Books about prison: a list of the best, reviews from readers and critics

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In places of deprivation of liberty there is a life unknown to us, in which special orders, laws and ways of interaction between people are observed. But still there is a colossal difference between the order in our prison and in a prison, say, in the United States. Domestic and foreign writers have written many books about the prison, which reveal the life and shocking realities of life behind bars. You will learn about the best works of this subject from this article.

1. Freedom is what you have inside

Stephen King is a recognized horror master who has been haunting the minds of his readers for decades. Contrary to stereotypes, this writer specializes not only in terrifyingly realistic "horror stories" like "It". In his books about prison, he masterfully describes the horror in human souls. Many of his works have been made into amazing films. Stephen King's book "The Shawshank Redemption" is a story about a prisoner who served time in the most severe prison in the US state of Maine, but at the same time retained a human appearance, despiteinhuman life circumstances. A young and we althy banker, Andy Dufresne, goes to jail on false charges of murdering his wife and her lover. There he meets an influential prisoner named Red, on behalf of whom the story is being told. Red is known for his connections outside the prison and his ability to get anything for the inmates. Andy has a rather unusual request for him: to get a geological hammer and a large poster of the then-famous actress Rita Hayworth. After 27 years in prison, the former banker disappears from Shawshank without a trace. The management searches the prison, but finds no trace of Andy. Deciding to search his cell, one of the guards rips off a huge poster from the wall. Beneath it is an impressive hole cut by a geological hammer.

It is worth noting that for 27 years the protagonist has experienced many trials that would easily break a weak person: betrayal of his wife, pressure from prison walls, attempts to rape during the year. Despite this, he was able to maintain an inner freedom and courage that most of his cellmates did not possess. Stephen King's book "The Shawshank Redemption" is a story that in any circumstances there is a way out, the main thing is not to break down and not give up. This story was adapted into a movie by Frank Darabont in 1994, starring Morgan Freeman (Red) and Tim Robbins (Andy). The film was repeatedly included in the list of the best films according to the results of the audience voting, was nominated for the Oscar award seven times and receivedmany international prizes and awards. No less commendable were and remain readers' reviews of this book by Stephen King.

2. Hell is ourselves

The book "Zone" by Sergei Dovlatov is 14 chapters of memoirs and impressions about the author's service in correctional institutions of the USSR in the sixties of the last century. In this work, the writer describes the complex relationship between inmates and guards. In his own special manner, the author describes the events taking place with a certain amount of irony and humor. It is worth noting that Dovlatov does not embellish, but does not underestimate the significance of the events described in the book. He smoothly leads the reader to the idea that there is no difference between a prisoner and a law-abiding free person. It's just that some people are more fortunate and some less so. Descriptions of prison life are closely intertwined with notes and explanations addressed to the publisher. According to literary critics, of all his works on the "Zone" Sergey Dovlatov worked hardest of all. Bit by bit, the writer collected all the nuances and events set forth in the book, with detailed accuracy he traced the nature of each character and the meaning of each event.

The saddest thing is that during his lifetime, Dovlatov was not published in his homeland for political reasons, but abroad, namely in the USA, his book was accepted at that time with a bang. According to Russian readers, "Zone. Warden's Notes" is one of the most truthful books about Soviet prisons in the middle of the last century.

3. And there are angels in purgatory

"The Green Mile" is a book by Stephen King, who is not only an internationally recognized master of horror, but also a connoisseur of the human soul. This is how readers respond to his work after reading this work. This story took place during the years of the Great Depression in a prison cell for death row inmates called the Green Mile. The compartment is so named because of the dark olive color of the floor in the corridor that leads from the cell to the room with the electric chair. At the same time, the cruel and unprincipled warden Percy (who, among other things, is a relative of the state governor) and the African American John Coffey, unfairly convicted of murdering and raping two white twin girls, get there. It is striking that people who should be a priori cruel and callous show concern for a defenseless living being, such as, for example, the prisoner Delacroix. He takes care of an extremely intelligent mouse named Mr. Jingles, who has inexplicably found himself in a closed room. The book "The Green Mile" very clearly shows the injustice of life: the impunity of Percy, who mocks the prisoners, and the undeserved condemnation of Coffey. The latter is especially noteworthy. This is a man of difficult fate, whose case the investigation looked through their fingers because of the color of their skin. He is unjustly sentenced to death, but at the same time, possessing the gift of a healer, he cures the wife of the head of the prison from a cancerous tumor. With the help of his gift, Coffey also cured of a urinary infection the warden Paul, who is trying to save the prisoners from a cruelMayhem Percy.

It is noteworthy that an African American sentenced to death understood perfectly well that the healing of these people would not affect the execution of the sentence in any way - he just did what he could. But before his death, Coffey managed to restore some share of justice: walking the Green Mile, he uses his gift to transfer the illness of the prison warden's wife to Percy, after which the inhuman guard becomes dumb and incapacitated. The Green Mile has been repeatedly recognized by world critics as one of the best books about prison. In 1999, this work was filmed by Frank Darabont, starring Tom Hanks (Paul) and Mike Clarke Duncan (John Coffey). The film has been nominated for an Oscar four times and won numerous international prizes and awards.

4. Confessions of an Executioner

The Firing Squad by Oleg Alkaev is written answers to questions about prisons in Belarus and Kazakhstan. The author worked for 27 years in the judicial system, of which 5 years he was in a punitive unit called the "Firing Squad", which specialized in the execution of death sentences in the most severe prison in the CIS. In addition, Oleg Alkaev was a witness in the case of high-profile disappearances of oppositionists objectionable to the authorities at the end of the last century. According to Russian and Belarusian critics, this is not just one of the books about the prison and the zone, but an exposure of the highest authorities, the undeniable facts and evidence given in it canshock the impressionable reader. Alkaev gives answers to questions that are relevant for Belarus: "Where did all the political opponents of President Lukashenko disappear?", "Why has he been in power for several decades under the proclaimed democratic regime?", "Why does the president live in constant fear of Russia and the generals in power?" and "What is the true state of affairs in the country?"

For the inhabitants of Russia, Belarus is a calm country where nothing ever happens, a kind of small state where peace and tranquility always reign. But this is just a screen, an appearance behind which stands the authoritarian long-term rule of the head of state and the absence of a sharply minded opposition. The author also covers such issues as the details of the death sentence, the relationship between cellmates and guards, the unspoken laws of prison life. It is worth noting that the author of the book was forced to emigrate to Germany for obvious reasons. According to Alkaev, such qualities as lies, hypocrisy and sycophancy are now elevated to the state rank, and each misinterpreted word can be deadly not only for him, but also for the author of any exposing book.

5. Russian survival guide

Valery Abramkin is a writer, dissident and famous public figure who is known for actively defending the rights of prisoners. Despite a criminal record under a political article, his image does not fit into the stereotype of a former convict. He has forshoulders two higher educations, several dissertations and books about the prison. This wonderful man died in 2013. The book "Prisons and Colonies of Russia" by Valery Abramkin is a guide to survival and legal literacy in our country. It contains the experience of lawyers and legal figures, practical recommendations for surviving in prison, advice on maintaining legal capacity behind bars, and a set of legal norms that are necessary and useful for every person. The main part of the book consists of prison concepts and laws, which, according to the author, are very reminiscent of a set of biblical commandments (unlike Soviet legislation).

There is no lawlessness and anarchy in prison, as we used to think, rather, on the contrary, everything obeys the established axioms, with which no one in the zone even thinks to argue. This book, according to readers, will be useful to a wide range of people: both former prisoners and law-abiding citizens, as well as law enforcement officers.

6. "Sailor Silence"

Felix Svetov - Russian writer, well-known public figure and dissident in the USSR, wrote many books and articles about God and faith. In Soviet times, he spoke openly about Christianity and Christians, for which he would pay with his own freedom. In January 1985, Svetov ended up in the infamous "Matrosskaya Tishina", where he spends one year of his life. Then he was tried again, and he ended up through eight transit prisons in the Altai Territory. Felix Svetov's book "Prison" is essays and impressions about thefamous place of detention in Russia. The book says that prisoners are kept in inhuman conditions, that criminals certainly deserve punishment, but certainly not bullying by guards and the lack of basic amenities for a normal person's life. According to the writer, he could not forget about that time, it left an indelible imprint on all his future activities. Of course, "Prison" was not published immediately, for the first time the manuscript was presented to the general public only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was published by the Neva magazine.

7. In conclusion for the verses

The eighties of the last century are considered to be relatively free time in the Soviet era. Films with Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee appear on magnetic cassettes, music becomes freer and "Western", black marketers dress young Soviet citizens in their first jeans. But judging by Irina Ratushinskaya's book "Grey is the color of hope", the Stalinist era of repression and exile had not yet ended at that time. The author, along with other dissidents, is sent to prison for 9 years under a political article. Ratushinskaya, like many of her ideological inspirers and followers, paid with her freedom for poetry on a religious theme. In places of deprivation of liberty, she had to endure a lot: terrible living conditions, strikes and hunger strikes, moral pressure from the leadership (prison and state). Opening the book by Irina Ratushinskaya, we find ourselves in a different world with completely different values. fragilewomen were ready to die to defend their beliefs, no matter what. Such tests cannot be passed by a weak person without ideas and convictions. Many of the events in this book are confused, the names of the people who helped the "politicians" to keep in touch with the outside world are changed so as not to endanger their lives, which the author and her followers were exposed to. According to readers and critics, this is the hardest book about reality in women's colonies.

8. Not thanks, but in spite of

Nadya Mikhailova is a simple girl from the village of Malakhovka. Like all her peers, she dreams of a wonderful future, of entering a theater institute. But at one moment her life is crossed out by evil rock: the girl ends up in Vorkuta, in a maximum security prison. In one day, her whole life collapses. She finds herself in a completely different world, where bestial laws reign, which she did not even know about. The prison is filled with political criminals, enemies of the people, and people like her with broken destinies. But in spite of everything, Nadia manages to save herself and live according to her own laws, which clearly dictate to her what is good and what is bad. It is no longer a naive girl who is released, but a woman with a broken life. There is no happy ending in this story: Nadia understands that injustice and lawlessness reign not only in the zone, but also beyond it. "The Story of a Zechka" by Ekaterina Matveeva is an autobiographical book. Sadly, in the Stalin era, people were imprisoned in huge numbers with or without reason, the cruelty and lawlessness of the authorities knew no bounds. Inthroughout the Soviet Union there were hundreds of thousands of broken destinies.

9. This is unbelievable

Often, the reader is most shocked not by fiction, but by dry statistics and hard facts. "Sukhanovskaya Prison. Special Object 110" by L. A. Golovkova is a collection of memoirs of eyewitnesses and miraculously surviving prisoners of the NKVD special object, which was created by Stalin's right hand, Lavrenty Beria, to deal with his unwanted predecessors. Along with the revolutionary oppositionists objectionable to the authorities, there were prominent figures of art and culture, collective farmers and workers in the Sukhanovskaya prison, who were interrogated with prejudice only in order to obtain the necessary testimony. The fate of the interrogated was always the same: after they gave the necessary information, they were led to be shot. The editor of this book, Semyon Samuilovich Vilensky, is one of the few prisoners who remained alive after his stay in the Sukhanov prison.

Lidiya Alekseevna Golovkina, the author of the book, did a great job of restoring the archives of the Stalin era and presenting the horrific facts about the lives of political prisoners. In her work, one can feel genuine sympathy for the victims of repression, who were undeservedly exiled to a kind of hell on earth - concentration camps and exile.

Dry statistics

From 1921 to 1954 in the Soviet Union, the total number of prisoners was 3,777,380, of which 642,980 were sentenced to death, 2,369,220 were sentenced to up to 25 years, and 765,180 were deported to uninhabitable regions. Below isa table detailing the change in the number of prisoners in the USSR from 1934 to 1963.

After Stalin's death, his closest assistant Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, who, by the way, led the mass repressions and executions in the country, issued an order for a general amnesty three times. Two of them are well known. The first came out in 1953, when 1.2 million prisoners were released from the Gulag camps on political grounds. The second was signed in 1955. It was a general amnesty in honor of the decade of the Great Victory, when those unjustly convicted on charges of helping the Nazis were released. Beria's first and least known amnesty was carried out in 1939-1940. Then about 300 thousand people were released from the Gulag.

It would seem that with the death of Stalin, the situation with the unjustly convicted should have stabilized, but, as statistics show, in the mid-eighties of the last century, the era of Stalinist repressions resumed, although this was not advertised in the media. This time believers were judged en masse - people who openly expressed their faith in God and wrote poems and books on religious topics.

Of course, many survivors of the camps and prisons couldn't keep their experiences to themselves. They wrote books and essays. But due to the totalitarian state regime, most of them were not published immediately after the release of their authors. The boom in fiction books about the prison falls on the beginning of the nineties of the last century, it was then that the former prisonersconcentration camps and prisons, it became possible to tell about what really happened in the country.

And all the works mentioned in the article were highly appreciated not only by literary critics, but also by readers.