Post # 107 June 23, 2025

Monday, June 23, 2025

 Quote for the Day: "Serving time in Marquette Prison, on the shore of the largest freshwater lake in the world, must be like dying on the first day of spring, day after day." Loren Estleman, Downriver. 1988.



Reviews


Prison: The Inside Story by Jack Myette


This is an utterly fascinating and eye-opening look at prison life in Michigan. The author spent 25 years working in prisons starting as a correctional officer and retired as a teacher helping inmates pass the GED. The author was a keen observer and over 25 years filled a shoebox of small notebooks in which he recorded unusual, important, and insightful prison events along with a multitude of character sketches of both prisoners and correction officers. The book is especially engaging because the author writes fairly and honestly of prisoners and correctional officers.


The author quickly learns life in prison, for both convict and guard, is a world turned upside down. If "politeness and congeniality" are accepted norms outside prison walls, inside they are a weakness and can attract predators. Prisoners constantly try to intimidate and manipulate each other and even guards, especially rookies. Some correction officers are out and out bullies who show convicts absolutely no respect as human beings. It is evidently OK with administration because bullies are promoted. The author's first assignment was to a unit for the criminally insane. They were allowed out of their cells and their guards were expected to mingle and play pool or games like Scrabble with them. They were all sticks of dynamite with short fuses.


The book is filled with unique characters, interesting historical highlights, and just plain great stories told by the author about prisoners, fellow guards, and unique events. Pick up this book and you'll find yourself serving a memorable 287-page sentence.  













Prison: The Inside Story by Jack Myette. Mission Point Press, 2025, 287p., $20.95.



Moral Treatment by Stephanie Carpenter


This novel takes the reader on a deep dive into psychiatric practice in 1880s. The author is from Traverse City, and she has used her hometown's closed psychiatric hospital as the model in her book. Her extensive research ranges from exploring the hospital's still standing buildings, to reading the hospital's biannual reports, a memoir on working at the hospital, and numerous historical journals and texts on the treatment of the insane. 


The result is a historical novel that immerses the reader in a meticulous recreation of psychiatric care and theory in 1880s as experience by two main characters and several equally convincing minor characters. Seventeen-year-old Amy Underwood has been brought to the hospital by her parents. She rarely talks, is prone to running away and self-mutilation. She is withdrawn, has episodes of strange behavior, and may be a sex addict. Dr. Foly, the hospital's superintendent talks with Amy and her parents, and admits the young women to the hospital determined she is suffering from Pubescent Insanity. The Dr. prescribes Moral Treatment which includes good food, rest, sound influences, and morphine. Amy struggles to adjust to life in the hospital yet wonders whether she wants to return home. The aging Dr. Foly is unaware that he is growing evermore outdated as psychiatry enters a new age and doesn't realize he is losing control of the hospital.


This is a masterful historical novel that authoritatively brings to life the practice of psychiatry in northern Michigan nearly 150 years ago. It is not only the extensive research and narrative skill that marks this novel as special but allowing the reader to experience 1880 psychiatry through the wonderfully drawn character of Amy Underwood. The book is the winner of the inaugural Summit Series Prize from Central Michigan University Press.


Moral Treatment by Stephanie Carpenter. Central Michigan University Press, 2025, 367p., $19.95.



Cady and the Search for Family by Ann Dallman


Cady Whirlwind Thunder, soon to be 14, is a member of the Potowatomi tribe. She lives in the U.P. and carries a heavy personal burden. Her mother walked away from her family 8 years ago and has never been seen or heard of since. It doesn't help that her father remarried a year ago and wants Cady to call his new wife mom. Cady insists on calling her ma'am. The worry and emotional pain of not knowing where her mother is and why she left is felt daily and has resulted in an often-uncontrollable temper. It doesn't help that her town is celebrating its 100th Anniversary and is holding a contest in which students are to write an essay that traces their family's history. Cady is pressured to enter even though she knows hardly anything about one side of her family let alone writing about her mother. 


Cady's grandmother visits Cady with hopes of helping her granddaughter learn more about her mother and ease her pain. She tells Cady her mother took a trip through Michigan and Wisconsin to learn more about her heritage at Cady's age and her grandmother knows the route her mother took. She is there to take Cady on the same trip. Cady jumps at the opportunity to learn about her mother and to increase her appreciation of her peoples' heritage. Her grandmother also has treasured possessions her mother collected that she gives to Cady. It is a trip that brings her closer to her mother and her Indian heritage. Grandma also tells Cady it is time she learned the sad truth about the national tragedy of missing and murdered Native Americans. The trip proves to be a major turning point in Cady's life.


Cady is a wonderfully drawn portrait of a Native American teenager and the important heritage that impacts almost every aspect of her life. The book is written for young adults but even adults will find the mystery surrounding Cady's mother and the depiction of Potowatomi heritage and culture compelling. This is book #3 in the Cady Whirlwind Thunder Mysteries series. 


Cady and the Search for Family by Ann Dallman. Modern History Press, 2025, 149p., $18.95.  



  


  


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