What Im Reading When Im Writing.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
I dont judge anyone of any stripe by what they read.
Reading is always good for you.
Its a positive act.
Its banned in many institutions because of the alleged effect it has on inmates.
That is, officials claim that this book gets prisoners too jacked up.
Despite the ban, contraband copies frequently make their way into the facilities.
Cooper was shot and killed by police, which only adds gasoline to the fire.
These two very good writers always come to mind.
I also recommend Mary Karrs memoirs, because of their tone of redemption and because theyre very well written.
Kushners latest novel,The Mars Room, happens to take place in a womens prison.
Im looking forward to getting into it soon.
The novels ofStephen KingBecause he tells a ripping good story.
Ive seen a lot of King books floating around in lockup.
Ive never seen one book by Harold Bloom.
Not surprising that these books have a long shelf life in prisons.
The novels ofWalter Mosley,Chester Himes, andDonald GoinesThree African-American crime novelists whose books are popular in institutions.
Mosley is prolific and literary, with a distinct voice.
Of the three, Goines was the pulpiest and most uneven, but his prose jumps like jazz.
He was found shot to death, slumped over his typewriter.
He was murdered, it was said, over a drug debt, cementing his legend.
He was institutionalized for nearly 20 years and was a self-taught writer.
Bunkers best known novel isNo Beast So Fierceand rightly so.
I likeLittle Boy BlueandDog Eat Dogas well.
Martin wrote a couple of good crime novels, too.In the Hatis the place to start.
Leave it to his critics to focus on his anger and not the social conditions that fueled it.
The middle section of the novel, set in San Quentin, is both beautiful and tragic.
This is not only great prison lit.
It is an American classic.
