20 - True Notebooks, by Mark Salzman, 326 pages, Random House Vintage Books, 2003
WHY I PICKED IT: Recommended by Nick Hornby
ELAPSED TIME: <1 Day
RATING: REQUIRED READING
In what is the first truly fantastic book I've read this year, Salzman writes how he came to teach a class at L.A.'s Central Juvenile Hall, and about his experiences in that class. The writing of the students (which he readily shares) is real and engaging. The true mastery is how he describes these violent offenders (most of whom are murderers) and shows us how society failed them, and continues to fail them; that some of these kids have a lot of anger within, and blame the system... and how their peers call them out on it, and remind them that they did something horrific. I think Salzman is able to keep going back, even as he sees the system failing and his students are being tried as adults is because he keeps his objective simple: to encourage their writing as a teacher, and to be their friend. In both of these, he is successful.
This blog is a simple review of every book that I read... For all books I’ll tell you why I picked it, how long it took me to read it, and give it a rating (burn it, not good, meh, good, very good, and required reading). I ask (encourage?) all readers of my blog to post their thoughts of any of the books in my comments :). Thanks!
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