Though We Have No Merits

"A man's life changes when he spends time in an unusual kind of prison in this debut novel."  Kirkus Reviews (kirkusrviews.com)

"The main character in Carmel's high-spirited tale, Zolly Berns … the middle-aged owner of ...  a bar on Chicago's Rush Street … finds himself incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Lexington, Kentucky ... an inviting sprawl studded with parklike spaces and open doors …. Zolly adapts to Lexington and its wild assortment of outsized characters—and maybe begins to change himself.

"Carmel very cannily manipulates the standard world-in-miniature expectations attached to the prison novel …. the author maintains very effectively the tension that animates all prison literature: How will Zolly's time inside alter his life outside …. Carmel writes this comparatively simple narrative with an appealing wit and directness. Most of his characters have seen the rougher edges of the world, and the author does a sensitive job depicting the sometimes surprising ways they learn from one another. At the center of it all is Zolly, a wonderfully realized fictional creation whose multifaceted portrayal grounds the entire book."

"An intelligent and involving novel about an unusual inmate's personal transformation." Kirkus Reviews (kirkusrviews.com)

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