The premise is amazing. Mikita Brottman begins leading a book club in Jessup Correctional Institution (JCI), a men's maximum security prison. The idea is to introduce these men to new worlds through literature. Each chapter details the discussions surrounding each book. These men challenge Mikita's perceptions of each story. She assumes they will be able to relate to some of the darker themes of the books. But what she doesn't expect is for them to see through themes she believed were convoluted. For example, I read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka in high school and found it incredibly hard to relate to. But these men who spend their time locked within the confines of JCI, immediately related to Gregor. The idea of waking up as someone completely different isn't an idea to them. One man admitted that they all woke up as murders, rapists, and thieves after committing their crimes. It wasn't a foreign concept to them and really makes me want to re-read it with a fresh set of eyes. Another book that really resonated with the men was Lolita. It seems like Mikita struggled with the idea that this book was not the love story she remember. The men immediately saw through the pretentious ideology of Humbert Humbert and saw him for the despicable man he truly was.
I found by the end of the book, Mikita continually struggled to find her place within the prison walls. She alternated between thinking of the men as her friends while simultaneously loving the perceived danger of leading a book club with incarcerated men. In the afterword, she talks about meeting with some of the men who have been released. She suggests they start another book club on the outside and quickly realizes that reading is the last thing they want to do. She even goes as far as to question if they will be able to keep out of prison in the future.
Some of the men took issue with the way they were portrayed in an article. They felt that one single derogatory line discredited the entire article. Many of them have spent years behind bars and have the mentality that if one thing goes wrong, everyone is punished. So while I did enjoy reading this book and seeing the alternate perspectives, I felt that Mikita often discredited the men she occasionally thought of as friends.
Looking for books they read in The Maximum Security Book Club?
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