Gonzalez, Rigoberto. (2006). Butterfly Boy: Memoirs of a Chicano Mariposa. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
ISBN-10: 0299219003
•Plot Summary
Rigoberto is nineteen, but has a lover twenty years his senior. His lover places butterfly marks on Rigoberto with his teeth, a symbol that the younger man likes because it does remind him of the monarchs that were a party of his childhood, one of the few happy parts for a boy that is a marisposa, a butterfly, gay. Born in Bakersfield, because his mother wanted him to be United States citizen, his parents work the fields between Los Angeles and the region Mexican region of Zacapu, where his father's parents live. Rigoberto spend much of his time with his mother, although she is not always kind to him. She is better than the alternatives of his alcoholic father, and his tyrannical, paternal grandfather. His brother makes fun of him, because he plays with dolls, and soon he learns that becoming absorb in books keeps him away from the bullies, both inside his own home, and at school. When he experiments with his mothers clothing and nail polish, his father walks in, but turns to leave as if nothing ever happened. Indeed, his entire nineteen years have passed without it being mentioned by anyone in his family. He has been attending the University of Riverside on a scholarship, although his father had initially tried to stop him from going. Now, the two are on a four-day bus ride, going to Zacapu. Rigoberto's mother died when he was eleven, and she was buried in the area. His father remarried not long after, leaving his sons with his parents, something for which Rigoberto can never forgive him. Their conversations alternate between semi amicable, and Rigoberto seething, only wanting his father to shut up. They part ways in the city, and after a brief visit to the grave (to which he brings red gladiolas), he visits his grandparents and father, giving his father the remainder of his money. Using his credit card, he returns to Riverside, and the abusive lover. For two days he waits for the man to contact him again, and when he does, they board a ship of older men with their younger boyfriends. Rigoberto is "Mexican", so they make him serve drinks, and days later another fight erupts. This time, the lover has used hit Rigoberto with the phone, knocking him unconscious. The boy thinks back to how his mother, and how to her, he was always mijo. Her son, and although he felt she knew he was homosexual, she did not speak of it either. The door closes by the lover's hand, and after decades of affairs with married farmers, closet schoolboys, and other such "relationships", Rigoberto is determined to find something better.
•Critical Evaluation
Despite the level of violence and sadness, this work is somehow peaceful. There is a quietness, a sensitivity to Gonzalez's work, that is in keeping with his title, mariposa, butterfly. Although we realize that he will probably never reconcile with his father, their sometimes casual relationship is grounds for hope that he will find peace with their existence, and also find love that doesn't involve tyranny.
•Reader’s Annotation
Graphic content is mainly restricted to the final chapters, but may be considered too extreme for younger teens.
•Information about the author
Rigoberto Gonzalez has written books of poetry, and two books for children. He has received the Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships, as well as international residencies for artists, and served on the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta (coalition of Latino/Chicano writers). Currently, he lives in New York City.
•Genre
Autobiography
•Curriculum Ties
Social Science
•Booktalking Ideas
Field works from Mexico, American immigration, sexual dynamics in Mexico, homosexuality
•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 1-12/Ages 17-19
•Challenge Issues
The homosexual relationships in this book are limited in their number, but are graphic enough to warrant care. As a defense, it would be suitable to point out that this is not a work of fiction, and therefore has merit in teaching real world situations.
•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
All of my books contained caucasion characters, despite the fact I live in Southern California, and only three cities away there is a large population of field workers from Mexico. I wanted to know more about that experience, especially as it pertained to a young, gay male.
Showing posts with label Autobiography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Autobiography. Show all posts
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Tulip and the Pope
Larsen, D. (2005). The Tulip and the Pope. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
ISBN-10: 0375712909
ISBN-13: 9780375712906
•Plot Summary
At nineteen years of age, Deborah Larsen was in a taxi on the way to the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary to become a nun. She was smoking her final two cigarettes, and along with her friends, Tessa and Kathy, gave the last of her money to the driver as a tip. Born and raised Catholic, though of German and French descent, not Irish like most of her friends, Deborah has been thinking about this moment for a long time. She has always been fond of attending mass, and going through the rituals of her Church, especially alongside her mother. She has read, or acted in a play about, every nun on which there is a story based. Her favorite, is The Nun's Story, and it is to Sister Luke that she constantly compares herself throughout this memoir. When in times of doubt, concern or confusion, she wonders to herself what Sister Luke would do, and tries to replicate that behavior. Her references, however, are highly romanticized. As a child, she had played at Mass, although she was usually cast at an altar boy. Withdrawals from cigarettes begin to bother her, but she manages to get through this because of her allergy medication, although that makes her consistently sleepy. When she and her fellow postulants receive their list of required clothing, and then their new capes, she tells of how Gabrielle in The Nun's Story had the same sort of cloak. It was a story she would never read again, because private novels had to be left at home, and she says she thought nothing of it. Or that she thought, she thought nothing of it. Much of the rest of the autobiography is similar in the ways doubt or questioning sneaks into the obedient behavior she begins to view as a competition, although she will not admit to it being due to pride, since nuns are not supposed to feel that way. Her feelings creep in though, needs, and wants. She covets the time when she can wear the green sweater in the ice room, because it's not the black or white crispness like everyone else wears. When given the directions for positions to be taken during prayer, dinner, etc, she wonders, if any one is wondering to themselves, "When is this class going to be over?" or "Isn't it time to go home now?" Every element of her dress is described, and how basins and cups are taken to the bathrooms for brushing teeth, of nightcaps that aren't actually slept in (just used to cover short hair the stylish BVMs might not want to think about). As Christmas, she is pleased to see that not only are the nun's rooms stylish in the non medieval simplicity, but the chapel is decorated with just the right number of poinsettia plants. Sister Mary Deborah, now a novice, is convinced taking a vow of poverty will be easy, because everything was provided by the community. Obedience would also "be a snap" because the Pope was infallible, and one did what the Church proscribed. Finally, chastity would be easy, because what man could compare with Jesus, what woman could hope for a better man as a husband than the one of whom they could only touch a hem of his robes, because he had not yet ascended? Still, doubts begin to set in, especially about her own behavior and worth. After taking on the Black Veil, Deborah is sent to a two-year college in cohort with the convent to earn an education, and goes on to work in Chicago her four-year teaching degree. She is exposed to the outside, for the first time in almost five years. Her mother passes away due to cancer, she is the only woman amid six men in her teaching program, exposed to an unethical Catholic professor who calls her at the convent, and an ethical atheist professor who simply likes her writing without attempting to make unseemly personal contact. Finally, after wrestling with her conscious, trying to reconcile herself to the facts of the new laws in the Catholic faith, and just days before entering the BVMs permanently, Deborah chooses to return to the layman's life. Deborah has begun to wonder what it would be like to fall in love, to be kissed, to have sex, and to have children. She is taking by a fellow Sister to buy clothing, and even lipstick, taking a train with a fellow former-sister. Moving back in with her father, she has to learn again how to be on the outside, and purchases a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which she finds amusing in some respects, and illuminating in others. She remembers the large tulip growing in her neighbors yard that was so sizable that her head could fit just inside its petals. She writes a poem about a woman returning her ring to the Pope, as he kneels, because the "tulip shrugged off the catechism". It extended itself, and Presence was felt, and it nothing to do with positions, or being too holy.
•Critical Evaluation
Sometimes amusing, and other times bittersweet, account of a young woman still only just beginning to understand what that means. She is proud without realizing it, romantic without having a solid basis for her fancies, and must learn what really being obedient, virtuous, and humble are all about, on her own.
•Reader’s Annotation
Lovely, full of information on Catholic rites and instruction.
•Information about the author
Today, Deborah Larsen is married to David Cowan, and the couple have two children. They live outside Gettysburg, PA., and Deborah at the nearby college. She had written two other books, The White (a novel), and Stitching Porcelain: After Matteo Ricci in Sixteenth-Century China.
•Genre
Autobiography
•Curriculum Ties
History
Social Science
Religion
•Booktalking Ideas
Catholicism, convents
•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 11-12/Ages 16-19
•Challenge Issues
N/A
•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
When I was very young, I wanted to be a priest. Of course, I wasn't male and my family wasn't Catholic, so this was out of the question. The Catholic religion, and its rites, have always fascinate me, as has the idea of entering a convent. As the memoir is by a fellow Deborah, I thought this might be an interesting read, and it was. It was also informative, and comfortable in a way I can't really describe.
ISBN-10: 0375712909
ISBN-13: 9780375712906
•Plot Summary
At nineteen years of age, Deborah Larsen was in a taxi on the way to the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary to become a nun. She was smoking her final two cigarettes, and along with her friends, Tessa and Kathy, gave the last of her money to the driver as a tip. Born and raised Catholic, though of German and French descent, not Irish like most of her friends, Deborah has been thinking about this moment for a long time. She has always been fond of attending mass, and going through the rituals of her Church, especially alongside her mother. She has read, or acted in a play about, every nun on which there is a story based. Her favorite, is The Nun's Story, and it is to Sister Luke that she constantly compares herself throughout this memoir. When in times of doubt, concern or confusion, she wonders to herself what Sister Luke would do, and tries to replicate that behavior. Her references, however, are highly romanticized. As a child, she had played at Mass, although she was usually cast at an altar boy. Withdrawals from cigarettes begin to bother her, but she manages to get through this because of her allergy medication, although that makes her consistently sleepy. When she and her fellow postulants receive their list of required clothing, and then their new capes, she tells of how Gabrielle in The Nun's Story had the same sort of cloak. It was a story she would never read again, because private novels had to be left at home, and she says she thought nothing of it. Or that she thought, she thought nothing of it. Much of the rest of the autobiography is similar in the ways doubt or questioning sneaks into the obedient behavior she begins to view as a competition, although she will not admit to it being due to pride, since nuns are not supposed to feel that way. Her feelings creep in though, needs, and wants. She covets the time when she can wear the green sweater in the ice room, because it's not the black or white crispness like everyone else wears. When given the directions for positions to be taken during prayer, dinner, etc, she wonders, if any one is wondering to themselves, "When is this class going to be over?" or "Isn't it time to go home now?" Every element of her dress is described, and how basins and cups are taken to the bathrooms for brushing teeth, of nightcaps that aren't actually slept in (just used to cover short hair the stylish BVMs might not want to think about). As Christmas, she is pleased to see that not only are the nun's rooms stylish in the non medieval simplicity, but the chapel is decorated with just the right number of poinsettia plants. Sister Mary Deborah, now a novice, is convinced taking a vow of poverty will be easy, because everything was provided by the community. Obedience would also "be a snap" because the Pope was infallible, and one did what the Church proscribed. Finally, chastity would be easy, because what man could compare with Jesus, what woman could hope for a better man as a husband than the one of whom they could only touch a hem of his robes, because he had not yet ascended? Still, doubts begin to set in, especially about her own behavior and worth. After taking on the Black Veil, Deborah is sent to a two-year college in cohort with the convent to earn an education, and goes on to work in Chicago her four-year teaching degree. She is exposed to the outside, for the first time in almost five years. Her mother passes away due to cancer, she is the only woman amid six men in her teaching program, exposed to an unethical Catholic professor who calls her at the convent, and an ethical atheist professor who simply likes her writing without attempting to make unseemly personal contact. Finally, after wrestling with her conscious, trying to reconcile herself to the facts of the new laws in the Catholic faith, and just days before entering the BVMs permanently, Deborah chooses to return to the layman's life. Deborah has begun to wonder what it would be like to fall in love, to be kissed, to have sex, and to have children. She is taking by a fellow Sister to buy clothing, and even lipstick, taking a train with a fellow former-sister. Moving back in with her father, she has to learn again how to be on the outside, and purchases a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which she finds amusing in some respects, and illuminating in others. She remembers the large tulip growing in her neighbors yard that was so sizable that her head could fit just inside its petals. She writes a poem about a woman returning her ring to the Pope, as he kneels, because the "tulip shrugged off the catechism". It extended itself, and Presence was felt, and it nothing to do with positions, or being too holy.
•Critical Evaluation
Sometimes amusing, and other times bittersweet, account of a young woman still only just beginning to understand what that means. She is proud without realizing it, romantic without having a solid basis for her fancies, and must learn what really being obedient, virtuous, and humble are all about, on her own.
•Reader’s Annotation
Lovely, full of information on Catholic rites and instruction.
•Information about the author
Today, Deborah Larsen is married to David Cowan, and the couple have two children. They live outside Gettysburg, PA., and Deborah at the nearby college. She had written two other books, The White (a novel), and Stitching Porcelain: After Matteo Ricci in Sixteenth-Century China.
•Genre
Autobiography
•Curriculum Ties
History
Social Science
Religion
•Booktalking Ideas
Catholicism, convents
•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 11-12/Ages 16-19
•Challenge Issues
N/A
•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
When I was very young, I wanted to be a priest. Of course, I wasn't male and my family wasn't Catholic, so this was out of the question. The Catholic religion, and its rites, have always fascinate me, as has the idea of entering a convent. As the memoir is by a fellow Deborah, I thought this might be an interesting read, and it was. It was also informative, and comfortable in a way I can't really describe.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Hole in My Life
Gantos, J. (2002). Hole in My Life. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
ISBN-13: 9780374430894
•Plot Summary
Jack Gantos has been in prison for a year when this autobiography begins, and he details how he spends much of his time afraid of the violence around him. His life before he was in prison, did not prepare him for the brutality he sees daily, especially as he works as part of an emergency medical team. His father had told him stories about the violent lives of people in his hometown, but those stories had been nothing to him beyond reasons for wondering. At nineteen, he was still in high school, but his father moved the family from Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Jack cannot speak Spanish, and therefore finish his Senior year, so his parents send him back to Florida to live with another family. The Bacons are poor, and glad of the money Jack will bring into the house, until he also brings loud music, friends, and his drinking habits into the house as well. When he becomes sick through several of the rooms, the Bacon kick him out, and Jack goes to live in a nearby hotel. He lives there for the entire school year, taken care of by the landlady, Davy. Jack manages to keep his job, although he begins smoking marijuana, and is accepted to the University of Florida in Gainesville. His father's company had not been doing well, so he moved the family again, this time to St.Croix in the Virgin Islands. Jack decides not to attend college for awhile, and tell his father he will come help him out with the company. In the meantime, his friend from high school (Tim Scanlon) gets together with Jack, and the two plan a scheme to sell hydroponically grown marijuana from Tallahassee. When Tim disappears, Jack decides to take a road trip like Jack Kerouac, and visits the homes of Earnest Hemingway, Tennessee William, and Elizabth Bishop. He is writing in his notebook again, a practice where he writes down details from books he has enjoyed, quotes, descriptions or even his own story ideas. Jack does not, however, write his own stories, and soon learns that Tim was taken by the police. He is with his parents, and the police have confiscated the weed. Jack then leaves for St. Croix, almost immediately a part of the drug culture. The police there are too busy inspecting oil tankers from the Middle East, to have time doing the same for boats that might be carrying drugs, so the culture is thriving. Or at least, this is true until rising racial tensions cause a shooting, and there is a mass exodus of whites from the island. With Jack's father no longer having any business, the two are only making palates for people use for shipping off the island, and Jack makes a deal with a drug dealer to accompany a shipment of marijuana from St. Croix to Manhattan, for $10k. Along with his shipmate, an insane Englishman named Hamilton, Jack tries to sail. Neither of them know how to sail a ship, and only after three days of practice are they able to leave the island behind, even then running aground at one point after the first day out to sea. Hamilton tries to humiliate Jack all the time, begins talking to himself, and walks around in the nude constantly. Jack has brought along books of famous ships and voyages, such as Treasure Island, Heart of Darkness, and the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy. More than anything else though, the two get stoned, and Jack works on a journal in an old leather book he finds below deck. Small entries are included for each day, as well as explanations of how Jack and Hamilton continue to spend their time. After running low on fuel, the two encounter a Japanese fishing trawler, and Jack exchanges some of their rum for fuel. In return, the Japanese sailors send him back with sake, but Hamilton has let the boat drift away. Jack jumps into the water to catch up, and the height being more than he had expected, he has the air knocked out of him by the impact. He sinks, nearly drowning, but manages to swim to the surface. Several days pass in a storm, and the two end up accidentally in military waters, though they are escorted right back out again by the Coast Guard. They run aground at Cape May, NJ and attempt to contact Rik, without success. Finally, the two arrive at a marina in Queens, and Rik comes to move two hundred and fifty pounds of the hash from the boat, to "a guy named Jerome". Hamilton has become more paranoid, and thinks they are being followed, but nothing happens after two weeks of staying at the Chelsea Hotel. Jack, now paranoid as well, becomes obsessed with picking the acne that has developed under his skin. It isn't until then that the FBI arrive, and Hamilton points the finger, although Jack manages to escape, hide in a movie theatre, and eventually make it back to Davy's motel in Ft. Lauderdale. When Jack calls his father, he finds out that the FBI has had the family under surveillance, and his father insists that he contact a lawyer already found for him- Al E. Newman. Rik and Hamilton had already been taken into custody ahead of Jack, ratting him out, and the FBI have all the photos Jack took of the trip, the operation, and even one taken of him as evidence. Newman assures him that if he pleads guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute, Jack will get off easy, maybe even just probation. Jack, not so sure, begins to read novels about prisons and follows the Attica Prison uprising on television. Once Jack is sentenced to a 5010B, he is put into prison. He's propositioned and warned the first night, and returns to his cell after a bathroom run to discover that his new fellow inmate was raped by multiple men the night before. Soon after, Jack is transferred to a federal prison in Ashland, KY, receiving a yellow cell in part of the hospital, because has gotten a case of head lice. He's safe from attack and rape, but tormented by the color, even in his sleep. After a week, Jack is given some paper, an unsharpened pencil, and a few discarded books to read. He picks up The Brothers Karamazov first, and begins writing his journal entries between the lines, including one about the trio of members from the Muslim Brotherhood who visit him to offer a way to prove his trust-prove he wants to improve race relations by meeting them in the bathroom during movie night, and drop his pants for them. As he is being released from the hospital, Jack asks if they need any additional aid, since he has experience as a hospital volunteer. The last X-ray technician had just tried to make an escape, so Jack is allowed to join the team, and keep his private cell. Among some of the more interesting things he encounters: an Elvis look-alike busted for selling fake Elvis memorabilia, a female administrative assistant who quits after her chest X-rays are stolen and recovered from the men's room, and a guy who needs an enema because his wife passed him hash that he hasn't passed. Finally, after serving one hundred and fifty days, Jack is able to speak to the parole board. They don't have all the facts straight, and his case worker (Mr. Wilcox) is the sort who falls asleep, so Jack must wait another two years to meet with them again. He uses the time to look out his call window, recalling events from his childhood, and writing them down in his journal. After a few more months, Jack receives a new case worker, Mr. Casey. The two fix on a plan, and Jack is accepted into Graham Junior College in New York. Fifteen months after being placed in prison, Jack is released. As conditions of his release, he had to have a stable residence in New York, and a job. His father arranges for him to live with a woman in Little Italy, and her son pays Jack to deliver Christmas trees. When the season was over, Jack started college, and ironically got a job as a campus security guard.
•Critical Evaluation
A basic, informative look into the lives of inmates in federal prison. Jack managed to have a better time of it than many do, however, mainly because of his hospital training. It's never entirely clear if he is sorry for that he did, and he unfortunately lost the Karamazov journal, because the novel was prison property.
•Reader’s Annotation
Several instances of a graphic nature.
•Information about the author
Since his release from prison, Jack Gantos has written over ten novels. He developed the M.F.A. programs in Children’s Book Writing at both Emerson College and Vermont College. Interestingly, the biography page on his web site does not mention the events detailed in this autobiography.
•Genre
Autobiography
•Curriculum Ties
Social Science
Journaling
English
•Booktalking Ideas
Teens in prison, journaling to inspire creative writing, drugs and the court system
•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 10-12/Ages 15-19
•Challenge Issues
The entire content of this book could be considered suitable for challenging, but Gantos account is real, not a work of fiction, and therefore good at showing teens what can happen by making the wrong choices when it comes to drugs.
•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I enjoy biographies, and was interested in reading about how a teen that ends up in jail turns things around so that he can survive the ordeal, then go on to write.
ISBN-13: 9780374430894
•Plot Summary
Jack Gantos has been in prison for a year when this autobiography begins, and he details how he spends much of his time afraid of the violence around him. His life before he was in prison, did not prepare him for the brutality he sees daily, especially as he works as part of an emergency medical team. His father had told him stories about the violent lives of people in his hometown, but those stories had been nothing to him beyond reasons for wondering. At nineteen, he was still in high school, but his father moved the family from Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Jack cannot speak Spanish, and therefore finish his Senior year, so his parents send him back to Florida to live with another family. The Bacons are poor, and glad of the money Jack will bring into the house, until he also brings loud music, friends, and his drinking habits into the house as well. When he becomes sick through several of the rooms, the Bacon kick him out, and Jack goes to live in a nearby hotel. He lives there for the entire school year, taken care of by the landlady, Davy. Jack manages to keep his job, although he begins smoking marijuana, and is accepted to the University of Florida in Gainesville. His father's company had not been doing well, so he moved the family again, this time to St.Croix in the Virgin Islands. Jack decides not to attend college for awhile, and tell his father he will come help him out with the company. In the meantime, his friend from high school (Tim Scanlon) gets together with Jack, and the two plan a scheme to sell hydroponically grown marijuana from Tallahassee. When Tim disappears, Jack decides to take a road trip like Jack Kerouac, and visits the homes of Earnest Hemingway, Tennessee William, and Elizabth Bishop. He is writing in his notebook again, a practice where he writes down details from books he has enjoyed, quotes, descriptions or even his own story ideas. Jack does not, however, write his own stories, and soon learns that Tim was taken by the police. He is with his parents, and the police have confiscated the weed. Jack then leaves for St. Croix, almost immediately a part of the drug culture. The police there are too busy inspecting oil tankers from the Middle East, to have time doing the same for boats that might be carrying drugs, so the culture is thriving. Or at least, this is true until rising racial tensions cause a shooting, and there is a mass exodus of whites from the island. With Jack's father no longer having any business, the two are only making palates for people use for shipping off the island, and Jack makes a deal with a drug dealer to accompany a shipment of marijuana from St. Croix to Manhattan, for $10k. Along with his shipmate, an insane Englishman named Hamilton, Jack tries to sail. Neither of them know how to sail a ship, and only after three days of practice are they able to leave the island behind, even then running aground at one point after the first day out to sea. Hamilton tries to humiliate Jack all the time, begins talking to himself, and walks around in the nude constantly. Jack has brought along books of famous ships and voyages, such as Treasure Island, Heart of Darkness, and the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy. More than anything else though, the two get stoned, and Jack works on a journal in an old leather book he finds below deck. Small entries are included for each day, as well as explanations of how Jack and Hamilton continue to spend their time. After running low on fuel, the two encounter a Japanese fishing trawler, and Jack exchanges some of their rum for fuel. In return, the Japanese sailors send him back with sake, but Hamilton has let the boat drift away. Jack jumps into the water to catch up, and the height being more than he had expected, he has the air knocked out of him by the impact. He sinks, nearly drowning, but manages to swim to the surface. Several days pass in a storm, and the two end up accidentally in military waters, though they are escorted right back out again by the Coast Guard. They run aground at Cape May, NJ and attempt to contact Rik, without success. Finally, the two arrive at a marina in Queens, and Rik comes to move two hundred and fifty pounds of the hash from the boat, to "a guy named Jerome". Hamilton has become more paranoid, and thinks they are being followed, but nothing happens after two weeks of staying at the Chelsea Hotel. Jack, now paranoid as well, becomes obsessed with picking the acne that has developed under his skin. It isn't until then that the FBI arrive, and Hamilton points the finger, although Jack manages to escape, hide in a movie theatre, and eventually make it back to Davy's motel in Ft. Lauderdale. When Jack calls his father, he finds out that the FBI has had the family under surveillance, and his father insists that he contact a lawyer already found for him- Al E. Newman. Rik and Hamilton had already been taken into custody ahead of Jack, ratting him out, and the FBI have all the photos Jack took of the trip, the operation, and even one taken of him as evidence. Newman assures him that if he pleads guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute, Jack will get off easy, maybe even just probation. Jack, not so sure, begins to read novels about prisons and follows the Attica Prison uprising on television. Once Jack is sentenced to a 5010B, he is put into prison. He's propositioned and warned the first night, and returns to his cell after a bathroom run to discover that his new fellow inmate was raped by multiple men the night before. Soon after, Jack is transferred to a federal prison in Ashland, KY, receiving a yellow cell in part of the hospital, because has gotten a case of head lice. He's safe from attack and rape, but tormented by the color, even in his sleep. After a week, Jack is given some paper, an unsharpened pencil, and a few discarded books to read. He picks up The Brothers Karamazov first, and begins writing his journal entries between the lines, including one about the trio of members from the Muslim Brotherhood who visit him to offer a way to prove his trust-prove he wants to improve race relations by meeting them in the bathroom during movie night, and drop his pants for them. As he is being released from the hospital, Jack asks if they need any additional aid, since he has experience as a hospital volunteer. The last X-ray technician had just tried to make an escape, so Jack is allowed to join the team, and keep his private cell. Among some of the more interesting things he encounters: an Elvis look-alike busted for selling fake Elvis memorabilia, a female administrative assistant who quits after her chest X-rays are stolen and recovered from the men's room, and a guy who needs an enema because his wife passed him hash that he hasn't passed. Finally, after serving one hundred and fifty days, Jack is able to speak to the parole board. They don't have all the facts straight, and his case worker (Mr. Wilcox) is the sort who falls asleep, so Jack must wait another two years to meet with them again. He uses the time to look out his call window, recalling events from his childhood, and writing them down in his journal. After a few more months, Jack receives a new case worker, Mr. Casey. The two fix on a plan, and Jack is accepted into Graham Junior College in New York. Fifteen months after being placed in prison, Jack is released. As conditions of his release, he had to have a stable residence in New York, and a job. His father arranges for him to live with a woman in Little Italy, and her son pays Jack to deliver Christmas trees. When the season was over, Jack started college, and ironically got a job as a campus security guard.
•Critical Evaluation
A basic, informative look into the lives of inmates in federal prison. Jack managed to have a better time of it than many do, however, mainly because of his hospital training. It's never entirely clear if he is sorry for that he did, and he unfortunately lost the Karamazov journal, because the novel was prison property.
•Reader’s Annotation
Several instances of a graphic nature.
•Information about the author
Since his release from prison, Jack Gantos has written over ten novels. He developed the M.F.A. programs in Children’s Book Writing at both Emerson College and Vermont College. Interestingly, the biography page on his web site does not mention the events detailed in this autobiography.
•Genre
Autobiography
•Curriculum Ties
Social Science
Journaling
English
•Booktalking Ideas
Teens in prison, journaling to inspire creative writing, drugs and the court system
•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 10-12/Ages 15-19
•Challenge Issues
The entire content of this book could be considered suitable for challenging, but Gantos account is real, not a work of fiction, and therefore good at showing teens what can happen by making the wrong choices when it comes to drugs.
•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I enjoy biographies, and was interested in reading about how a teen that ends up in jail turns things around so that he can survive the ordeal, then go on to write.
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