  | Book Details Title: Bone Chalk |
Book Description Review From essay to essay, Reese bemusedly works to sort it out—blessedly, without a hint of Garrison Keillor’s labored folksiness. In one comic piece, Reese recalls his ill-fated stint as Willy the Wildcat. . . . alcohol, come-ons, and physical abuse all came with the job. . . . But the narrative’s true centerpiece is an essay reconciling his childhood fears growing up in Omaha with his hesitance to teach writing in prisons, something he’s done for a dozen years regardless. There, he masterfully weaves his personal history with observations of the prison system both intimately (in the prisoner’s writings, their tattoos, the strict regulations) and broadly (the troubled prison system, race and class divides). . . . the variety is the appeal, and Reese is skilled in many registers. . . . An eclectic, appealingly no-nonsense set of appreciations of the heartland.—Kirkus Review…Reese’s central concern is nothing less than the nature of evil and how best to deal with it. His school-boy experience of city-wide panic in Omaha during a wave of killings, and a few years later the murder of a friend, leave no room for naiveté or a Hollywood-style glamorization of crime…Reese also knows that the difference between a man on the street and a man in a cell is most often no more than a bad decision…This effort to change the lives of these men charges Reese’s teaching. And it will charge readers of this book…—Cleveland Review of BooksThe publication of this collection announces Jim Reese as a major writer on the Midwest in all its shades — lively and bright, somber and muted, violent and dark. Readers of all backgrounds will come away from his writings with a deeper understanding of the Midwest and of the human spirit itself.—Omaha World HeraldThis author has the ability to morph from “Green Acres” scenarios into situations more suitable to “Breaking Bad” without missing a beat. The reader will be transported from Fordyce, Nebraska to San Quentin prison with the turn of a page… Reese, finds universal truths in his work. Readers will discover that love of family, decency, honesty, and a sense of humor are not limited to any particular region of the country.—Lincoln Journal StarSouth Dakota writer Jim Reese’s new book BONE CHALK is a collection of rural life, written with the thoughtful story-telling skills that we expect from a practiced poet…Much of this book is good humor about the beautiful idiosyncrasies of country living. However, one of the longest and most serious chapters is Reese’s reckoning with crime, violence and the prison culture. Few writers have gained such a close-up view of life behind bars in South Dakota. —South Dakota MagazineBone Chalk is Midwestern Americana at its best. Ringing of truth down to the last thought and gesture, Reese creates a modern portrait of small town life; one Norman Rockwell definitely wouldn’t recognize. Built on prose that never fusses or falters, humor, and the endless intrigues that are there in everyday life—if you just know where to look—this is the sort of book you’ll pick up and finish in one sitting and be glad you did.—The Nervous Breakdown…The longest essay in the book, “Never Talk to Strangers—12 Years in Prisons and What Criminals Teach Me,” is a compilation of short pieces that center around a single question, “Why?” Included here are the John Joubert killings in Nebraska, as well as the murder of a good friend of Reese’s while she was babysitting. Juxtaposed to such memories are Reese’s present-day interactions with inmates in his job teaching writing in prisons. The central question is ever present. Why do criminals do what they do? …Yet Bone Chalk is not all seriousness, and Reese is also quite adept at sharing the more humorous aspects of his life… In this debut memoir, Jim Reese shares a wide variety of personal experiences that few readers would be able to relate to in any other way….And if throwing the door open to new experience is one of the reasons you choose to read, Bone Chalk is definitely your book.—North American Review Customers Review: Jim Reese’s new book of memoir, Bone Chalk, well illustrates some important lessons acquired in the writing and publishing of his previous collections of poetry. One of the more important of those is the necessary use of significant detail in an attempt to share an experience rather than simply tell about it. In this collection of essays, Reese shares a variety of experiences: of his youth in Omaha; as an undergraduate student in a state college in Nebraska; of living, working and raising a family in small-town and rural Nebraska; and of his job teaching writing at a South Dakota college, two South Dakota prisons, and at San Quentin. Embedded in these experiences are insightful comments on the political and economic concerns that daily affect rural and small-town folks, and that have adversely affected many of those presently confined in America’s prisons. The longest essay in the book, “Never Talk to Strangers—12 Years in Prisons and What Criminals Teach Me,” is a compilation of short pieces that center around a single question, “Why?” Included here are the John Joubert killings in Nebraska, as well as the murder of a good friend of Reese’s while she was babysitting. Juxtaposed to such memories are Reese’s present-day interactions with inmates in his job teaching writing in prisons. The central question is ever present. Why do criminals do what they do? Why do we incarcerate more of our people here in the United States than anywhere else in the world? Why are some people in prison for selling marijuana, while others go on selling opioids and profiting from the often-tragic consequences? Bone Chalk is not all seriousness though, and Reese is also quite adept at sharing the more humorous aspects of his life, including his stint as a college mascot in “My Life as Willy the Wildcat.” In this debut memoir, Jim Reese shares a wide variety of personal experiences that few readers would be able to relate to in any other way. If throwing the door open to new experience is one of the reasons you choose to read, Bone Chalk is definitely a book for you.
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