Absolutely the case. I wavered on my rating because of the elements I mentioned like that (one of which I still have NO idea about), but I liked the Kushner’s writing and the women’s stories enough to go with 3 stars.

Ha! I don’t know how long I’m going to keep that silly thing up. I’ve gotten along for 6 years without it so unless it’s legally required…

I think you might have DNFed The Mars Room for it’s abruptness in changing narrators AND the wacky, unnamed dude chapters. I liked her writing and the stories of Romy and the other women.

That’s why I ended up with 3 stars for it, Tara. I didn’t get parts of it, but they were not the prison experience parts. I think there is tons more room for these kind of marginalized women books. And a lot of the prison stuff I highlighted and wondered ‘is this true?’ Sadly, I bet it is.

I was hovering at 2.5 for a long time. Somehow the further away I get from it the more mellow I get about its shortcomings. Resist- I don’t think there’s anything in it that you haven’t seen in some way somewhere else.

Thank you. I can think of other books that portrayed the prison system better. Kushner does a good job, but the split stories are jarring- especially the ones I could never even figure out.