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Aug. 6th, 2011 12:31 pmI finished reading Newjack last night before going to bed, which is just as well since this morning I've been mostly sleeping off a thoroughly unpleasant headache. But it's down to a dull roar now, so I guess it's review time.
Newjack is a non-fiction book written by Ted Conover, a jouranlist with an anthropology background. Having been denied access to the prison system and denied any meaningful access to prison correctional officers while trying to write a book about the correctional system, he got around the ban by applying for a job as a correctional officer in New York. He went through testing and training, and then did a year as a "Newjack" or rookie CO at Sing Sing, all covertly -- not telling inmates or COs that he was writing a book, not telling anyone outside the prison that he was working as a guard.
( It's difficult to quantify the book... )
Final Verdict: I think this book is valuable for being unique, and I'm not sorry I read it; I certainly don't feel I wasted my time. But there seems to be a level missing to it, like Conover wouldn't, or possibly couldn't, get as emotional as the subject matter deserved, perhaps because that's a scary place to go. It is a vivid portrait, but it's also very surface at times. But yeah, well worth a read at least.
Given my reading material lately, I've had just about enough of crime and punishment; I have The Napoleon Of Crime (nonfiction) and Heist Society (fiction) in my reading pile, but I have just enough time to squeeze in at least a start on The Land Of Invented Languages, a nonfiction book about synthetic languages like Klingon and Esperanto, before Coworker Crush brings me Less Than Zero on Monday.
I'm working on the rewrite of Dead Isle first and foremost, and labouring on the Top Secret Project (due in a week, ack), but I'm also getting a start on a new book about the Chicago underground, titled Tunnel. It now primarily concerns a pair of siblings: Trinia, a quasi-homeless thief and urban spelunker, and Clayton, a modern-day cartographer who works in QA for the mapping division of a big dot com (he can't tell you the name, but it starts with a G). At this point it's about the two of them trying to work through the death of their father in different ways, Clayton's desperate attempts to understand his sister, and Trinia's quest to resolve a long-standing family legacy tied to the tunnels under the city.
And there's also Bob the hedge fund manager turned reluctant dragon tamer, plus two dragons.
Should be fun!
Newjack is a non-fiction book written by Ted Conover, a jouranlist with an anthropology background. Having been denied access to the prison system and denied any meaningful access to prison correctional officers while trying to write a book about the correctional system, he got around the ban by applying for a job as a correctional officer in New York. He went through testing and training, and then did a year as a "Newjack" or rookie CO at Sing Sing, all covertly -- not telling inmates or COs that he was writing a book, not telling anyone outside the prison that he was working as a guard.
( It's difficult to quantify the book... )
Final Verdict: I think this book is valuable for being unique, and I'm not sorry I read it; I certainly don't feel I wasted my time. But there seems to be a level missing to it, like Conover wouldn't, or possibly couldn't, get as emotional as the subject matter deserved, perhaps because that's a scary place to go. It is a vivid portrait, but it's also very surface at times. But yeah, well worth a read at least.
Given my reading material lately, I've had just about enough of crime and punishment; I have The Napoleon Of Crime (nonfiction) and Heist Society (fiction) in my reading pile, but I have just enough time to squeeze in at least a start on The Land Of Invented Languages, a nonfiction book about synthetic languages like Klingon and Esperanto, before Coworker Crush brings me Less Than Zero on Monday.
I'm working on the rewrite of Dead Isle first and foremost, and labouring on the Top Secret Project (due in a week, ack), but I'm also getting a start on a new book about the Chicago underground, titled Tunnel. It now primarily concerns a pair of siblings: Trinia, a quasi-homeless thief and urban spelunker, and Clayton, a modern-day cartographer who works in QA for the mapping division of a big dot com (he can't tell you the name, but it starts with a G). At this point it's about the two of them trying to work through the death of their father in different ways, Clayton's desperate attempts to understand his sister, and Trinia's quest to resolve a long-standing family legacy tied to the tunnels under the city.
And there's also Bob the hedge fund manager turned reluctant dragon tamer, plus two dragons.
Should be fun!
