TRUE NOTEBOOKS. Mark Salzman. (Alfred A. Knopf New York 2003) pp. 326. $24

reviewed by Doug Holder

Imagine. You have been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. You are invited to visit a writing class in the most dangerous lockup in Los Angeles, Central Juvenile Hall. You think at best you will last a class, but to your surprise you wind up becoming a regular teacher there. This is not some ill-conceived TV movie-of-the-week plot. This is a factual account by Mark Salzman, author of TRUE NOTEBOOKS.

Salzman, like many of us, came with his prerequisite set of prejudices. He thought that the denizens of this sorry institution were beyond hope, talent and creativity. But he was proved wrong. In spite of the brutal nature of many of these kids crimes, they were still in essence "kids" Kids, who still had sparks of creativity, energy, and native intelligence. Kids who yearned for acceptance, love and understanding.

Salzman had to navigate an entrenched institutional culture, to break through the stranglehold of many of the guards, and the macho-bravado of these young inmates, to hit pay dirt. In this passage Salzman describes the mother lode that would be eventually mined: "I tried not to gush. These were delinquents, I reminded myself. Was their writing technically sophisticated? No, and from a quick glance at their handwritten work, I guessed that none of them have ever won a spelling bee. On the other hand were they writing coherently? Yes. Were they writing about things that meant a great deal to them? Yes. Did they write about those things in a way that would draw the reader in? Yes. Did the writing show that they were actually thinking? Yes."

Throughout this book Salzman provides a cornucopia of writing samples that prove his point. During one of his first classes a boy named Jimmy volunteers to read a short piece about a recurrent day dream he has that speaks to his isolation and loneliness. What was most impressive was how the boy makes no attempt to mask his vulnerability:

"I stand alone and look out at the ocean. Feeling the wind against my face and hearing the water lap against the sand, I can't hear or feel anything else. I look around and see that no one is around. I start to shiver and I feel my arms covered in goose bumps. As I stand here, I wonder how I became who I am and why I feel nothing but coldness and loneliness. Where had I gone wrong? Why am I standing here alone? Why is no one standing with me?

Having run poetry groups at McLean Hospital for a decade, I can attest to the fact that often the most taciturn, the most mute patient will come to life in a forum that addresses their spirituality, their essence, instead of meeting only sterile clinical goals. In this passage a student named Victor comes to life with a piece that skillfully uses a flock of birds as a metaphor for straightjacketed lives: "Birds are so beautiful, because most of the time they travel in bunches and stick together, not like humans. They have a hidden beauty that most of us never pay attention to, because we are so blocked out of the wonders of nature and other very important things that help us go through life easier."

Salzman has a talent for mining the writing that truly showcases the skills of this challenging group of writers. I am sure that Salzman had to heavily edit most of their work, but genuine insight, passion and emotion is impossible to edit in. AllThis, these boys have, and Salzman "done did them proud."

At the end of TRUE NOTEBOOKS, Salzman includes a poem by a writer named Kevin, which sums up what the goals of this class and for the life of each imprisoned boy should ultimately be:

TRUE FRIEND "I still have a long journey to go. But I'll be free again, I'll use the time to grow, In not just one way, but all There's a lot for me to learn So I am gonna start like a baby, with a crawl. Though the road may seem Long and Far Eventually I will make it."

Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press. He is the arts/editor for the Somerville News of Somerville, Ma., and is the host of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series in Newton Ma. He is the recent recipient of a Lucid Moon Poetry Award, for the hardest working editor in the small press.dougholder@post.harvard.edu To reprint contact author.