This is an older work from Russell Banks. Sun & Moon Press first published The Relation of My Imprisonment in 1983. It’s short, at 121 pages, and it’s experimental.
Nevertheless, I loved this book. Banks modeled it on works by jailed Puritan divines. However in this case the work is science fiction in nature. Rather than have a jailed Puritan detailing the trials and tribulations of being imprisoned for his beliefs, the protagonist here is a coffin-maker, a worshiper of the dead, in a world where the majority worships life. The dead worshipers have their set of scripture, and their main ritual is lying in a coffin to commune with the dead.
At the beginning, the authorities declare worship of the dead heresy and the practice of coffin making to be criminal. Dispatched summarily to prison without trial, this is the story of his 12 plus years there. The relation of his imprisonment.
As in the Puritan works, this is written in a manner to be communicated with his fellow faithful. Some of his tribulations include such things as being tempted to exercise in prison. That, however, would be a celebration of his body and thus of life, and therefore against his religion. In that failing, he did not partake. However, on another occasion, the desires of his body took hold, and he engaged in sexual relations with his wife during her visits for a period. And even worse in his view, he also did so with his cousin, and allowed his jailer to penetrate his wife. The wonderful part about that passage is simply how the acts of sexual congress are portrayed are subtly portrayed as the normal rituals of the dominant faction in society, and not shameful. It was only shameful in to him because he was thus forsaking the dead he worshipped.
The only real drawback to this book is the somewhat dry nature of the prose, but that is inherent in the form which Banks chose to experiment. But it’s not a large negative.
Title: The relation of my imprisonment : a fiction
Author: Russell Banks
Imprint / publisher: HarperPerennial / HarperCollins
Format: Paperback
Length: 121 p.
Publication date: 1996
ISBN-10: 0-06-097680-2
Subject: Prisoners — fiction
LC classification: PS3552.A49 R4 1996
