I just finished reading Shakespeare Saved My Life, a memoir written by Laura Bates. Bates is an English professor at Indiana State University, who began a program at the local prison that would allow inmates from the maximum security unit to analyze and discuss the work of Shakespeare.
This wasn't a book I went after or was even looking for, I was just at the library and I came across it. This was really different than anything that I've read to date. I don't think there was anything special about it style wise, but the content was shocking. I'm considering a career in criminal justice and I have a relative who was in prison for several years (though it was nothing like the inmates in the book) so everything about the book was interesting to me.
My favorite part of the book was the sentence that inspired the title of the novel. After several years, Bates had finished her program with a certain group of inmates who had the most impact on her life. One of the prisoners in particular, Newton had made a special connection with her. He had been troubled his entire life, serving over ten years in solitary confinement, the young twenty-something year old had his life changed by Bates. Before their interactions he was a violent human who had numerous escape attempts under his belt. By the end of the program
his attitude towards life was no longer evil, he wanted to further his education and make a difference helping people. Bates’s final meeting with the convicts was bitter sweet. She was proud she introduced something so beautiful to people who had only met ugly behind bars. This was her final encounter with the group:
Whenever a participant left the program, I distributed a short survey in which I asked, “What has Shakespeare done for you?”
“It helped me to expand my mind,” Greene had written.
“ It introduced me to a whole new world,” Jones had written.
“It got me out of my cell,” Guido had written.
After I watched Newton disappear down the hallway, I took the folded paper out of my pocket. It was the survey. What has Shakespeare done for you? He had written, “Shakespeare saved my life” (Bates 152).
If it’s possible for a memoir to have a climax I think this is without a doubt the moment., it gave the book its meaning.
Structurally, the chapters were short, none being more than three or four pages. This made it, not an easy read, but it was easy to get through because of that. There were also photos included and I really liked this because I felt like a part of the group. Those weren't just words on paper, Bates went to an actual prison and got inmates to sew a quilt together.
While reading this, all I could think of was the tv show Beyond Scared Straight. It’s basically a program that gathers a group of troubled teens and takes them into a prison for a day to witness how daily life would be like if they continued on their destructive path.
Overall it was a solid book. I’d recommend it but it’s definitely not for everyone, it’s not fiction so there’s no “good” or “bad” writing.
Well, I think that non-fiction writing can be compelling or dull, for sure. I am betting that this English professor might know her way around words.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am most excited about in this blog entry is the fact that you just found this book. You weren't looking for it, but you picked it up, cracked it open, and found yourself absorbed. That is the stuff that makes an English teacher's heart soar! I hope you do that for the rest of your life. Gosh! You never know, like these prisoners found, what you might find between those pages.
This book sounds a lot like an HBO special or something, like one of those inspiring life-changing story documentary things. Was this book like a novel or was it sort of a short nonfiction kind of book? I'm guessing it was pretty short, since you said the chapters were really short and you got through it really fast. But that sounds really interesting. I'm wondering which Shakespeare plays they read? Considering that the only one I really know is Romeo and Juliet (although I kinda know Hamlet, it's the same story as The Lion King). Either way it sounds pretty cool. I actually want to see the pictures from the book, just out of curiosity, plus I have this thing where I always want to see what characters look like, especially if it’s a true story. What was Newton in for? And how did they select which prisoners got to participate in this? I’m assuming that if the prisoners were like serial killers or rapists or something, they wouldn’t be allowed to be in the same room as Bates. It really does sound like it’d make a great inspirational movie, like The Blind Side but not as cheesy and exaggerated. And yes, of course memoirs can have a climax, and this sounds like a crazy one at that. So overall, sounds like an awesome book.
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