Who ever said womyn weren’t bad ass? Wally Lamb surely has found a way to capture the ballsyness of broads - and in their own words. Couldn’t Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters)
and I’ll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison
are inspirational books written by the womyn in a writing workshop in York, Connecticut. And these ladies aren’t eating bon-bons and cooking for their hubbies. In fact, some of them wrote about stabbing their hubbies. These womyn were in the only womyn’s state penitentiary facility. I’ll Fly Away is the second installment of Lamb’s collection of biographical writings from the girls, following the success of Couldn’t Keep it to Myself
I had first encountered Wally Lamb in what I call my White Oleander
phase. It was the time in pop-culture when, for at least a week or so, people wanted to read about womyn - as long as they were suffering. Most of this was fueled by the rising popularity of book clubs among womyn and token men. At any rate, I loved White Oleander: A Novel, by Janet Fitch, and, in the natural progression of the Oprah induced White Oleander episode, I moved on to She’s Come Undone
by Wally Lamb. I loved this book, and could even associate with the lead character Delores’ experiences in young adulthood. But alas, I was young and impressionable - and shocked when I found out the author was a man! Looking back, the novel may have been better suited in the teen fiction section, as the dramatized extenuating circumstances are enough to make me gag now that I have grown up problems.
Either way, She’s Come Undone was good enough to make me dive into Lamb’s next book, I Know This Much Is True
. Though the writing was as eloquent and easy as Undone, Wally writes much better as a womon than a man. I can just picture him as the skinny, “Am I gay?” confused, too-nice-for-his-own-good kid, macrameing in the corner of gym class, thinking of the tribulations of periods and pads. For whatever reason this is, I Know This Much Is True was an awkward account of a stereotyped macho male: stubborn, selfish, emotionally inept. Though this is a fitting description of men, even I was rolling my eyes at the meat-head generalizations.
Moving on to our penitentiary books, however, becomes another story (book humor, get it?). Here it’s not Lamb, it’s the ladies. Stocked with street experience and a world of little regard for censors, these womyn pack the emotions all over the pages. The stuff that makes people uncomfortable, the stuff that makes life seem more scary, the stuff that idiotic men and womyn like to pretend doesn’t happen; this book reveals it all. Most of these womyn have been abused and neglected by society, men, and their families. The short stories portray the undeniable fact that us with ovaries often get left in the dust. Sure, the whole entire human race might be dependent on our reproductive purposes, but the day man learned how to pinch our nipples like a radio receiver, we became worthless. Couldn’t Keep It to Myself and I’ll Fly Away are perfect reminders of what desperation can do, and what crap womyn find themselves having to go through just to end up in prison.
