From Publishers Weekly
Delorme was imprisoned in Washington State Penitentiary when Cardozo-Freeman (currently a humanities faculty member at Ohio State) met him in 1978. They subsequently collaborated on The Joint: Language and Culture in a Maximum Security Prison (1984). This addition to the Univ. of Nebraska's "American Indian Lives" series presents Delorme's oral autobiography. Not only did he have to face anti-Indian prejudice while growing up in Aberdeen, Wash., but his father was an alcoholic, and his mother, who worked two jobs to support the family, followed the Indian tradition of exerting no discipline on her sons. Delorme was sent to a reformatory at age 10 and spent most of the next 30 years in prison for theft or parole violation. A keen observer and an extremely articulate man, he is at his most gripping when explaining the prison code and showing how it represents society's code inverted. Because he is suicidal and often drunk Delorme is now, at age 54, again institutionalized, this time in a psychiatric hospital. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
An affecting story of one man's life of crime, Cardozo-Freeman lets the man, Eugene Delorme, tell it in his own words. His voice is at once contemplative, childlike, and angry. His childhood is nothing short of horrendous, as he and his family are ravaged by racism, poverty, and an alcoholic father. By the age of 10, Delorme is living the life of a criminal. His shoplifting and joyriding quickly escalate to breaking and entering and armed robbery. Prison is not simply in Delorme's future, after about the age of 13, it's essentially his life. As soon as he's released from one term, he does the very things to guarantee his return. But the book does more than recount Delorme's history. It tries to understand the central questions of recidivism: Is criminal behavior caused from within or without? Can the career criminal ever change? What responsibilities does the criminal have to himself? His society? In Delorme's case, the answers are not so clear-cut as the questions might presuppose, but they are present, in authentic and disturbing detail. Highly recommended.
Brian McCombie
