Will I love You Got Nothing Coming?

This was the first book I ever read dealing with life in prison, and it took me into a world way beyond my own.

The prisoner who wrote it was, like me, a corporate office worker (although unlike me, he killed someone). This book took me right into prison with him, directly from the courtroom. I could feel and hear and see and smell this utterly alien place, this community of people that has its own structure and its own rules, and where nothing that worked in your past life has any relevance.

A big part of why I love… show more.

Brooklyn native Lerner’s lightly fictionalized memoir is a tightly wound, observant, and even funny account of his time in a Nevada prison for involuntary manslaughter, and also a detailed tour of the contemporary American prison system.

He’s determined to tell the reader how the entire thing works, not just the day-to-day minutiae of prison life but the bigger picture about the way power moves through the guards and the legal system. It drips with sardonic wit and defiance.

It’s horrifying to consider how little experience with prison a lot of people (teenagers, often) have in thinking about their situation. If… show more.