When I set out to learn about my mother's bridge club, the Jewish octogenarians behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, their gen, and the ragged path that led me back to my mother.
It’s funny, I can never seem to find my book in a single Barnes & Noble, but apparently the nation’s correctional facilities are stocked. I have received an inordinate amount of fan mail over the years from the inmates of America. The most memorable was from an inmate who said that his three favorite books of all time were: The Bible, A Clockwork Orange, and The Forest for the Trees.
Then the trail went cold until today when #1183049 wrote to say that I encouraged, challenged and chastened him. He said I raised the bar. (In all modesty, he said I set the bar, and I think he knows something about bars.) He said my grasp of a writer’s heart was maternal. Come to mama.
I always wondered about those women who fall in love with the nation’s incarcerated. Are conjugal visits hot or do you just feel rushed and self-conscious? Are the guards watching? And is that hot? Did Wally Lamb teach in prisons before or after having two Oprah pics? Do they have Papillon in the library, one of my favorite books from High School? Or, no joke, Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul?
It’s extremely touching and a little scary getting letters from prison. It’s impossible not to wonder what the circumstances were that led to a person’s incarceration. Or what it took for them to write and send a letter. I’ve never written back – was too afraid of all those dead men walking. I think I’ll send a note to #1183049. Wish him well.
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Betsy Lerner 
Ah, no wonder I couldn’t find your book at the local B&N. I’ll drive over to Colorado City and check it out from the Wallace Unit. Maybe I can hook up with an inmate. I’ll get back to you on the hot/not hot conundrum.
I’m impressed, and frankly, a little envious. I always wanted fan mail from an incarcerated person, but the closest I ever came was intoxicated. Or maybe he was just illiterate.
Do send a message to your admirer.
I’m big on the notion of six degrees of separation and of compassion. A note from you will probably make #1183049’s day.
I get children’s book manuscript submissions from inmates sometimes at work. They tend to be cautionary tales!
Having volunteered in a prison, I wouldn’t send a reply. Doesn’t seem worth the risk of a visit after he gets out.
Identity building that letter writing. My brother, in and out of prison, never responds to family letters, but, I can vividly imagine him writing someone he doesn’t know, has never known, in the hopes of becoming someone else in the exchange.
Talk about a room of one’s own. If we’re to believe what Steven Pressfield says, maybe the crimes some of these guys have committed were the logical (if extreme) outcome of a frustrated creative drive. Maybe physical confinement frees them in other ways. Once they’re locked up, they tend to get introspective. Just speculatin’.
I definitely think you should start an internet romance with this mysterious stranger.
Good idea!
It’s too bad you can’t somehow pre-screen them; you know, just hang with the really fun felons.