Penitentiary Tales: A Love Story

by EA Luetkemeyer

Overview

Penitentiary Tales: A Love Story recounts the escapades of Dean Davis, a thirty-something, educated, straight white male from the affluent community of Sausalito, in Marin County, California, who is sent to an Illinois prison dominated by a daunting, ethnically diverse population of inmates from the mean streets of Chicago. His wife Lucy and infant daughter Lola await on the outside. Lucy pleads that Dean not let the experience change him, that he be the same man when he gets out that he was when he went in. “I’ll be a ship in the night,” he assures her. “Just passing through. When I walk out those gates in five years it will be as though I had never been there.” But he doubts if this is true.

How does he do his time? What challenges does he meet? How does the experience affect his social and political consciousness? How does it affect his marriage? It is, after all, a love story. Addressing issues of race and gender from an uncommon point of view, it is at once a serious inquiry into the minds and hearts of the marginalized and the oppressed, and a bit of a romp. Like Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, which celebrates the lives of the disenfranchised during the Great Depression without railing against social injustice, Penitentiary Tales: A Love story sheds light on the daily lives of its characters, and on their humanity no matter how obscured by circumstance. It will appeal to adventurous and intelligent readers of all persuasions who appreciate a literary walk on the wild side.

EA Luetkemeyer spent four years of a ten year sentence in an Illinois State Prison in the eighties for possession of Marijuana, an experience he embraces and which informs much of his writing and his world-view.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780578581224
Publisher:	Laughing Buddha Books
Publication date:	11/12/2019
Pages:	362
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

MR LUETKEMEYER'S short fiction has appeared in Sou'wester, Opium Magazine, Del Sol Review, Commonthought, Perversion Magazine, The Ilanot Review, and the anthology Stories That Must Be Told. He is the author of the novel Inside the Mind of Martin Mueller, the memoir The Book of Chuck: A Memorial Compilation of Poetry and Prose, and is knee-deep in his next novel, The Outlaw Ethan James. He has been a martial artist, a long distance runner, an outlaw, a fugitive, a husband and father, and sometimes a fool. In the eighties, he spent four years in a state penitentiary for possession of marijuana, an experience he embraces and which informs much of his work and his worldview. His stories are not for everyone. The good guys don't always win, and the bad guys don't always lose. The language is explicit, the situations dicey, the characters debased, and the reader will be taken to places best visited on the page. He lives and writes between the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern Oregon and favors the trite but true adage that bad roads lead to good stories. He was awarded an MFA in Creative writing from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, in 2015.

Editorial Reviews

“Dean Davis…came from an affluent family and had his life under control…[until] he is sentenced to prison in Illinois [and] will now have to fight every day of his sentence…packed with emotions, drama and the struggle of a man who…learned about life in the hardest way possible…the reader [will] experience what Dean was going through…an amazing job at writing an impactful story.” —Readers’ Favorite, 5-Star Review

“Bold prison tales…from the perspective of a white drug dealer serving time in a state penitentiary…with an emphasis on the eccentricities of other inmates…self-assured visceral approach…unflinchingly abrasive when capturing the realities of prison…readers will appreciate the testosterone-fueled language” —Kirkus Reviews

“an insightful and at times darkly disturbing glimpse into an institution rarely entered by most readers…compelling and realistic…filled with vivid character descriptions…[Penitentiary Tales: a Love Story] is a fictionalized account of a pivotal period in the life of the author… through his wit, insight, athletic prowess, bravado, and luck, [protagonist Dean Davis] is able to navigate successfully between racial gangs, the administration, the guards, and otherwise dangerous individuals in order to survive and to thrive…Much like Erving Goffman’s portrayal of total institutions…[Luetkemeyer] reveals a common theme among inmates, and one that I discovered in my own prison research: all incarcerated individuals (and perhaps all of us) operate behind…protective masks, preserving a part of one’s self-identity only for one’s closest intimates” —Dr. John M. Coggeshall, Clemson University

“a work of literary fiction…set in an Illinois prison filled with…[racially diverse] inmates from the difficult and dangerous streets of Chicago…an intriguing and committed character study which effectively explores the social and political consciousness of the current class and racial divides in modern-day America…nuanced and personal…contains graphic depictions of violence, sex, and distressing situations, and…explicit language appropriate to its context…the scenes we move through…stick in the mind and the social conscience of the reader long after the scene is through…a well written and poignant dramatic novel which comes highly recommended.” —K.C. Finn, Fallow Heart

“Penitentiary Tales: a Love Story…is a cross-examination of social inequalities in race and gender…Dean Davis, an educated white male [is] doing time for dealing marijuana…How a highly literate convict manages to survive makes for a brilliant depiction of how the human spirit can triumph under the most adverse conditions…Luetkemeyer [demonstrates] that love can spring forth…in a setting that hardens criminals but softens our hearts to miracles.” —Vincent Dublado, The Weed and the Rose

From the Publisher