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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
This book was extremely good. It was the second time that I started reading it, and I finished it quickly. I must not have been in the mood before, because there was nothing about this book that I didn’t love.
This was a book about a writer seeking inspiration for a juvenile delinquent character in his upcoming novel. In order to develop his character further, Salzman begins teaching a writing class to high risk offenders at his local juvenile hall. Although he hesitated at first, he soon fell in love with the class and the rewards it brought.
I absolutely loved how Salzman kept the inmates writing as it had been when they wrote it. He failed to clean it up for the book, which brought a rawness to it. It was incredibly interesting to follow the progress of his relationships with the boys. How he started out so uncertainly and eventually threw his heart and soul into his work.
It was heart-breaking to hear him describe the trial and sentencing of one of his students. To know that he was never given a chance. To know that he made one mistake that has fundamentally ended his life. Salzman brought the inmates to life. He makes you feel compassion for them. Compassion that may or may not be earned, but is there nonetheless.
This was a book about a writer seeking inspiration for a juvenile delinquent character in his upcoming novel. In order to develop his character further, Salzman begins teaching a writing class to high risk offenders at his local juvenile hall. Although he hesitated at first, he soon fell in love with the class and the rewards it brought.
I absolutely loved how Salzman kept the inmates writing as it had been when they wrote it. He failed to clean it up for the book, which brought a rawness to it. It was incredibly interesting to follow the progress of his relationships with the boys. How he started out so uncertainly and eventually threw his heart and soul into his work.
It was heart-breaking to hear him describe the trial and sentencing of one of his students. To know that he was never given a chance. To know that he made one mistake that has fundamentally ended his life. Salzman brought the inmates to life. He makes you feel compassion for them. Compassion that may or may not be earned, but is there nonetheless.
Mark Salzman is one of the authors I'd have never found on my own. He is unusual
in that he writes both fiction and nonfiction equally well. True Notebooks opens with Salzman having trouble with a
character in a novel he's writing. Almost before he realizes it, he somehow finds himself teaching a class to a group
of teenage boys in a juvenile detention facility. All the boys are under age seventeen and all are facing murder charges.
Though Salzman is at first apprehensive, he is amazed at the quality of the boys' writing. Last November, I carefully set
So Many Books, So Little Time aside, to be saved for my first read of 2004. But I picked up True Notebooks late
on New Year's Eve and couldn't put it down till I finished it on January 1st.
in that he writes both fiction and nonfiction equally well. True Notebooks opens with Salzman having trouble with a
character in a novel he's writing. Almost before he realizes it, he somehow finds himself teaching a class to a group
of teenage boys in a juvenile detention facility. All the boys are under age seventeen and all are facing murder charges.
Though Salzman is at first apprehensive, he is amazed at the quality of the boys' writing. Last November, I carefully set
So Many Books, So Little Time aside, to be saved for my first read of 2004. But I picked up True Notebooks late
on New Year's Eve and couldn't put it down till I finished it on January 1st.
Salzman finds himself teaching writing to the high-risk inmates at a juvenile prison. Wrenching, gritty and real, this book has an immediacy that reached out and pulled me in. The kids are engaging, and like Salzman, sometimes I forgot that they were murderers and thieves. Salzman's self-deprecating style is calm, observant, amusing. Some of the inmates' writings reproduced herein are heartbreaking. This book made me think.
I liked this book more than I initially thought I would, and I ended up caring for the kids that it's about. Mark Salzman spent some time teaching a writing class in a jail for juveniles accused of committing violent crimes. The vast majority of the teens were incarcerated for murder and were serving time until they were tried and then moved to adult facilities to serve their sentences. The quality of the writing these "students" were capable of was often surprising. It's so easy to think of violent youth as worthless garbage but this book did a good job of showing another side of these kids. I actually felt sorry for many of them and had to remind myself to also feel sad for their victims and the victims' families.
I truly enjoyed this book. It was an eye-opening read to something I never really knew about. It really makes you think and reconsider how you see people.
Recommended by both Nick Hornby and Nancy Pearl, so I had to give it a shot.
Mark Salzman facilitates a writing class for juvenile offenders. This was an interesting look inside the prison system, but I will admit I sometimes had a hard time telling the boys apart.
Mark Salzman facilitates a writing class for juvenile offenders. This was an interesting look inside the prison system, but I will admit I sometimes had a hard time telling the boys apart.