H-Unit
A Story of Writing and Redemption Behind the Walls of San Quentin
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The bold account of launching an innovative creative writing class inside San Quentin and the journey of hardship, inspiration, & redemption of its members, from New York Times bestselling authors.
San Quentin State Prison would be an unlikely place to look for writing talent. But Keith and Kent Zimmerman, twin brothers and New York Times bestselling co-authors of Operation Family Secrets, have found creative passion, a range of gritty, authentic voices, and a path to hope and redemption behind the guarded walls of the prison's H-Unit—through a creative writing course they founded almost a decade ago.
H-Unit: A Story of Writing and Redemption Behind the Walls of San Quentin is the dramatic account of hope and purpose that explores Keith and Kent's experience teaching the class and their students' experience in the Literary Throwdown writing competition. Seen from the inside, H-Unit is written in an authentic voice and tells the story of real-life characters, from the recidivous "Big Bob" to the incorrigible "Midget Porn," whose lives are transformed by the written word.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The latest offering from the Zimmerman brothers (Operation Family Secrets) is an earnest account of their experience teaching a Friday night writing course for inmates of San Quentin State Prison. The authors have written more than a dozen books together, many on hard-boiled subjects such as the Hell's Angels and Johnny Rotten; this book, however, is less about the prison system and its charges than it is about the Zimmermans. To their credit, the brothers are forthright about their partly self-serving intentions, such as getting access to gritty stories and acquiring some teaching experience on the side, but their deepening interest in and commitment to their students is evident throughout. But the book gets bogged down in self-reflection and surface-level analysis of the prison system. The best passages, however, describe the inmates themselves and the Zimmermans' interactions with them. The brothers take care not to sensationalize (at least not too much), emphasizing instead the humanness of the inmates and their guards. Unfortunately, their compelling subject is hampered by flat, repetitive language and insufficient depth of field.
