Shakespeare Saved My Life, Laura Bates
Shakespeare Saved My Life, Laura Bates
2 Rating(s)
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Shakespeare Saved My Life
Ten Years in Solitary With the Bard

Author: Laura Bates

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged: 7 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/19/2015


Synopsis

Shakespeare professor and prison volunteer Laura Bates thought she had seen it all. That is, until she decided to teach Shakespeare in a place the bard had never been before—supermax solitary confinement. In this unwelcoming place, surrounded by inmates known as the worst of the worst, is Larry Newton. A convicted murderer with several escape attempts under his belt and a brilliantly agile mind on his shoulders, Larry was trying to break out of prison at the same time Laura was fighting to get her program started behind bars.

Thus begins the most unlikely of friendships, one bonded by Shakespeare and lasting years—a friendship that, in the end, would save more than one life.

About Laura Bates

Laura Bates is an English professor at Indiana State University, where she has taught courses on Shakespeare for the past 15 years to students on campus and in prison. She enjoys teaching a wide range of courses at Indiana State University, from Children's Literature to World Literature, Shakespeare, and Crime and Punishment. With a PhD (University of Chicago, 1998) in Comparative Literature, her academic training involved classic world literature alongside contemporary texts and theory. Her work has been featured in national media, including MSNBC's Lock Up. Laura lives in Indiana.


Reviews

Goodreads review by James on July 29, 2013

As a memoir Laura Bates' Shakespeare Saved My Life is to my mind mediocre to annoying. As a biography of Larry Newton and his remarkable capacity to both understand Shakespeare's plays in fresh and insightful ways and discover how to relate to them so completely that they provided a means for him to......more

Goodreads review by Gina on May 27, 2013

I'd really give this four-and-a-half stars. I enjoyed this book. Both the Shakespeare angle and the human interest angle are things that kept me entertained. Bates does an excellent job of weaving her own story through the stories of the inmates (particularly Larry Newton). After reading this, I fou......more