Changing Lives Through Literature

Changing Lives through Literature

From BooklistThe title of this collection reveals the editors' ambitious premise: that literature has the ability to transform lives. Not just any lives: criminal lives. These selections (some stories, some novel excerpts), which range across the modern American literary map, from Jack London, Zora Neale Hurston, and John Steinbeck to James Dickey, Dorothy Allison, and Toni Morrison, were used by the editors in an alternative sentencing reading group in Massachusetts. In its first incarnation, they would all gather--offenders, one of the editors, even the judge himself--at a local college's dean's office and discuss these works. It has since been extended to groups of women offenders, and the encouraging results in both instances have given rise to this book. The selections are divided into four categories--violence, identity/voice, friendship/love, and family--with an introduction for each. Each selection ends with reflections from each of the editors, encouraging, they hope, the notion of dialogue and inquiry. James O'LaughlinThrough their work in the Massachusetts prison system, Waxler (English, U. of Massachusetts) and Trounstein (humanities, Middlesex Community College) discovered that a study of modern literature enhances readers' verbal skills through an engagement with language, opens experience to a multitude of perspectives, enriches our sense of human diversity, and makes us self-reflective and thoughtful. The anthology represents literary works they presented to criminal offenders to help them to see how stories can save us from the chaos of our lives. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)From Library JournalThis book is the result of work that Waxler and Trounstine have done within the Massachusetts Correctional System. An alternative to jail, Waxlers program, Changing Lives Through Literature, encourages offenders to examine their lives through discussions of literary works. This book contains selections used in the program as well as discussion ideas. In addition, before each section readers will find discussion of the theme (i.e., violence, identity/voice, friendship/love, and family) and explanations of why the particular stories were selected and how they can be used to facilitate discussion. The authors represented include James Dickey, John Steinbeck, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Jack London. An interesting addition to criminal justice, penology, or social welfare collections, this might also work in education collections for teachers who are looking for innovative ways to teach contemporary classics.Danna C. Bell-Russel, Lib. of Congress, Washington DCCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.