II. Hole in my Life by Jack Gantos, 2004, Farrar, Strous Giroux
III.
In the autobiography Hole in my Life by Jack Gantos, Gantos talks about his life in the prison and how it was like for him to be in there. Throughout the book he explains some of the important events that led to his imprisonment, and some of his experiences as a prisoner. The book starts off with Gantos going to jail in Kentucky in 1971. His father always singled out the people who spent time in jail when they were younger, telling him about all of the bad things they did. Now Gantos is in jail himself with a bunch of inmates that cause nothing but fear to others. In order to hide his weakness he acted tougher in the prison so he wouldn’t attract too much attention from the other inmates. His father never thought of him as a criminal, so Gantos decided that he needed to change for the better. Gantos then flashes back and starts to talk about his life before he was sent to jail. Gantos didn’t like his life at home and was forced to move because of his alcoholic issues. He move to St. Croix where he is offered $10,000 to take some drugs to New York, and he accepts delighted by the amount of money they are going to pay him.
The deal is with a guy named Rick, who is willing to pay him the money if he takes the drugs to New York. On this job he has to work with a guy named Hamilton that will be captain of the boat they are taking. Gantos gets scared when they go into restricted waters and Hamilton enjoys this fear. Once they get to shore they meet up with a guy named Jerome who makes them stay for the night in a hotel until they got paid. Jack gets rated out by Rick and gave them evidence to secure his arrest. Jack is sent to prison and shares his cell with other guys. His friend is raped and Jack hears the news. He is offered to be and x-ray technician and he accepts doing anything possible to be away from other inmates in order to avoid rape. Jack then goes to college and avoids prison and he gets a job delivering trees to peoples apartments.
IV. "You can be my booty-boy and ill protect you or all these other dudes will take turns making you a baby mama"
V. Gantos is sent to prison where being raped is a common thing. his life changes drastically for his one mistake of being caught transporting drugs. Gantos is in his cell when one of his inmates comes next to him and tells him this, Gantos is scared but does not accept the offer and tries to avoid being near anyone in prison to avoid being raped. This quote shows how Jack Gantos life was in the Prison, and how he is not afraid to put in personal things that happened to him in real life to keep us engaged. He does not just focus on the prison either he works his way up to being in jail.
