"Cell 2455, Death Row"

Cell 2455, Death Row: A Condemned Man's Own Story (Caryl Chessman & Joseph Longstreth)

Here's another acclaimed book (almost no negative Amazon reviews) I didn't like. In fact, I hated this book. The very beginning, where the author is actually talking about Death Row, is interesting if a bit overwrought, but then we switch away from this and into the author's life story. Here the book commits the cardinal sin of wasting the reader's time. A common problem I have with biographies is that I don't care what so and so was doing as a kid; It's what she did as an adult, that she's, you know, famous for that I'm interested in, not reading about her growing up in Bumfuck Nebraska or whatever. This book covers the boring part of the author's life not only in incredibly boring and pointless detail, but also with flat out bad writing. Here's a sample:

And why? He didn't, he couldn't fool himself any longer. He didn't try. He knew why. [The author is rhymin' crazy! - Ed] But not rationally. Emotionally. Arbitrarily. Thatwas how he knew. And knowing required no proof.
It was then that Hate and Rebellion took off their masks and introduced themselves. They had been hiding within Whit for a long time, playing a waiting game - for sickness, frustration, resentment, hostility, fear, confusion to build into an intolerable tension - for anxiety to generate a pressure that could not be withstood. Waiting for the inevitable physical implosion. And then it came, and it was soundless, and did its devastating work.
Hate had showered sparks and the sparks had kindled a fire in the midst of the devastation; Whit vowed he would fan and feed that fire until it became a roaring infero.
I'll get even! (It didn't matter against whom or what.)

Frankly, either the author giving us page after page of his going through junior high or the terrible writing alone would be enough, but taken together I just put this book down after slogging through as much of it as I could stand. Maybe it gets more interesting once the author actually begins his life of crime, but I won't be sticking around to find out.

Grade: D-