of the Beast was published.
The book was very successful, and on July 19, 1981, the New York Times published a rave review of it. However, the day before, Abbott had killed a waiter during a row at a restaurant called Binibon on 2nd Avenue in the East Village. Abbott was eventually arrested, convicted of manslaughter, and returned to prison for the rest of his life until his suicide in 2002.
In 2004, a New York City theatre company ran a play based on the book, named In the Belly of the Beast Revisited.
The book has no organizing principle of chronology, nor is it constructed along conventional tale-telling lines. Instead, it has an Introduction by Mailer, a Foreword, and twelve chapters. Each chapter bears a title that labels the chapter's content; the text consists of excerpts on the subject, extracted from Abbott's letters to Mailer. The chapters do not cleave cleanly into discrete matter; there is a lot of overlap in subject matter. Erroll McDonald, a Random House editor, was the organizer.
Portions of Belly of the Beast were used in the film Shambondama Elegy' (a.k.a. Tokyo Elegy) by Ian Kerkhof.
The Australian movie Ghosts… of the Civil Dead, directed by John Hillcoat, was largely influenced by In Belly of the Beast. Hillcoat had corresponded with Abbott after his return to incarceration. One of the movie's co-authors, Nick Cave, was also inspired when writing the song "Jack's Shadow".
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