MixedThe New York Times Book Review...her insertion of herself into the narrative as a self-critical expert-naïf is distracting and occasionally overwrought, as when she writes sentiments like, 'I find my own cluelessness deeply moving.' The universality of human suffering, the dehumanization of incarceration and the ineffectual senselessness of punishment are confirmed and reconfirmed in these prison encounters ... Her maternal turmoil when her students are denied parole, rearrested, shot, deprived of opportunity or go missing, as well as her teacherly pride in their successes, is the genuine heart of the story.
