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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 811.54 EAN: 9780802139085 ISBN: 0802139086 Label: Grove Press Manufacturer: Grove Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 272 Publication Date: June 10, 2002 Publisher: Grove Press Studio: Grove Press Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Anyone who doubts the power of the written word to transform a life will know better after reading poet Jimmy Santiago Baca's wrenching memoir of his troubled youth and the five-year jail stint that turned him around. When he enters New Mexico's Florence State Prison in 1973, convicted on a drug charge, Baca is 21 and has a long history of trouble with the law. There's no reason to think jail will do anything but turn him into a hardened criminal, and standing up for himself with guards and menacing fellow cons quickly gains him a reputation as a troublemaker. But there have already been hints that this turbulent young man is looking for a way out, as he painstakingly spells out a poem from a clerk's college textbook while awaiting trial or unsuccessfully tries to get permission to take classes in prison. When a volunteer from a religious group sends him a letter, contact with the written word unleashes something in Baca, who starts writing letters and poems with the aid of a dictionary. Reading literature shows him possibilities for understanding his painful family background and expressing his feelings. Poetry literally saves him from being a murderer, as Baca stands over another convict with an illegal weapon, ready to finish him off, and hears "the voices of Neruda and Lorca... praising life as sacred and challenging me: How can you kill and still be a poet?" Baca has a year to go on his sentence, but the reader knows at that point he has made a choice that will alter his destiny. Without softening the brutality of life in jail, Baca expresses great tenderness for the men there who helped him and affirms his commitment to writing poetry for them, "telling the truth about the life that prisoners have to endure." --Wendy Smith Product Description: Jimmy Santiago Baca's harrowing, brilliant memoir of his life before, during, and immediately after the years he spent in a maximum-security prison garnered tremendous critical acclaim and went on to win the prestigious 2001 International Prize. Long considered one of the best poets in America today, Baca was illiterate at the age of twenty-one and facing five to ten years behind bars for selling drugs. A Place to Stand is the remarkable tale of how he emerged after his years in the penitentiary -- much of it spent in isolation -- with the ability to read and a passion for writing poetry. A vivid portrait of life inside a maximum-security prison and an affirmation of one man's spirit in overcoming the most brutal adversity, A Place to Stand "stands as proof there is always hope in even the most desperate lives" -- (Fort Worth Morning Star-Telegram). "A Place to Stand is a hell of a book, quite literally. You won't soon forget it." -- Luis Urrea, The San Diego Union-Tribune "This book will have a permanent place in American letters." -- Jim Harrison Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A Place To StandThis book is Great. A must read true story--Great writing. You must buy this book, if you don't--your missing out on something Great! Rating: - A Place To StandExcellent service. This is avery haunting book. I attended one of his workshops in San Antonio. He is an outstanding poet. I am glad to have the opportunity to read this book. Rating: - The only poem that ever made me cryI discovered JSBs work on the Modern American Poetry website. I loved the imagery and passion and redemption in his poem 'El Gato.' I cried. I have read a few of his collections and they are to poetry what Cormac McCarthy's works are to literature. I can't wait to get this book. Rating:  - Magnifical A Place To Stand, magnificent novel about the author, Jimmy Santiago Baca, and his career selling drugs, and prison. He talks about how he had to fight for his privileges to read. Then to write, all with the help of a nice old man named Harry. He also writes poems for other inmates for books. He tries to keep his rights and keep his life on track in prison. He talks about his mother dieing, which just thinking about telling strangers about that happening to my mother would kill ... Read More Rating: - Can't shake itI'm giving this book five stars, not because it is a literary masterpiece, but because it is a compelling memoir that I can't forget. I felt a gamut of emotions while reading this book, but for the most part I ached for Mr. Baca and the pain and anguish he suffered. I thank him for writing about his life so eloquently. 
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