The Prisoner's Wife: A Memoir http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Prisoners-Wife-Asha-Bandele/9780671021481

By Asha Bandele

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About the Author

Asha Bandele is the author of a book of poetry, ABSENCE IN THE PALMS OF MY HANDS and currently writes a women's column for RAPPAGES magazine.

Reviews

This book explains the inexplicable: how a talented young poet from a good family and privileged background could meet, fall in love with, and marry a prisoner serving 20-to-life for murder. As bandele says "I didn't fall in love with a killer. I fell in love with a man committed to the transformation of himself, of the world." They meet when she is among a group of African American activists giving readings at prisons. The prison, she says, "because of its stance against love made me take a stance for love." Her prison visits become personal visits as she and Rashid share stories of their lives and he helps her confront and overcome a history of sexual abuse. Their decision to marry, and thus have conjugal visits, seems offhand but not awry, given their deep emotional intimacy. The author has a poet's fluid skill with language and maintains a lyrical tone throughout, even in the uncertainty following denial of her husband's appeal and bandele's realization that he will be locked up for at least seven more years. For all public libraries.ÄJanice Dunham, John Jay Coll. Lib., New York Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Nikki Giovanni It is not easy to trust your heart, but here is a love story. "The Prisoner's Wife" takes us through not the dungeon of emotions but the sunshine of hope. Good for all of us. If we can continue to find a reason to care, we all can be saved. This book needs to be read by anyone who has ever hummed a tune on the day the rent was due; by anyone who tapped her foot on the day the kids needed money for the school trip; by anyone who is sitting drinking coffee because she's hungry and there isn't enough to go around. By anyone who has paid a price for love.