Hole in My Life
By Jack Gantos
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2004
ISBN 0374430896, 9780374430894
199 pages
Maybe it's not possible to write a "I'm going to prison" story without including the first night rape.. I have to imagine that there are more compelling aspects to a life behind bars. Don't mean to sound cold, I know that this is a major issue in prisons. Television, movies and books won't let me forget, they remind me so much so that I've come to regard most of them as stereotype. Prison story = rape.
Gantos' manages to only spend a few pages on the topic and the book's better for it. This is his story of going to jail for sailing a VERY large amount of hash into New York in the 1970's. I think at one point in the book it's pointed out at the time to be the largest bust in history. If you've got a kid over 12, this would be a good "This is why you don't want to go to prison" book, without all the pandering and preaching.
Three out of Four Stars.
By Jack Gantos
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2004
ISBN 0374430896, 9780374430894
199 pages
Maybe it's not possible to write a "I'm going to prison" story without including the first night rape.. I have to imagine that there are more compelling aspects to a life behind bars. Don't mean to sound cold, I know that this is a major issue in prisons. Television, movies and books won't let me forget, they remind me so much so that I've come to regard most of them as stereotype. Prison story = rape.
Gantos' manages to only spend a few pages on the topic and the book's better for it. This is his story of going to jail for sailing a VERY large amount of hash into New York in the 1970's. I think at one point in the book it's pointed out at the time to be the largest bust in history. If you've got a kid over 12, this would be a good "This is why you don't want to go to prison" book, without all the pandering and preaching.
Three out of Four Stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment