Snitch Factory

By Peter Plate

Amid a background of bank robberies and fatal gunshot wounds, the real drama here is bureaucratic and human. In her response to the adversity all around her, Peter Plate's Charlene Hassler, a social worker at the huge, anthill-like Department of Social Services complex on San Francisco's Otis Street, is a literary tour de force. Straight out of Dante's Inferno, Plate's DSS is an eternal holding pen of unfulfilled needs and desires. Charlene is under investigation, and snitches are everywhere. A co-worker is murdered. Charlene's boss and former mentor spends amorous afternoons with her arch-enemy. The custodian burglarizes her desk, then shoots her in the knee after he imagines she's ratted on him. As the anger and chaos at DSS reach epic proportions, we witness the strange heroism of Charlene's coworkers when they foil a hold-up; her boss's real vulnerability after a suicide attempt; and Charlene herself triumphantly winning her personal battle for romance in this true human comedy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583222588
• ISBN13: 9781583222584
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Real Stuff

As a person who has been through the rigors of state assistance, I found this story of little lives fascinating. That is not to say that much happens in the book, just like not much happens in the lives of those stuck in that rut. Yet the humor, humanity, and atmosphere of the story pulls you through its pages pleasurably. It is a stark reality; Plate is showing us another side of life that has it's own antiheroes. Innovative & Highly recommended

One of Plate's strongest books.

Peter Plate discribes the daily downside to life so well that most readers will find themselves depressed and finished reading the book before they know what happened to them. He draws you through the chaotic, often violent life of a social worker in California with great understanding and absolutely no mecry. This book is not for the politcally faint of heart.