True Notebooks.

TRUE NOTEBOOKS. Mark Salzman, 2003. Read by Paul Boehmer. 7-1.5 hour tapes. Books on Tape. 0-7365-9501-x. $72.00. Vinyl; content notes. SA

For five years I worked as a juvenile correctional officer in a facility on the opposite side of the country from the California facility featured in this account of a writing group for incarcerated teenage murderers. Salzman spares no detail in bringing his audience into the grim "Oz Jr." world of the teenage incarcerated. His original purpose in visiting the facility was to give substance to a character in his own fiction. He was led into this challenging experience by a tenacious nun. The listener will marvel at Salzman's even-tempered manner as the young men use every trick to rattle, con, and "get over" on him, and his tolerance when they do.

Without sentimentality, Salzman makes you care for these "throw-away" kids, most of whom are destined for life in adult prison. Without preaching, Salzman questions the current system of so-called juvenile justice and how our society deals with at-risk youth. I appreciate the author's portrayal of caring as well as bad correctional staff. But the main feature is the boys' writing. Salzman's nonjudgmental perseverance bore the fruit of young men turning the chaos of their lives into honest and often artful self-reflective prose.

Boehmer gives a steady and solid narration but I have heard and praised narrators more skillful at handling a variety of ethnic accents and dialects. Nancy Chaplin, Libn., VCCW, Goochland, VA