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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential view from the inside looking out, April 24, 2001
This review is from: Undoing Time: American Prisoners in Their Own Words (Paperback)
Moving, heartbreaking, infuriating, disturbing: this anthology gives voice to those behind bars, giving context not only to their crimes, but also to their lives. Some writers are self-serving - celebrity "Preppie Murderer" Robert Chambers whines about the daily drone of prison life, mentioning the reason for his incarceration only in passing. Just when he is on the cusp of getting your sympathy, he is sabotaged by his narcissistic verbosity. More moving are childhood remembrances that start off with a Norman Rockwell glow, but turn into traumas that scar for life - a father's suicide, a mother's abandoning her children at a social worker's office... Editor Jeff Evans has done something that neither hang 'em high judges nor bleeding heart liberals have tried: he has given the supposed worst of our society back their humanity by giving them a forum. Whether you agree or disagree with what they say, their words from the inside give more understanding to our world on the outside...and where the two collide.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating anthology, July 15, 2001
This review is from: Undoing Time: American Prisoners in Their Own Words (Paperback)
This compassionate collection of prisoner autobiographies made me feel very sad in places, angry in others, hopeful and encouraged in still others. The accounts, like the prisoners who wrote them, are diverse: their tone varies from poetic and sublime to gruesome and shocking. Few, if any, are self-pitying. The editor seems to have taken great pains in selecting pieces that tell a different story about criminals' lives: how backgrounds (mostly horrific) aren't always to blame for their choices in life, how criminals *can* tell right from wrong, and how deeply sorry (but not always able to express that sorrow, and seldom encouraged to do so) many of these prisoners are for the damage they've done to others and to themselves. This is a fascinating, revealing read. Anyone who has any interest at all in prisoners' backgrounds, crime or criminals will relish this superb collection of autobiographical stories that editor Jeff Evans has compiled.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rare glimpses into the lives of America's human garbage, June 28, 2001
This review is from: Undoing Time: American Prisoners in Their Own Words (Paperback)
I met the author of this book recently at a reading/signing in Brooklyn, NY and asked him why he wrote it. He was careful to point out that it was a collaborative effort of nearly 40 people but that he was always interested in the personal histories of prisoners and just could never find a book on them. Indeed, this is the first time I've ever come across a book like this too. I'm always skeptical about anything prisoners have to say, but I was deeply affected by the stories of these prisoners' lives. They were honest-sounding and eye-opening, and the piece by William Skeans, in which he describes his own family as "white trash" was especially heartbreaking. One woman prisoner wrote about her father's suicide and, although her piece was short, it left me feeling as numb as the author after she saw her blood-spattered mother seated in the living room. Not all criminals are witnesses to violence, but as Jimmy Santiago Baca writes in his preface, "For most of these writers, their childhood environment consisted of dope fiends, alcoholics, or thieves who lied, cheated, stole and raped, plundering their innocence and any chance of a normal life. When this happens to you as a kid, it virtually guarantees you'll end up behind bars." These well-chosen autobiographical stories will live on in your mind and make you think seriously about the nature of crime and our unforgiving justice system.
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