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Boaz Publishing Company
Mike Tyson Slept Here
Mike Tyson Slept Here
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Mike Tyson Slept Here is the winner of the third annual Fabri Literary Prize.
Every May college graduates across the country ask themselves one very important question--now what? For Brant Gilmour the answer is prison. With little thought to a career, indeed, despite the bitter consequences of institutionalization, Brant takes a job teaching GED classes to inmates at an Indiana correctional facility made famous when Mike Tyson was incarcerated there. And so begins Brant's education.
The first day on the job Brant meets Isa, a teacher like himself and ten years his senior. Disappointed in love, and cynical of her ability to do any real good for her student-inmates, Isa nevertheless helps Brant navigate the rules and strong personalities of Plainfield Correctional Facility. Brant soon falls in love with her. Almost everyone makes mistakes on their first job, and in love. Brant is no exception.
Katie Pence is a personal trainer at the gym where Brant works out. As the story begins Katie has fallen for a strong and dashing man, Billy. But, Billy is gay, and madly in love with Orozco. Orozco, an illegal immigrant, has been deported. Katie and Billy set out on a road trip from Indianapolis to Mexico City to find Orozco. But as we know love is not rational, things don't quite work out for Billy, and Katie learns about the pain caused by an ungovernable heart.
The prison setting distinguishes Mike Tyson Slept Here from the literary landscape. Brant goes to work just like office workers and schoolteachers across America, but the dynamics of Brant’s particular workplace challenge him profoundly. The routine acts of intimidation and the daily flirtations with illegality bring a degree of menace to the Brant and Isa story. Brant’s loss of innocence is all the more dramatic against this backdrop.
The author balances the severity of institutional life with humor reminiscent of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The prison atmosphere makes whatever is funny that much funnier – because the
setting and situation would be predictably tragic if not for his remarkable characters, who still have souls and like to laugh.
Chris Huntington’s writing style is spare and he has a light touch when he conveys emotion. He uses multiple narrators, circling points of view, stories in stories, and overheard dialogue to layer the rich tapestry of lives in and around Plainfield Correctional Facility.
"For taking us deep into a world our literature so rarely deigns to visit, and for doing so with empathy and humor and not one atom of condescension, and for knowing so intimately all his characters’ fears and hopes, and for being able to express them so scarily well, Chris Huntington deserves some kind of medal---possibly all of them. Mike Tyson Slept Here is a throttlingly beautiful little novel."
--Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things and Extra Lives
Every May college graduates across the country ask themselves one very important question--now what? For Brant Gilmour the answer is prison. With little thought to a career, indeed, despite the bitter consequences of institutionalization, Brant takes a job teaching GED classes to inmates at an Indiana correctional facility made famous when Mike Tyson was incarcerated there. And so begins Brant's education.
The first day on the job Brant meets Isa, a teacher like himself and ten years his senior. Disappointed in love, and cynical of her ability to do any real good for her student-inmates, Isa nevertheless helps Brant navigate the rules and strong personalities of Plainfield Correctional Facility. Brant soon falls in love with her. Almost everyone makes mistakes on their first job, and in love. Brant is no exception.
Katie Pence is a personal trainer at the gym where Brant works out. As the story begins Katie has fallen for a strong and dashing man, Billy. But, Billy is gay, and madly in love with Orozco. Orozco, an illegal immigrant, has been deported. Katie and Billy set out on a road trip from Indianapolis to Mexico City to find Orozco. But as we know love is not rational, things don't quite work out for Billy, and Katie learns about the pain caused by an ungovernable heart.
The prison setting distinguishes Mike Tyson Slept Here from the literary landscape. Brant goes to work just like office workers and schoolteachers across America, but the dynamics of Brant’s particular workplace challenge him profoundly. The routine acts of intimidation and the daily flirtations with illegality bring a degree of menace to the Brant and Isa story. Brant’s loss of innocence is all the more dramatic against this backdrop.
The author balances the severity of institutional life with humor reminiscent of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The prison atmosphere makes whatever is funny that much funnier – because the
setting and situation would be predictably tragic if not for his remarkable characters, who still have souls and like to laugh.
Chris Huntington’s writing style is spare and he has a light touch when he conveys emotion. He uses multiple narrators, circling points of view, stories in stories, and overheard dialogue to layer the rich tapestry of lives in and around Plainfield Correctional Facility.
"For taking us deep into a world our literature so rarely deigns to visit, and for doing so with empathy and humor and not one atom of condescension, and for knowing so intimately all his characters’ fears and hopes, and for being able to express them so scarily well, Chris Huntington deserves some kind of medal---possibly all of them. Mike Tyson Slept Here is a throttlingly beautiful little novel."
--Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things and Extra Lives
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