HOW to Not DIE in PRISON: A Survivor GUIDE-If You don't Need This- Don't Punish Yourself by Reading

Tom Nelson spent 17 years in medium and maximum security prison from an early age. Taylor Sheridan, an aspiring actor turned successful TV series creator ("Yellowstone") became acquainted and formed a friendship in his early days while working out a gym in LA.  Nelson, finding himself in desperate financial situation turned to his friend Sheridan for a friendly loan which Sheridan said is never the case but delivered invaluable, pragmatic advice and a starting point to write about his own life. Both discovered Sheridan's natural talent for writing and an in demand niche. As Nelson puts it, "So, you fucked up. Can't talk your way out of it, buy your way out of it, or beg your way out of it. You are going to prison." This self-help, auto-bio on prison life is de riguer; essential coaching on maintaining your safety serving your debt to society. Some sound advice: "You Should be ready to jump if a guard orders you to do something." And trust your instincts, "If you really get the sense that something is about to go down either shipyard time or stay close to the towers-you'll be safe there, since convicts tend to avoid them if they're trying to do something shady.." While I maintain there is a dangerous and irredeemable population that should never walk among free society. the concept of people in chains, living in cages is anathema and inhuman. It also remains a mystery to me what life would be like serving hard time. Nelson noted that having alone time is vital to keeping you sanity "Having just a couple of hours to yourself once a week can be a big part of keeping your shit together." My curiosity did get the better of me and Nelson's candor, cogent prose with a somewhat humorous light makes the this survival guide worthwhile until it becomes too oppressive for those with a more sensitive deposition to the atrocities that occur on a a regular basis and the barbaric living conditions. I was enlightened beyond what I naively envisioned inside prison and chose to close down my kindle. If you don't need this survival guide my advice is to keep your nose clean, stay out of prison and keep your nose in prose of life outside the penitentiary. 

BEGINNING MIDDLE END Brilliantly Blurs the Lines Between Fiction and NonFiction

Valerie Luiselli is a Mexican-American author. She has received numerous literary accolades including the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Dublin Literary Award and two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. Her most recent novel, Luiselli delights and beguiles the reader with her inventive writing that mashes fiction and non-written to create a clever tale of mother-daughter-granddaughter relationships which weaves three generations. This meshing of forms creates a unique, new genre that contorts facts and fiction. Luiselli's protagonist is an established author on a book tour in Sicily with her teenage daughter. The narrator's clever daughter confronts her mother as to whether she is writing auto-fiction. In other words, is mom writing about them in her book she's working on. The narrator denies this but her daughter  reads aloud to her mom a passage that "...reproduced an entire monologue from the character of a girl in my novel, a little girl who in the novel is the daughter of the narrator."  The plot unhurriedly meanders as it traipse along on the mother/daughter road trip.  It's not the plot that drives this inventive work but rather the narrator's dissecting of what she is presently experiencing and then recording. The narrator explains her writing as "A novel about a mother and her daughter, a daughter and her mother traveling along the edge of somewhere, toward some other time frame. A novel in the middle, the middle of a novel. Or is it not a novel, but an essay? Perhaps the middle does not fit into the tighter architecture of a novel, the worst of plot."  The story commences in an apartment in Sicily on loaned from an abusive boyfriend.  When he returns, they flee from his brutal behavior. Their car trip on the island takes on ominous threats from fires and volcanic eruptions occurring nearby.  Throughout there is a haunting aura of deja vu, approaching doom and menacing mishaps taking place. Just prior to the mother and her daughter going abroad, the mom split from her husband, separating the daughter from a step-father and step-brother whom she had grown attached. While the mother is concerned for her daughter's feelings neither she is not forthcoming with any explanations. Neither is the daughter with her feelings regarding the familial split. Grandma's senility also poses dilemmas for her daughter and granddaughter which adds a comical lilt. The journey leads them to the home of the grandma's friend. Shortly after arriving, they need to escape quickly by boat as fires are now nearby. The ending our narrator/writer has been seeking to resolve concludes with a surprisingly delightful montage of photos the mother/daughter took on their travels. This mystical ending left me wanting to reread this captivating and deceptively ingenious story from the beginning, again. I recommend BEGINNING MIDDLE END for its magical flair and for revealing what may actually be there in the end. 

ENORMOUS WINGS-Septuagenarian Gets Pregnant and All Hell Breaks Loose

Laurie Frankel uses humor in her novel ENORMOUS WINGS to pontificate on a woman's right to choose which has been eradicated in our country. A septuagenarian, Pepper, is a senior with still a lot of spunk whose family decides it's time for her to stop driving and move into a senior living facility. What's funny or even preposterous is the premise that she finds love with her next door neighbor and becomes pregnant. It gets explained (but not credible) as a result of her special trial cancer treatment. Nevertheless, she wants to terminate the pregnancy for both her health and state of mind. There's a media circus surrounding Pepper and a myriad of protestors on both sides of the abortion issue. Making matters more complex is Pepper resides in TX which comes down hard on anyone wanting an abortion or abetting the patient. Pepper's family who all add their delightful two cents along with their support includes an ex-spouse living at the same senior center, two daughters, a son and four grandchildren. One 15 year old grandchild, Lola, is especially close with Pepper. Oops, coincidentally, Lola became pregnant at the same time as Pepper by her high school boyfriend. The light comedy at the onset after the first trimester in the pregnancy turns didactic.  Most all the fallouts of not having free choice whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy are presented heavy handedly. It can be argued that ENORMOUS WINGS is a palpable format for discussing the demise of Roe v Wade. I maintain that the novel just doesn't fly right. It's an enormous stretch as it becomes labored under a bloated, melodramatic soap opera plot. The bumps along the way include an elderly friend who passes away and a clandestine road trip to get Lola across state lines for an abortion. As well intentioned as Frankel may be in providing a sensationalized story of a septuagenarian conceiving, the delivery needed a lifeline to make it worth your time.  I much preferred Frankel's "This Is How It Always Is," Here Frankel delivers a sensitive and realistic depiction of a child transitioning within a family and its impact on all family members. 

The END of MY LIFE IS KILLING ME-A Gurwitch Finds Funniness with Stage 4 Lung Cancer

Having listened to Annabelle Gurwitch's audio book "You Say Potato and I Say Shut Up" co-written with her husband, I was expecting a clever and comedic insight into the ravages of dealing with stage 4 lung cancer. Gurwitch and her husband bicker back and forth over the same scenario from their separate,  scintillating points of view. This had me laughing out loud to their annoyances in their marriage which were regrettably relatable in other relationships. Gurwitch is an articulate, no nonsense, no holds barred broad. Their bantering belied deeper resentment eventually leading to a divorce after nearly 2 decades of being together. Sadly, I learned of Gurwitch's latest memoir which is about being a divorced mother with a college age son while living with stage 4 lung cancer. At the start of Covid, while getting tested for it, she mentioned a persistent cough which led to the discovery of her lung cancer. Gurwitch handles her dismal diagnosis and debilitating illness with the same aplomb and wry wit as in "You Say..." but here the humor does not provide the same carapace of an omnipotent facade as the realities of her treatment, capabilities and prognosis are challenging both her physical and mental well being.  Still, for anyone who may have a terminal illness, knows of someone dealing with a fatal disease, this part bio, part guide book for dealing with cancer, it's helpful when dealing with fiduciary wrangling, searching for support networks and maintaining a positive outlook. Pervasive throughout is Gurwitch's candor and ability to be uplifting. She's  funny and vulnerable, resilient and overwhelemed. This was not breezy listening but neither was it a pathos picnic. There's much to be gained and even entertained by when listening to Gurwitch stalwart swagger and vivid descriptions. She depicts herself realistically at her weakest and most noxious. I wish her only the best.  I thank her for her bravado dealing with her devastating prognosis. In fact, in addition to lung cancer, Gurwitch also developed breast cancer.  This irrepressible, social commentator and cancer patient is still kicking up her heels, finding love, enjoying friends and family and living life with fervor.  But, unless cancer is close to home, do yourself a favor, listen to "You Say Potato and I Say Shut Up" instead.  

MARTYR-Dazzling Debut Novel-An Obsession with Dying that Makes Life Trying

Award winning Iranian/Amer poet Kaveh Akbar's debut novel, MARTYR is a Nat'l Book Award Finalist (2026). The protagonist/anti-hero, Cyrus Sham, is an infant when his mom gets on the infamous commercial flight in Iran to visit her brother which is short down by the US Govt. Akbar blends historical events, as with this fatal flight in 1988. Cyrus' dad wants to leave Iran. He finds an ad for work in Iowa at a chicken factory and decides to immigrate to give his son a better life as in many immigrant families.  In the states, Cyrus' dad has no life outside work except watching sports on TV and drinking gin nightly to fall asleep. Cyrus is an outsider at school but becomes a good student earning a scholarship to IA Univ. Totally abstemious until then, Cyrus finds his major outside poetry in drink, drugs and sex. This is a tale of queer man's search for sobriety, his place in the world and his families legacy. Dealing with AA meetings and his sponsor is as engaging as the amazing family saga that dazzles as it unravels. At odds with with no career, obsessed with his mother's senseless death and martyrdom, Cyrus learns of a performance artist, Okediah, who casts herself as an exhibit in the Brooklyn Art Museum to speak with visitors during her final days from cancer. The novel's macabre fascination with death is actually confronting the absurdities of living. "living happened till it didn't. There was no choice in it. To say no to a new day would be unthinkable. So each morning you said yes, then stepped into the consequence." Cyrus tells Okediah, "I've been wanting to write about how to make a death useful." Cyrus realizes, "the mortal sin of the martyr must be pride, the vanity, the hubris to believe not only that  your death could mean more than your living, but that your death could mean more than death itself-which because it is inevitable, means nothing." Through Akbar's skillful writing we garner the story of Cyrus' family.  His uncle rode the battle fields of fallen soldiers disguised as a martyr. We delve into tangents of Cyrus dreams with odd celebrity pairings in conversation. We also learn alongside Cyrus of his mother's startling life. The story weaves among the lives of Cyrus and family.  From his family we garner the hardships and degradations of life in Iran in the 80s. Throughout, Cyrus remains steadfast in his pursuit of art which proves somewhat futile. Cyrus realizes "He was not made for the world in which he lived, that art and writing had gotten him only trivially closer to compensating of that fundamental defective ness, the way standing on a roof gets on only trivially closer to grabbing the moon than standing in the dirt."  This is an astonishing novel that grapples with the search life's meaning written in a style that is unremitting and unforgettable. Make MARTYR a must read.

SHAMPOO EFFECT-Pleasant Palette Cleanser-Social Clique in a Small Coastal Town

Jenny Jackson's novel, SHAMPOO EFFECT is about a close group of young adults who've been friends since high school if not longer and no longer find the same things as amusing as they once did. Basically a light beach read with a setting on the idyllic, MA shore. It's easily digestible, forgettable but not much more. The central character is Caroline Nash, the daughter of a successful writer but not insightful mother, Caroline is left on her own to pursue her own literary aspirations. This brings her from a promising start to a writers' residency in a cozy cabin where she meets Val and his coven of close knit friends. Val is an environmentalist and the two hit off a lovely romance that brings Caroline into the fold where she's not exactly welcomed with open arms. In the group is the gorgeous Bailey. Val and Bailey have been together off and on since high school, "I love her but we're not together and I'm not in love with her," he assures Caroline. Except for one small detail, they recently slept together and Bailey is intending to keep the baby. Believing him, Caroline remains open minded and accepting of the situation hoping to maintain her relationship with Val without interloping in their family ties. Despite Caroline's best intentions on her part, Val breaks Caroline heart after his son is born by choosing Bailey and the baby over her. The dynamics in the group beside Val and Bailey include two other married couples with young kids, a gay couple wanting to have a child and all the shenanigans and stress that comes with couples learning to cope and communicate with each other. For some it's the fraternity like behaviors that drives one wife crazy, or the unknown dalliances and desires outside the marriage or the pressures from work and families. What works well here is Jackson's tackling of millennial's midlife crises in an intelligent and engaging manner. The novel explores the transitions from care free adults into responsible adults dealing with parenting, shifting priorities and commitments. The longterm relationships among the local clique offers a fun, social net which is enviable. Caroline was only an outsider looking in on the group but once shunted aside by Val, vengeance fuels her writer's fire and she writes an explosive tell-all about the group's private lives. Jackson is no Updike, still l like what she wrote. SHAMPOO EFFECT is a cleansing space between literary fiction in a refreshing style that makes it an enjoyable change of pace.  

Walter Mosley Mostly Pleases But Pass on "Ghalen: A Romance in Black"

I've been a fan of Walter Mosley's writing in the crime fiction genre. He's received numerous literary awards including the Nat'l Book Fdtrn. Medal, and Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers' Assoc. It's a sheer mystery to me what Mosley had in mind when writing his most recent novel, "Ghalen: A Romance in Black." I don't recognize any of Mosley's writing in this novel which is a confusing coming of age novel. The novel begins with a serendipitous spark between Robert and Jamilah who share an umbrella which leads to romance. Their idyllic love affair is only marred by a Jamilah's misaligned mother who finds Robert "retarded". Jamilah is studying medicine and Robert is learning to be a chef in a vegan restaurant. They're married and have a son Ghalen. Ghalen is only 10 when his mother dies and steadfast Robert raises his son with the help of friends he's made at the restaurant. Ghalen is incredibly bright and ready to head to Berkley college at 16. This is the last vestige of a cohesive plot which turns to black and becomes muddled in a plot filled with potholes. Numerous people come in and out of Ghalen's life and his sense of obligation to them is unclear. Because he's been a childhood friend of Bruno and slept with Lovely, Bruno's girl (also Ghalen's childhood love) he takes a bullet to the head from him and the fall for a drug conviction by not turning Bruno to the police. It makes no sense going forward, including that he survived being shot in the head at short range. The plotting becomes deranged. Robert's mother is imprisoned in a psyche ward for killing his father. Jamilah's father Night comes back from the dead (Viet Nam) after 20 years and takes his place in the family. The year and a day Ghalen spent in prison is a hellish tale of sexual abuse and mayhem from which Ghalen comes out as if a class valedictorian with a prison graduation.  Only Mosley must know what he intended the reader to glean from this story unconventional of a non-conventional hero who flounders but finds support from his dad, his dad's cohorts and seems to land on his feet. Ghalen: A Romance in Black" was too rambling, too convoluted and too dark for me to recommend.