What Is Real: The Life and Crimes of Darnell Riley - Softcover

"There's no longer a need to commit crime in order to feel what it's like to be inside the California prison system. Just read this book. Dude tells it like it is. Almost too well." --Scott Caan, actor and author of The Performance of Heartbreak ..".[What Is Real] takes readers on a journey to the dark side of both prison life and human nature. A disturbingly honest memoir." --Kirkus Reviews "I followed his case in 2005 like most -less informed about who the man was, than the crimes he was accused of committing. Riley pulls back the curtains and reveals the last piece of that puzzle - himself. In What Is Real? Riley writes about his journey as a convicted man, which ultimately serves as an examination of himself and we are witnesses to which version of himself emerges. Who would've thought the real story begins after the hammer falls." --Rob Weiss, Writer/Executive Producer of Entourage, How to Make It in America, and Ballers. "Eloquent, brutal, honest, and remarkably warm for such a coldblooded story. Don't start reading this book on a weeknight. You won't put it down!" --Michael Corrente, writer and director of Federal Hill and American Buffalo "Riveting, bleak, morbidly funny and enraging, What Is Real takes us through the slow burn hell of prison and along the way elevates and shatters the prison narrative." --Peter Conti, author of Gringo, Murderers Anonymous, and House Arrest "This beautifully written tale of an ugly, psychologically, and spiritually torturous experience, is a shining example of a poetic mind operating in the most nightmarish of circumstances. To paraphrase Camus: In the midst of winter, Riley Perez found there was, within him, an invincible summer." --James Acheson, Producer of Godfather of Harlem, Mad Money, and Journey To The End of The Night

On January 22, 2004, Darnell Riley broke into the home of Girls Gone Wild founder, Joe Francis. Throughout the night he filmed a blackmail video, and arrange for payment so that the video didn't go viral. What Is Real: The Life and Crimes of Darnell Riley explores the nine years he spent in the custody of California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. On his journey from facility to facility, we see how Riley had to adjust to the reality that the rules inside the walls are not perfect, but if followed, they would allow you to survive. From county lock up to the historically violent Corcoran State Prison, where he shared facilities with Charles Manson and the gang leaders whose influence extend beyond the confines of the walls, the author confronts the question of which version of himself is real--the young, mild-mannered kid from Los Angeles, known to his friends and family as Riley Perez, or the man who pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted extortion, known to the State of California as Darnell Riley. With neither self-pity nor self-aggrandizement, this memoir takes a cold hard look at a life of crime, the toll it takes, the reality of life inside California's prisons, and the price paid by an inmate's friends, family, and loved ones.