I have generally not been impressed with books that come available on Amazon's Vine Program, but Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg is outstanding.
A Harvard collegiate undergraduate with a degree in history and literature, apparently was unable to find another job after graduation. Somehow, he ended up being a prison librarian in a Massachusetts prison librarian near Boston.
Having spent a few weeks in Boston during my coming-of-age and now spending more time in Boston watching my grandchildren, I enjoy seeing the Boston place names.
The author is outstanding at describing the prison scene and the prison culture.
I particularly enjoy the short vignettes he shares throughout the book, including the year he spent at a yeshiva in Israel; his history of Deer Island off Boston, where the original prison was; and, how prisoners communicate through kites and sky-writing.
Some years ago, during the aggressive reading program I started in 2002, I went through a Sylvia Plath stage. Coincidentally, the author spends a bit of time talking about Sylvia Plath and the "relationship" some of the prisoners had with her.
I generally don't care for contemporary authors, but along with Tim O'Brien, it looks like Avi Steinberg is another contemporary author to look forward to.
No comments:
Post a Comment