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A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden

*Winner 2013 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize

Stephen Reid has grown old in prison and seen more than his share of its solitude, its vicious cycles, and its subculture relationships. He has participated in the economics of contraband, the incredible escapes, the intimacies of torture, the miscarriages of justice, and witnessed the innocent souls whose childhood destinies doomed them to prison life.

He has learned that everything is bearable, that the painful separation of family, children, and friend is tolerable, and that sorrow must be kept close, buried in a secret garden of the self, if one is to survive and give the ones who love you hope. Each of the essays in this collection is a recognition of how Reid’s imprisonment has shaped his life. Some describe his fractured boyhood and the escalation in crimes that led to his imprisonment, while others detail the seductive rush and notoriety of the criminal life.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 135
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781927068038
  • Genres
  • memoir, contemporary, biography, canada, essays
  • Release date
  • 2012