The Prisoner's Wife

Poet asha bandele joins a group of students in a program that interacts with prisoners. There she meets and ultimately marries a man who is still serving a sentence of 20 years to life for murder. Myra Lucretia Taylor gives bandele a voice that is gentle, compelling, youthful, and intelligent, so that from the very beginning the listener feels a bond with this young woman. This is very important; otherwise, her decisions would not be just incomprehensible, they would also be unacceptable. This is not easy listening, but Taylor makes it a memorable narrative for our time. P.R. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine