Disgrace, War, and Biscuits, Part 2 of Prison Book Group ~ by Minnie Birch

This month we had chosen to read two books, this is never a good idea because it usually means half of us only get around to reading one of the books, then we haven’t all read the same book and it all goes out the window. But that is okay. Book group is mostly about getting together, drinking tea, eating biscuits and putting the world to rights.

Well, I say drinking tea, but we actually have really fancy coffee from a fancy coffee machine! I do not know how a fancy coffee percolator ended up in a prison library and I do not ask, but extremely fancy coffee is the order of the day. I myself just have boring tea, I once had the library coffee and didn’t sleep for a week! So, I only have that on rare occasions where I really don’t see myself staying awake through the session.

The two books we read this month were:

War of the Worlds by H.G Wells and Disgrace by J.M Coetzee.

I was pleased War of the Worlds was on the list. I have never read

it, and it is one of those books that people give you the and-you-call- yourself-a-librarian look if you admit to having not read it.

It is of its time (published back in 1898) and the language is hard to navigate (for me anyway.) I found myself rereading sections, losing the plot line, getting itchy for descriptions to end, and action to begin. In the end, with the book group looming, I chose to listen to the remainder of the book in audio format. This is something I rarely do but something I really enjoyed it. 

The “official report” style of War of the Worlds lent itself well to being read aloud and I found I was able to indulge in the descriptive passages rather than be frustrated by them. The only other book group member who read the book has English as his second language so he, too, found it hard to navigate (although he has a much better excuse than myself, as English is my first – and only – language!) In summary we both felt the same: worth the read, interesting look at humanity, mostly glad we read it, so now we can say we have. 

Disgrace is a Booker prize winning novel and it isn’t hard to see why. It is a short book that packs in a lifetime of stories. It manages to hold up a mirror to you, make you ask questions of yourself, mess with your preconceived notions of right and wrong, and leave you not too sure exactly what might become of characters you’ve gotten to know along the way. 

It was very popular with the group. We are a diverse group both in age, background, and ethnicity; and so far whatever we have read, someone always seems to be able to say “Well this is/isn’t a fair representation – I would know, I lived it in my twenties” or some similar thing. 

We then stopped taking about the book and started talking about each other – which is exactly what a good book group should do, I think. Disgrace allowed me to delve further in to the worlds of some of these people and maybe shed a bit of light on the mystery of how anyone finds themselves facing a prison sentence.

If anybody would like to read along with us, maybe send me some of your thoughts to share with the group before our next meeting-- then we are reading Sinner Man by Lawrence Block and our next meeting is on Monday 20th May.

Minnie Birch is a singer/songwriter from the UK and a regular monthly contributor to Originality by Design. You can reach Minnie by email at minniebirch@hotmail.co.uk

Running a Book Group in a Male Prison ~ by Minnie Birch

The Handmaid's Tale.
   

I read Margaret Atwoods' The Handmaid's Tale back when I was in University. We had a whole module on Dystopian/Utopian texts, which was a dream! The reading list included things like Herland, 1984, We, Brave New World, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, to name a few. It was a wonderful time. This was exactly what I had imagined it would be like studying literature at University... reading all the classics and discussing them with groups of like-minded people. My university had lots of green space so you could sit on the grounds outside debating the classics. Pretentious, pompous, and just what 21-year-old me had ordered!

     Fast-forward a few years and The Handmaids Tale is made into a TV series (I still haven’t seen it yet!) It is in the minds of many, so when choosing a book with my all-male prison book group, this one comes up as our choice for the March session. I can’t recall the whole ins and outs of the story as it has been some time since I read it, but I flinched slightly at the idea. There is definitely a sex scene.
       Do I want to end up discussing consensual/non-consensual sex with a group of men? What will they make of it? But the book group is a democracy (and if it was only ever me choosing, we’d have been reading every Harry Potter book and mostly having conversations around things like “are you team Edward or Jacob?” so it is best I let them choose.)
     I am, as is often the case, surprised by the response from the group to the book. Even those who haven’t had a chance to read it managed to pick up on the storyline and themes, and we ended up in a debate about gender identity, women’s rights, the feminist movement, and somehow fall down a rabbit hole of talking about a wide range of topics. This is something I find really fascinating

about the group and book groups in general. They provide a safe space for discussion about the most interesting off topic things with people whom you might otherwise just politely pass the time of day.
     I will be regularly blogging a little about my book group meetings and go a bit more in-depth about our discussions, but as this is the first one, I thought I’d just round up by saying a little about who we are - without giving away too much information that would cause a problem for the men who attend or for me. For obvious reasons, we don’t usually talk too much about the residents outside of the workplace.
     The group has been going for just over two years. We have had members aged 28-83! We are a mixture of backgrounds: from East London to Portugal, some of us are avid readers – one currently working their way through Shakespeare’s entire back catalogue --  and some have only learnt to read since coming to prison. 
       Some are serving life sentences, others are repeat offenders, and for some, we find are total fish out of water in the system when a momentary lapse of judgement/concentration has led some to find themselves here. Some have owned businesses, traveled the world, never left home towns, have a family who are no strangers to the prison system, or have a family who have disowned for finding themselves here. Some are fathers, husbands, sons, brothers. Some have been or are addicts, at least one has survived cancer, one has been in the army, and another has been a baker. 
     

We are all different, but we all enjoy cake and coffee and a chance to get together on a Monday afternoon and talk about books.

photos courtesy of pexels.com

Minnie Birch lives in the UK and is a regular contributor to Originality by Design. You can find out more about Minnie and her work by clicking Website