Review--Shakespeare Saved My Life by Dr. Laura Bates

Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard by Laura  Bates
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Dr. Laura Bates is an English professor at Indiana State University.  She is given to opportunity to teach inmates in Indiana's Correctional System.  She decides that she is going to teach them Shakespeare.  She was discouraged by others thinking that Shakespeare would be too much for inmates to handle.

Dr. Bates was surprised at how well the inmates were able to, not only understand the material, but also apply it to their own lives.  One inmate in particular, Larry Newton, took the material and really changed(saved) his life.  Larry was really able to relate to Shakespeare's works, especially MacBeth.  He used the material to look back on the choices and decisions he had made and was able to better understand the right choices to make.

When I saw this book as part of the Big Library Read, I was very excited.  It seemed like an interesting book that would hold my attention.  These days, I tend to do a lot of reading before bed.  Even though the chapters were no more than a few pages long, I fell asleep frequently.  I thought I would have been able to finish this book in a week because the subject matter was so interesting.  But, I felt as though it continued to go over the same thing.  I enjoyed the subject matter, but I thought I would be a little more engaged.


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