A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison by R. Dwayne Betts
BUY IT NEW
- $23.00 List price$18.40 Online price$16.56 Member price(Save 28%)Limited Time Offer! Everyone receives the Member Price on books.
See Details
Reserve it at BN.com & pick it up in 60 minutes at your local store.
Enter a zip code
(Hardcover)
- Pub. Date: August 2009
- 272pp
- Sales Rank: 23,882
| More Formats | |
|---|---|
| Available in eBook | $12.51 |
Buy it Used: 14 copies from $5.17 See All Available
Customers who bought this also bought
Product Details
- Pub. Date: August 2009
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
- Format: Hardcover, 272pp
- Sales Rank: 23,882
- ISBN-13: 9781583333488
- ISBN: 1583333487
Synopsis
A powerful debut memoir from a published poet and emerging writer.
At the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts-a good student from a lower-middle-class family-carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a "certifiable" offense, meaning that Dwayne would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, weighing only 126 pounds-not enough to fill out a medium T-shirt-he served his eight-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state.
A Question of Freedom is a coming-of-age story, with the unique twist that it takes place in prison. Utterly alone-and with the growing realization that he really is not going home any time soon-Dwayne confronts profound questions about violence, freedom, crime, race, and the justice system. Above all, A Question of Freedom is about a quest for identity-one that guarantees Dwayne's survival in a hostile environment and that incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime.
The Washington Post - Karen Houppert
Drawn from the journals Betts kept while in prison, the book captures the confused adolescent musings of a boy moving from the simple world of childhood to a complex adult reality, infused with shades of gray…his life story—an African American growing up among the drugs and violence of urban America today—is brutally common. But this familiar outline is also what gives the book its disturbing resonance.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
R . DWAYNE BETTS
is graduate student at Warren Wilson College, where he has been awarded the Holden Fellowship. Shortly after his release from prison, The Washington Post published a feature article about him and a book club he founded for at-risk young men called YoungMenRead. He teaches poetry at several public schools in the D.C. metro area, has had his poetry published in many national literary journals, and contributed an essay to the anthology It's All Love.
Customer Reviews
- Reader Rating:
- Ratings: 3Reviews: 3
- See All Reviews
bookloversby Anonymous
Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings
December 06, 2009: Enjoyed the book with a compelling subject and inspirational task.Great to see new writers of color.
Great Book!by authorof053803
Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings
September 17, 2009: Here's the story about an intelligent kid (not a thug) that grew up in a predominately Black area. The one older person he admires tells him how he got revenge on the police that abused him by carjacking "a whitey". Having never spoken to a white person himself, Betts honors his Peer by imitating his crime.
He is sentenced to 9 years in an adult prison, where he spends the majority of his time, improving himself while seeking out (the knowledge) that will appease his desire to understand who he really is. Transferred from one prison to another, some bad some not so bad, he experiences a series of epiphanies, that mark his progress, told in such a way that can only be described as remarkable. He gets into trouble and goes to confinement frequently to read and contemplate his goals with less distraction. Towards the end of his sentence he teaches himself another language and describes prison as the most culturally diverse place he'd been to up to that point. But through it all he describes his time as being very alone. Betts did his time his way and left the same way he came in "alone". "VENI VIDI VICI!I Also Recommend: 053803.
Loading...