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ac223's review against another edition
4.0
Les Edgerton writes a 'mostly true' account as life as a convict. Jake, the main character describes time both inside and outside of prison. It reads like a story, but also gives you firsthand knowledge of what an actual convict feels, thinks, and does. Edgerton is ver adament about the fact that the movies have it all wrong. The most disturbing myth debunked is the one that says child molesters are NOT targeted in jail. That kind of sucks, because well, they deserve it. The events that take place are both disturbing, and intriguing..
ianayris's review
5.0
JUST LIKE THAT begins with a lengthy foreward in which we learn the prison stories/road movie book we are about to read is '80-85%' true. With the brilliant edginess of Edgerton's writing - even in the foreward - I was left in no doubt I would be in for quite a ride. And not all of it comfortable.
JLT begins with the central character, Jake Mayes, in prison. Eating beans:
We were having beans this meal. That's not news - when we don't have beans, that's news. My main concern was not biting down on a rock. There are rocks all the time in the beans. If I looked around, I would see everyone else eating the same way I was. Carefully, so as not to bit down on a rock. As if I cared.
This single paragraph is a brilliant example of Les Edgerton's writing. The attention to detail - details that can only come from someone who knows - an atmosphere created through these details, and the character of Jake Mayes laid out before us like a corpse. The fact Edgerton does all this within the first paragraph indicates a writer that knows exactly what he is doing.
As we follow Jake through parole and onto the streets, we have a hope he will turn his life around, make something of it. But Jake, Jake is a man with a broken heart that is falling to pieces and hardening by the day. Next thing we know, Jake is phoning up his pal Bud, and a nihilistic road trip ensues in which the two men lurch from one town to the next, beer and women, and enough money for both, their only object. Eventually, Jake and Bud go their separate ways, and Jake ends up back in 'the joint'.
Indeed, JLT is much more of a prison story than a road trip.
But therein lies its strength.
The prison sections are astounding in their detail, their atmosphere. And, in places, truly frightening. There are two particular scenes in the book that I read with my eyes popping out.
As Jake settles down to a life of prison, writing years of his life off, preferring the company of the friends he is banged up with to a life on the outside, I became genuinely saddened, such is the power of Edgerton's prose. But through the cold-hearted violence and the bravado and the dripping tension of prison life, I kept remembering that broken heart. And through it all, it kept on beating.
They say there is nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose. If you can imagine Mark Twain pumped with amphetamines, brandishing a straight razor and a big grin - you sort of get close to Les Edgerton.
JUST LIKE THAT is an astonishing book.
JLT begins with the central character, Jake Mayes, in prison. Eating beans:
We were having beans this meal. That's not news - when we don't have beans, that's news. My main concern was not biting down on a rock. There are rocks all the time in the beans. If I looked around, I would see everyone else eating the same way I was. Carefully, so as not to bit down on a rock. As if I cared.
This single paragraph is a brilliant example of Les Edgerton's writing. The attention to detail - details that can only come from someone who knows - an atmosphere created through these details, and the character of Jake Mayes laid out before us like a corpse. The fact Edgerton does all this within the first paragraph indicates a writer that knows exactly what he is doing.
As we follow Jake through parole and onto the streets, we have a hope he will turn his life around, make something of it. But Jake, Jake is a man with a broken heart that is falling to pieces and hardening by the day. Next thing we know, Jake is phoning up his pal Bud, and a nihilistic road trip ensues in which the two men lurch from one town to the next, beer and women, and enough money for both, their only object. Eventually, Jake and Bud go their separate ways, and Jake ends up back in 'the joint'.
Indeed, JLT is much more of a prison story than a road trip.
But therein lies its strength.
The prison sections are astounding in their detail, their atmosphere. And, in places, truly frightening. There are two particular scenes in the book that I read with my eyes popping out.
As Jake settles down to a life of prison, writing years of his life off, preferring the company of the friends he is banged up with to a life on the outside, I became genuinely saddened, such is the power of Edgerton's prose. But through the cold-hearted violence and the bravado and the dripping tension of prison life, I kept remembering that broken heart. And through it all, it kept on beating.
They say there is nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose. If you can imagine Mark Twain pumped with amphetamines, brandishing a straight razor and a big grin - you sort of get close to Les Edgerton.
JUST LIKE THAT is an astonishing book.
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