The Prisoner's Wife by asha bandele

Rating:   PENS!!!!

A Life's Journey

As the author says in the beginning of this stunning memoir, this is a love story – and a beautifully told one at that. This memoir tells asha bandele's journey to find both love and, most importantly, herself. 

asha meets Rashid while doing poetry readings and workshops at the correctional facility where Rashid was serving time.  Instantly attracted to one another, they played it cool and easy like many of us do at clubs, when we see someone of interest.  What began as a friendship of mutual respect and admiration, grew into a love affair with that as the foundation.  asha recounts her experience as a wife of a man in prison – the trips upstate to see him, their marriage ceremony in a corner of the visiting room, their conjugal visits.  While these details give us all a glimpse into a world that we will never see, the most incredible part of this love story is the journey she took to find herself.  Through her relationship with Rashid, asha was able to free herself of the internal prison she had created to soothe the pain of sexual abuse she experienced as a teenager.  Although, a part of me wondered why she couldn't have experienced this growth on her own, I came to realize what freedom can come from a healthy and nourishing love.  Often this kind of love gives us the courage to look at ourselves in an honest and unflinching way. The sections of the book where she recounts painful memories and truth-seeking were the most powerful for me.  The love story that developed couldn't have occurred without her growing into her own woman.

I highly recommend this beautifully written story to anyone looking for a glimpse at a world they would never see and for those looking to take a journey of love and self discovery. 

Tameshia

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