In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir (P.S.) [Paperback]

Neil White (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 1, 2010 | Series: P.S.

"A remarkable story of a young man's loss of everything he deemed important, and his ultimate discovery that redemption can be taught by society's most dreaded outcasts." —John Grisham

"Hilarious, astonishing, and deeply moving." —John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

The emotional, incredible true story of Neil White, a man who discovers the secret to happiness, leading a fulfilling life, and the importance of fatherhood in the most unlikely of places—the last leper colony in the continental United States. In the words of Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler (A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain), White is “a splendid writer,” and In the Sanctuary of Outcasts “a book that will endure.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following conviction for bank fraud, White spent a year in a minimum-security prison in Carville, La., housed in the last leper colony in mainland America. His fascinating memoir reflects on the sizable group of lepers living alongside the prisoners, social outcasts among the motley inmate crew of drug dealers, mob types and killers. Narrating in colorful, entertaining snapshots, White introduces the reader to an excellent supporting cast in his imprisonment: Father Reynolds, the peerless spiritual monk; Mr. Flowers, the no-nonsense case manager; Anne, the sorrowful mother with leprosy whose baby was taken from her arms; and Ella the Earth Mother, with wisdom to spare. Brisk, ironic and perceptive, White's introspective memoir puts a magnifying glass to a flawed life, revealing that all of life is to be savored and respected. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* White was a successful magazine publisher in 1993 when he was convicted of fraud and check kiting and sentenced to prison in Carville, Louisiana. He knew he was facing 18 months without his wife and two young children; he knew his enormous ego and ambition had landed him in prison; he knew he had to figure out a way to save his marriage and somehow rebound financially. What he didn’t know was that the isolated 100-year-old facility at Carville was home to a leper colony of 130 patients. He learned that the patients (some severely disfigured and disabled) and the 250 inmates eyed each other suspiciously across the corridors and breezeway, each thinking the other was the scourge of the earth. Because his work detail brought him into frequent contact with the patients, White developed strong relationships with them. His favorite was Ella, a dignified and beatific elderly black woman, who had lived at Carville for more than 50 years. Among the inmates, White encountered counterfeiters and tax evaders along with drug traffickers and carjackers. When the Bureau of Prisons decided to evict the leprosy patients, tensions built on both sides. White, near the end of his sentence and struggling to come to grips with the consequences of his crime, is caught in the middle. He offers a memoir of personal transformation and a thoroughly engaging look at the social, economic, racial, and other barriers that separate individuals that harden, dissolve, and reconfigure themselves when people are involuntarily thrust together over long periods. --Vanessa Bush --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; 1 Reprint edition (June 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061351636
• ISBN-13: 978-0061351631
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (160 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Crime & Criminals

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars For A Great Read, You Can't Touch It... May 25, 2009

By Carter Hooper

Format:Hardcover

Wonderful, interesting, lively and surprisingly moving account of Mr. White's time as a prisoner served at the leprosarium in Carrville, LA. Haven't met a cast of characters this colorful since Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil. Lively, extremely interesting not only for the info about leprosy and the weird circumstances that brought a federal prison and a leprosarium together, but also a sweet accounting of Mr. White's personal trials, discoveries and eventual redemption. It's a first-class page turner.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tale So Unbelievable It Could Only Be True June 4, 2009

By John Werner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

An educated white collar family man ends up a convicted criminal because of criminal behavior...Sadly, this is hardly remarkable. When said man ends up in a federal prison inside the United States first and last national leprosarium, The Carville Federal Medical Facility, well, it is not only remarkable, but quite unbelievable. The life of Neil White took just such a turn and "In the Sanctuary of Outcasts" chronicles that journey. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction.

Neil White was guilty before he ever had a criminal lapse. Guilty of idealism, arrogance, and materialism all of which, unbridled, fatally clouded his judgment. In the end those traits, and a few others, contributed to not one, but two collapsed businesses-each involving criminal activity - the last being of such a magnitude prosecution was guaranteed.

So the real journey begins when Neil's father drops him off at what he assumes is a minimum security federal penitentiary. When Neil realizes he is among the last segregated group of Americans with leprosy he feels as if he has stepped into a nightmare. Locked down among criminals in a leper colony and made to do menial labor for outcasts so isolated they literally no longer exist in the world Neil knew. Plus, he is surrounded by an odd assortment of criminals, which he is now one, who have been deemed of less value than lepers. Could it get worse? It did as Neil soon learned his wife was dissolving their marriage. Somehow through all of this Neil must seek to mend his own broken self and find redemption of his past and a meaningful path for his future.

In all of the darkness outlined above there lies a truly remarkable story. As things formerly held so dear are removed, Neil begins to see that which really does hold meaning. Thankfully there is a full cast of colorful characters, both afflicted with leprosy as well as those who appear courtesy of their criminal tendencies. These become some of the most important relationships as Neil navigates his own self discovery. He learns no man is an island; no man's value is measured in dollars, in titles, or even business accomplishments. Real value in life comes only through serving your fellowman and vice-versa.

I realize the story I've outlined is in many ways a cliché' in that man loses way, man goes to prison, man finds way...But, trust me this isn't that at all. It's so much more as it will likely touch and affect you in a much more personal way. I really loved this book. I simply couldn't put it down and since reading it I have been constantly revisiting how I might summon some of Ella's strength and grace. Read it and you'll know what I'm getting at. Highly recommended.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A well written and meaningful memoir of the author's time in a minimum security prision May 31, 2009

By Jojoleb TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

"In the Sanctuary of Outcasts" is Neil White's bittersweet memoir about serving time in Carville Prison in the late 1990s. Carville prison was no ordinary, white-collar penitentiary; it was also the last leprosarium ("leper colony") in the United States. Sentenced for kiting checks, White has to overcome the humiliation of his conviction, guilt for betraying friends and family, his crumbling marriage, and his initial revulsion of the patients suffering from leprosy.

Quite surprisingly, White finds a certain solace in this place. Although he initially believes that he is a cut above the other inmates, he realizes that he has far more in common with his fellow convicts than he previously believed. He also develops close relationships with the leprosy patients who help him through the hard times and whose inner strength give White the courage to look inside himself and the courage to ask for forgiveness.

White is able to convey his story effectively. He evocatively describes his life at Carville and the reader has no difficulty imagining what it was like to be there. He describes his fellow inmates and the patients with leprosy with compassion, humor, and dignity. He convincingly tells us how his time in prison transformed him, how he becomes a better person because of this experience.

White is a storyteller. He doesn't dwell on the philosophical. His revelations come through stories and we are able to see White through his own eyes and through his interactions with his fellow inmates, the patients, and his family. This makes the book as easy to read as it is meaningful.

One caveat, of course, is that the book is written solely from White's point of view. Although he seems truly repentant throughout the narrative and in his acknowledgments, his crime involved prolonged amounts of deception. I would certainly hope that the book is less about spin and more about catharsis for White, but this would be impossible to discern. Either way, the book is both moving and meaningful for the reader.

White is not beyond brazenly throwing in a literary reference. It is hard to overlook the fact that the title that shares both syllables and a certain assonance with "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. White mentions this book by name, as a book that was confiscated from him on entry to Carville. I am no literary critic, but Toole's book deals with some hard-hitting themes such powerlessness in the face of fate, legalized slavery, the crumbling of the Protestant work ethic, and the elusiveness of the American Dream. All of these are relevant to White's situation, of course, but the reference does little more than add a bit of ironic poetry to the title.

All in all, this is a well written, meaningful, and rewarding book to read. I highly recommend it.