Audiobook6 hours
A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison
Written by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Narrated by Sean Crisden
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
At the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts-a good student from a lower-middle-class family-carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a "certifiable" offense, meaning that Betts would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, he served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state.
A Question of Freedom chronicles Betts's years in prison, reflecting back on his crime and looking ahead to how his experiences and the books he discovered while incarcerated would define him. Utterly alone, Betts confronts profound questions about violence, freedom, crime, race, and the justice system. Confined by cinder-block walls and barbed wire, he discovers the power of language through books, poetry, and his own pen. Above all, A Question of Freedom is about a quest for identity-one that guarantees Betts's survival in a hostile environment and that incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime.
A Question of Freedom chronicles Betts's years in prison, reflecting back on his crime and looking ahead to how his experiences and the books he discovered while incarcerated would define him. Utterly alone, Betts confronts profound questions about violence, freedom, crime, race, and the justice system. Confined by cinder-block walls and barbed wire, he discovers the power of language through books, poetry, and his own pen. Above all, A Question of Freedom is about a quest for identity-one that guarantees Betts's survival in a hostile environment and that incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime.
Author
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, legal scholar, educator and prison reform advocate. At age 16 he committed an armed carjacking, was prosecuted as an adult, and sentenced to nine years in prison. He started reading and writing poetry during his incarceration.
Related to A Question of Freedom
Related audiobooks
That Mean Old Yesterday Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSurvival Math: Notes on an All-American Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReal American: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invisible Man Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Negroes at Harvard: The Class of 1963 and the 18 Young Men Who Changed Harvard Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Love Prison Made and Unmade: My Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fire Shut Up In My Bones: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Show Them You're Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting to Save a Life: The Louis Till File Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brother, I'm Dying Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Are All the Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dream Bearer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Standing Our Ground: The Triumph of Faith Over Gun Violence: A Mother's Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Was White: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fugitivities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Boy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All At Sea: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Vanishing Country: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5State of Emergency: How We Win in the Country We Built Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Criticism For You
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thalia Book Club: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird 50th Anniversary Celebration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fahrenheit 451 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thalia Book Club: Neil Gaiman: The Ocean at the End of the Lane Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Feminist: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Included Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lord of the Flies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51984 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Common Sense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5C. S. Lewis: Encountering God's Truth through Fiction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Life of One's Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thalia Book Club: Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythologies: The Complete Edition, in a New Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book Thief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsiders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for A Question of Freedom
Rating: 3.3947368421052633 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
19 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5More an informal collection of recollections than memoir, this work reads something like a selection of blog entries related to reading and prison, only the very beginning and the very ending standing out as clearly ordered. As such, this comes across as too half-hazard an attempt at broaching questions related to youth in prison and the justice system, falling far short of the clear subtitle for the work: "A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison".The biggest problem I had in reading this, however, wasn't one of organization. It was the question of coming of age. More often than not, the book fails to make prison-life sound like anything more than an extended solitary stay in a library or retreat for reading, violence and injustice (or justice) on the outskirts. Beyond acknowledging that his views are wider because of what he's read, which he may have read in or out of prison, Betts also doesn't seem to (or claim to) mature as a result of his sentence. Reading this work, it's easy to forget that he's guilty of a crime, and while I don't begin to think that the nine years he served were actually deserved (at that length) for the crime he committed, any attentive reader has to at some point wonder: In all those nine years, shouldn't you be able to say why you committed the crime? After those nine years, shouldn't the resulting memoir speak to its supposed subjects of survival, maturity, and justice, moreso than the constant theme of trying to find ways to pass the time?It's possible that a clearer or more linearly organized narrative could have done Betts' story more justice. As the book stood, though, I didn't feel like the focus of the novel had any weight whatsoever beyond the close focus on Betts' personal experience. Certainly, there was little questioning or discussion of justice or maturation, beyond, again, passing time.On the whole, this was a disappointing read, and though well-written, probably not something I'd expect anyone to learn something from, or even find truly thought-provoking. Based on the writing and the experiences behind the work, I have to think that Betts would have been better served writing a novel.Unfortunately, I can't recommend this one.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I read this book in my capacity as the co-chair of the university's Common Experience committee. Given that our theme for the next academic year focuses on social issues and social justice, I think this book would be a good selection for our common reading.