Wally Lamb was the darling of the book world in the late 1990’s after both his debut novel, She’s Come Undone, and his second novel, I Know This Much Is True, were Oprah book club books and became best sellers.
His latest publication is not a novel but an anthology of stories written by women convicts imprisoned in York Correctional Institute (Couldn’t Keep It To Myself), the only female maximum security prison in Connecticut. Lamb began teaching a writing program to the inmates on a volunteer basis as a means for these women to express themselves and help them with the healing process. The intent was not to publish a book but over time Lamb was so impressed with some of the writing that he showed some samples to his publisher Regan books and the rest is history.
None of the stories are actually about the crimes that these women committed (Son of Sam laws would not have allowed them to be published); rather they are short stories which provide a glimpse into these women’s lives prior to their incarceration and the potential causes for their behavior. Each story is more heart-wrenching than the previous; if I recall correctly - of the 13 authors, 11 of them were sexually abused as children and all of them were mistreated at the hands of male relatives - either husbands, fathers, grandfathers, etc. The women come from varying backgrounds and span the age spectrum but they all share the same tale of having had to live under unbearable conditions which ultimately led to their demise.
While I strongly believe that if you commit a crime, you deserve the punishment - after reading this book - I felt so sorry for them and it made me want to drive up to the prison myself to give these women a hug.
The stories are extremely well written and have varying styles depending on the race and educational level of the author. It is an “easy” read and I finished the book in 2 nights which I think is a testament to how engrossing the stories were.
When the book was published - there was a big controversy around it regarding whether prisoners should be compensated for their work. Attorney General of CT, Richard Blumenthal, got involved and the state ended up suing these prisoners. Here is an article that details the hoopla (including a 60 minutes segment) around this book.
This is a must read - especially for the women of babygotbooks.com.