Customer Reviews

Leaving Disneyland: A Novel

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"Leaving Disneyland", is a debut novel by Alexander Parsons. The book is extremely good first work, especially when the author has tackled an environment he has only read about. He gives appropriate credit to his source for the prison he creates, but if you have read works by true inmates you will be impressed with the authenticity he brings to his novel. It is easy to forget this is a work of fiction.

Doc Kane is the man we follow throughout the book. He is on the verge of a parole hearing that will likely lead to his release after 16 years. A new cellmate and some favors are all that stand in his way. Readers that would suggest this tale is cliché, and the questions it poses rhetorical, have not given the book a fair reading. The book is about much more than a man who faces the trials of possibly leaving prison, only to be tagged with an electronic band and monitored as closely outside of the penitentiary as he was within its walls.

The book for me was about the pervasiveness of the jail Doc Kane lives in. Whether inside a 5x9 cell, or walking the streets electronically tagged, he never regains his freedom. The Washington streets he returns to are populated by the same gangs, and the same equally fragile codes of honor that are as lethal while incarcerated or when he "freely" walks the streets. The daily prison routine is replaced by a parole officer, who has every bit as much control and power, to send him back to prison, as the guards in the penitentiary had to punish him.

Work is a condition of parole, but how high are the chances of employment when a job application is filled out? And even if a job is there how much does it differ in mindless routine from the one he left in prison? The friends of 16 years even if they too are paroled are off limits to him as a meeting would send him back inside.

And then there are his own perceived demons and they are every bit as real and problematic as any he has faced before. Virtually every diversion, which would be legal for him to enjoy, because of his parole are denied to him. The book is a great commentary on just what being let out of prison means for the vast majority of those who spend time there. This is not about a so-called, "Club Fed", where white-collar criminals worst issues are boredom and their loss of face in their former world. The latter is often not even at issue; just think about, "The Junk Bond King".

Mr. Parsons knows this world. I thank him for allowing me access to it. He's compassionate and honest in his prose.

Leaving Disneyland is a compelling novel on so many different levels. On a purely aesthetic dimension, it is a pleasure and a welcome challenge read - a pleasure because Parsons' writing is beautiful and confident, a challenge because his artful language provides careful clues to understanding his characters and the layered significance of his narrative. Parsons' characters are well-rendered and subtly portrayed - many of his secondary figures are so well-depicted that they seem to deserve a short novel of their own. His dialogue is paced, energetic, and consuming; you will become so engaged, so intimately connected with the conversations in this book, that you will often feel tense, even personally endangered. Finally, as a depiction of the experiences of life in prison and the difficulties of rehabilitation, Leaving Disneyland is masterfully researched and powerfully presented. Parsons' readers will leave Disneyland wiser, a little shaken, and hungry for more from this terrific new talent.

In his first book, Parsons tells the classic story of a long-incarcerated criminal who wins parole, only to find life as a "square john" has just as many pitfalls as a day negotiating prison. The first half of the book finds 50-something "Doc" Kane counting the weeks until his next parole hearing at Tyburn Pen in the Nevada desert. Tyburn is a fictional creation (Nevada does have a prison dating back to the Civil War, but it's not out in the desert, it's just outside Carson City), but the prose is so evocative that you can almost taste the grit of the sandstorms, feel the rumbling of the unstable desert, and smell the fetid stink of the creaky sewer system. It's about 1990 or so (based on a brief exchange about the Washington Redskins, and the general boom in crack trade), and Doc is on year 16 of a 20 year stretch for blowing away his son-in-law with a shotgun, after discovering his abuse of Doc's daughter. Although he's in prison for a quasi-noble act, he's no angel, having dealt heroin for many years on the mean streets of D.C. (Parsons explains that Kane is incarcerated way out West because D.C. doesn't have a Federal prison large enough to hold the requisite inmates, and they are dispersed throughout the Federal systemóa practice that makes family visits highly burdensome and could be construed as cruel and unusual).

Doc is one of those old-time heads, with a system for doing his time, protection from his fellow DC Black gang members, and wisdom for the youths. But when he gets a young new cellmate, things get tricky, since the cellmate killed a member of Doc's gang on the outside, and the victim's brother just happens to be one of Doc's crew. Doc is understandably torn between wanting to keep a low profile to make parole, and needing to respect the code of eye for an eye. (Here it appears Parsons may have taken a small liberty. As far as I understand, DC Blacks is solely a prison gang, and has no operations on the streets of DC or elsewhere.) The tension between parole and retribution is menacing, as Doc counts the days until his hearing. Once he makes it back to DC, he finds that the prison code of respect remains the defining force in Doc's life, as he ekes out a solitary existence, working at a McDonald's and reporting home every night for electronic monitoring. It's not hard to guess how his struggle to make it is going to turn out, as Parsons goes for realism over "Shawshank Redemption" style crowd-pleasing. Crack-era DC is somewhat generically portrayed, although a few scenes (at Dupont Circle and on U St.) capture the setting nicely.

For the most part, the book is excellent and Doc is a riveting character. His relationships with his fellow cons are quietly realistic, and his tentative attempts to relate to his McDonald's coworkers and his alcoholic landlady are heartbreaking. At times, Parsons gets a little too cute, such as having Doc be literally haunted by his past via "Dead Earl", a former associate or working in a glimpse of wild camels in the desert (another Civil War era legacy), or bones in the prison basement. It's a very strong portrait of the prison system and life in and out of it, but its a familiar one without any new insights.

This book is incredible. The author has taken on a scary subject and shown an uncanny compassion toward the plight of his character. Language that reminds me of Trumbo's letters and a protagonist who defies cliches. A solid world created by a solid newcomer. Good work!

I loved this book! It read very quickly, and I soon became engrossed in the details of Doc's life. At times this book was very funny, and at times harrowing. Moreover, Parsons shines a much-needed light on conditions in our nation's prisons. He must have done a lot of research because I really got the feeling he was telling it like it was. Good story, important subject: I highly recommend it.

This accessible and enjoyable novel is a fine debut by Mr. Parsons. I think I enjoyed the central character the most. He is well drawn, intelligent, and human--not at all one dimensional. Mr. Parsons writes vividly, plots ably, and has delivered a great first novel. I look forward to his second.

Doc Kane is in some ways fascinating and in other ways probably completely protypical of countless other prisoners who have committed a violent crime. We may presume that he came into this world with two strikes against him, with no real chance of ever truly succeeding in life, or even sticking to the straight and narrow. And yet, despite that, he has true elements of human decency and kindness in his heart, as much as, if not more so, than those among us who have not been burdened by all of his disadvantages. His never-ending struggle to allow the "good Doc" to prevail over his baser instincts is one of the fascinating elements of the story.

This struggle truly comes to the fore when he is out of prison and desparately trying--albeit not too successfully--to "fit in" with "regular" society. I was reminded of the similar battles that the Morgan Freeman character ("Red") went through after he was released from prison in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. However, unlike Red--who had a kind of guardian angel looking over him in the form of the Tim Robbins character--Doc has no one looking out for him. Thus, there can be no Hollywood ending of the sort found in The Shawshank Redemption. In any event, I certainly recommend the book.

Parsons knows the hard places and knows how to write them. He knows the truth of people, and he knows how to tell a story. LEAVING DISNEYLAND broke my heart and made me glad of it.

This is a remarkable novel. The psychological depth of the main character is extraordinary, and the writing is really clean and clear. The novel tells the story of a man imprisoned for attacking the man who attacked his daughter. Prison life is evoked in remarkable detail, and at the same time there's a sense of the mythic in Doc Kane's life. This is really fine serious novel. It is powerfully moving.