Customer Reviews

Wilderness and Razor Wire

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I have a certain fascination with prisons. They are the most ferocious test of the human spirit, a contemporary apocalyptic vision. One could hardly imagine any sort of wilderness connected to it, but Ken Lamberton not only finds the wilderness in the prison but makes us believe that it can be anywhere.

Lamberton is a tragic figure. An award-winning biology teacher shortly before he ran away with an underage student, he writes from a prison in an Arizona desert. Exquisite sketches accompany his beautifully written, yet never flighty, essays. There is just the right mix of physical description and the spirit behind the wildlife to make it worth reading as nature writing alone. But more than that is the unique frame from which he writes: the concrete walls, the wire fences, the harsh company of inmates and guards. Desperation pervades his words, yet even as he lays bare his soul to reveal this to us, he also shows us the spirit and connectedness that is possible from even the meanest of situations.

What is life really about? Prison has taught Lamberton important lessons that he transmits to us. After the extraneous is culled out, the wilderness without and the wilderness within, and the relationships in life, are all that truly matter. And yet the simplicity is deceptive, for there are infinite worlds of detail, and infinite heights and depths of emotion, in the wilderness, and in its violation. Lamberton's crime and his passion for the wilderness intertwine so well, that one can imagine one's own life-triumphs and tragedies all-portrayed, in metaphor, in the wild.

Early reviews dwelled on the fact that Ken Lamberton has written this book from prison. Obviously his incarceration has provided him with an observation point that is foreign to most of us.

But, in my view, the quality of his writing has yet to be given its due. Here is a lyrical voice that unfolds the wonders of the desert in a fresh and wondrous way. The rythmn of his writing reminds me of Cormac McCarthy--certainly good company to be in!

To see the universe in a grain of sand...to see infinity in an instant...and to see nature in a prison. The first two have been contemplated by philosophers and laymen alike for years. Now Ken Lamberton brings us his insights on the third.

In honesty I only bought the book because I had known the author in the time leading up to his incarseration and wasn't even sure if I would read the whole thing. I wound up reading it twice. The perspective is unique and the insights are thoughtful.

As a transplanted Arizonan the descriptions of the desert of southern Arizona brought back wonderful memories for me as did the tremendous illustrations.

As we get pushed further from nature this book is a wonderful reminder that even in the harshest most 'un-natural' environments we are never very far from the wild wonderfull natural world - we just sometimes have to look a little harder.

Ken Lamberton, also referred to Mr. Lamberton to many thirty-somethings in Arizona, was caught for doing something many other instructors have done before and will do again. In this book, Lamberton teaches us lessons of nature, and yet also seems to share important lessons of life. This is the way he was in the classroom and he still has that gift today. This book is perhaps more meaningful to those of us who actually sat under him as students and still respect him in adulthood. Reading this book brought back many memories of basic science lessons where Mr. Lamberton actually took us out of the classroom and into real nature. He has us imagine and look at nature in a different way - a more appreciative way. There were tests for us back then, but none like the test his family went through - and survived.

Buddhists say that wisdom, at least a form of it, comes to those who gain access to a plane of imagining beyond hope and hopelessness. To be able to see clearly, witness openly and without prejudice, is to enter this imagining. To be able to see for seeing's sake.

"Wilderness and Razor Wire" is an opus and an opera of seeing. Written during the author's twelve years of incaceration in the Arizona State Prison, the essays in this book focus the eye and the ear, sense of scent and touch, on the fragile bits of wildness which entered prison cell and corridor, walkway and window. The heat of the desert, the gaze of the owl, the aroma of spring's bounty of flowers in a barren place, inside a landscape seen as barren, but isn't, are beautiful, and defiant. This is a book to read when contemplating, to borrow from Bill McKibben, The End of Nature. The only end of nature, the book implies, is when we stop looking for and imagining it.
This is a triumphant book.

My sister who lives in Arizona heard about Ken's book in the newspaper and after reading it, she was certain that I would like it as well.

She was right. I read the book in several sittings. One of the reasons that it meant so much to me was because about 20 years ago, I took a 28 day survival class for one of my college credits. The experience took place in the southern desert of Utah. I learned to love and appreciate the desert. Ken has the words and the artistry to describe many of the things that I felt and experienced from participating in that Wilderness.

I also have a fascination for the prison system and how it changes a person's life. As Ken pointed out, prison certainly cannot be defined as rehabilitation. I like how he described the issue of doing time and how it weighed so heavily on his soul. He used his education and knowledge of the environment to lighten the burden of being in prison for 12 years. It was his escape and through his words he allowed us to escape with him.

Lamberton's book, a literary work indeed! I am fishing for a word to describe it and the emotion it conveyed to me, but I cannot find a good word. It is a book filled with beauty and brokenness, arrogance and repentance, reel love and real love. It really is a story of the human condition, trying to walk a ridge line and not falling into the abyss. Some of us fall into the abyss due to our own stupidity and get caught up in all kinds of trouble for violating some cultural rules scripted as law. (Had Ken been in Kenya among the Luo people, the age of 14 is just right for marrying and he could have had as many wives as he could afford.) Others fall into the abyss due to illness which can be equally devastating. Still others would rather take their life on the ridge line before falling.

When someone takes a serous fall and survives it may take years for them to recover and all too often those who witness the fall are not there at the time of recovery. Karen, Ken's wife, was always there. An impressive part of this book is the story of a remarkable wife with her three children, committed to an intellegent man. She believed her love would return and again light up her life!

I read this book for a class. It was interesting. You could tell that he wasn't a professional writer but tying the nature to the prison was interesting. His crime sort of bothers you in the beginning but, you get over it. I actually met the guy who wrote this book a while ago. He was pretty interesting. Overall if you are interested in nature and prisons this is probably a good one for you to read.

There are amazing aspects to the book. The observations about the desert landscape are amazing, the the drawing are wonderful but the insight into one man's way of doing time is the most amazing.

I have been a prison volunteer for fourteen years and know that probably the worst thing about prison is the lost of hope. The author learned many things about himself but it was amazing that he found hope. I think all inmates and most prison volunteers would rate prison time as ell, so Ken Lamberton truly found hope in hell.

I am looking forward to reading Lamberton's other writings.

My sister who lives in Arizona told me about this book after reading about it in the newspaper. She knew I had gained a great appreciation for the Desert after completing a 28 day survival trip in the southern desert of Utah about 20 years ago. Ken's book allowed me to regain some of the senses and feelings that I experienced while living in a world that has such a lack of appreciation. He certainly has an artistry for words that captured many of the experiences and emotions that were mine during those 28 days. I also have a fascination for the penal system and the affect that it has on a person. Ken validated how it is definitely not a place for rehabilitation but a place where time weighs on a person so heavily. I liked very much how he combined the Wilderness of the desert with the prison experience. It was an excellent book and I read it start to finish in one sitting.