A review by leslie_overbookedsocialworker
River of Fire by Helen Prejean

3.0

It’s important to know that this memoir focuses on the author’s life up to the beginning of her work with death row prisoners, which she discusses in her other books. I admire her life of service and advocacy, but it was hard to read her condescending tone towards her younger Catholic self, Catholics of that time, and Christian and Catholic foundational beliefs. She even comments that she had planned on being more charitable in how she wrote about her young, well-intentioned self, but oh well. There were some inspiring and thought provoking sections, especially towards the end, but it was tedious to get to them.