LIFE AS A PRISON LIBRARIAN

The New York Times describes Jill Grunenwald as "A Stylish and Sparkly Writer." It's on her book jacket above the title, Reading Behind Bars (which can't be seen in the picture above), and I agree with that assessment. She lands a job as a librarian for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) supervising inmates in a low-security level men's prison. The inmates are manipulative--no surprise there. One guy tells her that the previous librarian had him repairing damaged books and that he'd be more efficient if she gave him some tape and scissors to set up shop in his cell. And yes, she falls for it. Lesson learned.

Then there's a recurring incident happening behind the stacks. She sends an inmate clerk to investigate, realizing that part of her job is to catch the culprit herself and write him up. No one should be doing what he's doing behind the books. Grunenwald prepares herself for the next time and follows through with pen and paper.

And here's my favorite incident in Grunenwald's words:

Then there was an inmate who specifically wanted the Oprah Winfrey edition of The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. We didn't have the special edition...but we had an older version of the book. No, the inmate insisted. It had to be the Oprah edition.

"Why?" I asked, curious at his refusal of reading the exact same book with a different cover.

He stared at me. His intense gaze indicated a belief that I was highly overpaid for my position here and had no business calling myself a librarian.

"Because," he said speaking slowly so as to make sure I was able to comprehend, "Oprah rewrites the books and makes them easier to read."

What I admire the most about Grunenwald is that she got out of the prison system early (within two years) and wrote an entertaining memoir that I could relate to minus the violence. If Grunenwald had stayed longer, say thirty or more years, her writing would be darker, with very little sparkle.