On the Yard

Malcolm Braly. New York Review of Books, $14.95 (368pp) ISBN 978-0-940322-96-7

Life in prison is the subject of Braly's 1967 classic On the Yard, now back in print with an introduction by Jonathan Lethem. Braly, who wrote the book while doing time in San Quentin, has an uncommon ear for the rhythms of big house speech. The expertly drawn ensemble cast and institutional insight may remind readers of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest Braly does for prisons what Kesey did for the insane asylum.

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