Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #744354 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Synopsis
A major American novel, and recognised as such on first publication by Truman Capote, Kurt Vonnegut, and Norman Mailer, On the Yard is arguably the finest work of literature ever to emerge from this country's many prisons, a book of penetrating psychological realism that paints an unforgettable picture of the complex and frightening world of the penitentiary. At the centre of the novel are the intertwined stories of Chilly Willy, in trouble with the law from his earliest years and now the head of the prison's flourishing black market in drugs and sex, and of Paul, wracked with guilt for the murder of his wife and desperate for some kind of redemption. Around these two characters, Braly assembles a cast of characters that reflects every level of the prison hierarchy, from the floor-sweeper to the warden, as well as humanity's seemingly endless capacity for self-delusion and hope. But the final triumph of On the Yard is to present the penitentiary not as an exotic location, an exception to everyday reality, but as an ordinary one, a place every reader will recognise, American to its core.

Customer Reviews

Neglected masterpiece
This is one of the best post WWII American novels I have ever read, and I have read many of what are considered to be the best.
This is an exquisitely nuanced, superbly written, psychologically and sociologically penetrating work of fiction of the highest order. It is the work of a masterful writer in the tradition of Henry James. It's like Dostoyevsky writing with the ironic distance of Flaubert. The only reason this book isn't more well know or respected is because the author spent most of his life in maximum security prisons in California, and therefore was not part of America's literati.
Far from exploitative, Braly writes about prison society the way that Austen writes about drawing room society or Conrad writes about sailors. Read it, read it, read it.
Every book I have read in the NYRB Classics series has been absolutely brilliant, so you can probably extend this recommendation to all the rest of their titles as well.