Couldn't Keep it to Myself Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters [Paperback]

Wally Lamb (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Reagan Books (2003)
• ASIN: B001OLOUR8
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

119 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Will be Totally Caught Up in these Incredible Stories, January 26, 2003

By 

Merry J Kimberley (Pinellas Park, FL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters (Hardcover)

As a reader interested in women's issues I expected to like this book, but I did not expect to be completely captivated and overcome by it, which is what actually happened. It is presented in such a compelling way you become absorbed by each inmate's story and exeriences. It is at the same time heart wrenching and informative. Some common threads run through the individual stories yet each is so unique you feel the pain of each individual story. Photographs of each writer, both past and present, help to make you feel a connection. I gained insight into cultures and lifestyles I knew nothing about and saw a part of life so realistically described that I felt I had been there myself. Wally Lamb did an extraordinary job putting this project together and the result is a book that I feel will benefit everyone and should be read by all.

104 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inmates are people first, prisoners second, February 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters (Hardcover)

This book has already caused a stir for all the wrong reasons. Various victims' rights groups have taken issue with this book for the following reasons: (a) that Wally Lamb would devote his time to, of all things, a group of criminals; and (b) that the stories in this book humanize their writers rather than focuses on the victims of their crimes. It is undisputed that the women who wrote these memoirs did a variety of illegal, immoral and awful things. However, if you read these stories, you will begin to wonder who the victims really are.

The women's stories are uniformly heartbreaking; nearly all the authors were victims of sexual abuse. Nearly all grew up poor. Nearly all had minimal or questionable parental support. And about half wrote about abusive romantic relationships. Several of the authors are in prison for killing their abusive spouse and/or significant other. While it was wrong for them to take their husband's lives, it is also understandable once you read their harrowing tales.

I was especially moved by Bonnie Foreshaw's "Faith, Power and Pants" and Diane Bartholomew's "Snapshots of my former life." Both went from unbearable childhoods to atrocious marriages. Both are clearly angry with a system that has failed them. Yet both write of finding hope despite all the indignities life has thrown at them. As a final indignity, Bartholomew developed cancer while writing her memoir. Only then was she paroled for the murder of her abusive husband. It is clear that she was only paroled because the State of Connecticutt did not want to pay her chemotherapy bills.

This book can be harrowing to read but it left me with a sense of hope. Beautiful women exist underneath the prison fatigues, who have survived despite the brutal conditions of the penitentiary system. Each story in this collection moved me in a different way. I can say that about very few books.

70 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wally Lamb is brilliant as an editor too, January 28, 2003

By 

Marge B. (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters (Hardcover)

I bought this book so I could read what a woman from my own community wrote. I expected to get through only her story the night I brought the book home with me. I'd already read other writings of hers, so I figured this woman's story would be a good read, which it was. After reading that one story, however, I read Mr. Lamb's intro - then I just couldn't stop reading. I read the entire book in one sitting!
In the past, especially being a social worker, I've read many stories about every possible life situation, but I have never read anything like this book. By the end of each story I felt a real sense of kinship and sisterhood with that story's author. I find it impossible to choose which is the most thought-provoking or well-written.
If this book is typical of Wally Lamb's ability to teach and to give of his heart, then I believe he is not only brilliant but the kind of mentor other incarcerated people need working with them. Thank goodness they couldn't keep it to themselves!