Wilderness and Razor Wire: A Naturalist's Observations from Prison

by Ken Lamberton

From Mark Slouka, San Francisco Ken Lamberton would like you to believe his book, ``Wilderness and Razor Wire,'' is about the smell of creosote and rain on the wind, about hawkmoths dipping from the wells of cactus. Don't believe him. Don't be misled by the drawings of brittlebush and silverleaf oak (all done by Lamberton himself), or the well-intentioned, avuncular foreword by Richard Shelton, who taught Lamberton writing in prison workshops and at the University of Arizona. Though the nature writing here may be some of the best to come our way in a generation, this is not first and foremost a book about poppies and peppergrass. It is about the soul in pain. Reading it is like chatting with someone on the street and suddenly noticing there is blood running down his side. All of which is to say that Lamberton (for the past 12 years an inmate of Tucson's Santa Rita Prison) has written something entirely an edgy, ferocious, subtly complex collection of essays on the nature of freedom and the freedom of nature, whose true subject, and greatest accomplishment, may be its own narrative voice.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Nature, Natural History

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 2013

About the author

When I published my first book Wilderness and Razor Wire (Mercury House, 2000), the San Francisco Chronicle called it an "…entirely original: an edgy, ferocious, subtly complex collection of essays….” The book won the 2002 John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. I have published four books and more than a hundred articles and essays in places like the Los Angeles Times, Arizona Highways, the Gettysburg Review, and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2000. In 2007, I won a Soros Justice Fellowship for my fourth book, Time of Grace: Thoughts on Nature, Family, and the Politics of Crime and Punishment (University of Arizona Press, 2007). My latest book is about Arizona’s "Dry River," the Santa Cruz.

In 2015 the University of Arizona will publish my sixth book, Chasing Arizona: One Man’s Yearlong Obsession with the Grand Canyon State. It is a 20,000-mile joyride that takes the reader across the state to 52 destinations in 52 weeks. I hold degrees in biology and creative writing from the University of Arizona and live with my wife in a 1890s stone cottage near Bisbee. Visit my website at: www.kenlamberton.com

Reviews

[Tyler Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most unique nature book I've ever read. A convicted naturalist who diverts his incarceration with drawings and script of the southwest desert that surounds the prision he is confined in. The drawings are beautiful. The text is compelling.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book for the Read Harder challenge to fulfill the “book written in prison” category. I liked the idea of a prisoner becoming a naturalist to cope with prison life. Unfortunately, the book became hard to read after finding out that Lamberton was in prison for running away with a 14-year-old student for a weeks-long tryst while he was a teacher. While he has a lovely writing style and I appreciated many of his nature observations, I constantly had the knowledge of his crime - and his odd brand of remorse - impeding my reading enjoyment. I also found one of the later chapters, about his transgender cellmate, difficult to stomach for its judgmental tone. (Lamberton says he himself is “moral” and seems to have little respect for his cellmate’s gender identity and orientation.) Anyway...some nice writing, but a struggle to read at times.

[Sandy D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprising and moving book of essays on wildlife, ecology, crime, and incarceration in the desert southwest. The author was a young high school biology teacher who lost his head and ran away with one of his 14 year old students.

Half way through his 12 year prison term, he began writing these incredible pieces, on his family, his connection to the natural world, and how you can find wilderness in the most controlled artificial environments (lots of bugs, prisoners secretly feeding the birds, watching the toads in the exercise yard, etc). This is an amazing book, well written, thoughtful, and gut-wrenching.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I find most amazing is Lamberton's pencil illustrations. They look like botanical prints that I've seen in art galleries. The writing is very sensitive, too. Nature writing isn't exactly my cup of tea generally, but I found this pretty engaging. This book is also a great argument for attempting to structure prisons so they might actually have some shot at rehabilitating people instead of just dehumanizing them, which is what seems to go on now. Sure, some people may never be rehabilitated, but some -- like Lamberton and other men who have taken Richard Shelton's creative writing class -- have shown that they have skills and abilities and motivation if you actually give them any kind of a chance.

[Haith]

Guy in jail for statutory rape & is a naturalist. It's pretty interesting so far... just strange reality that this guy has. He seems more observant and honest with himself than most of us.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The U.S. has incredible incarceration rates and as more people are imprisoned it only makes sense our authors and artists will be included. This novel is an awesome, truly modern experience that details the intersections between prison, nature, and one man's own misdirection that led him to leave his family and career behind. This book is honest, introspective, and informative. The desert makes a great setting.

[James Prothero]

A Classic. The second coming of Edward Abbey.

[Bryce · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a challenging one. I read the book of essays he wrote after this one (I forget the title) years ago in Tucson and remember liking it very much. This one, more popular, was definitely more cohesive but it was much harder to be sympathetic to the author.

Ken Lamberton wrote this book from prison, where he endured abuse from both guards and fellow inmates for his status as a sex offender. There are beautiful passages about the nature and wilderness he finds behind prison walls that serve as an escape from his situation. The description of prison life is honest and empathetic and shows the arbitrary punishment that prison provides as completely irrelevant to any kind of rehabilitation. But, in a story so honest and introspective, it was hard to get past Lamberton's crime.

I initially trusted his voice to the degree that I was very willing to get past it, had he addressed it directly. Instead, he insists that his sexual relationship and kidnapping of a 14-year-old girl was "love." His guilt comes not from this, but from the things he put his wife and children through as a result of his "stupid" decision.

He compounds this in a later chapter in which he is clearly disturbed by a transgender cellmate. He gives a half-assed attempt at a very superior sort of empathy and acceptance, all while insisting on his own heterosexuality. This man, who kidnapped and statutorily raped a 14-year-old, thinks he has some moral authority to judge someone who happens to be transgender? Very bizarre, and kind of broke the camel's back for me.

I don't think prison is the solution to any of society's problems, including people who have done a crime like Ken Lamberton's. And I appreciate that he was able to write such beautiful things about his escape from prison through observation of nature. But I came away from this book with an image of the author as a thoughtful but arrogant man, altogether too convinced of his superiority and that he is entitled to a loving wife and daughters.

[Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an interesting contrast between the power and beauty of nature, and the power and inhumanity of our criminal punishment system. America has lost its way as a society when we look at how we treat prisoners and criminals - not always the same thing since we routinely incarcerate innocent people (not the author, who regularly admits his guilt). It is a beautiful, meditative work.

There is a dated and uncomfortable chapter on trans women/gay men in prison, and a reference to homosexuality being one of the base behaviors of incarceration. Hopefully the author has updated his views on these issues.

[Lynn Biasini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was stunning. Brutally honest, a little depressing, but very real. I met Mr. Lamberton and Mr. Shelton recently, and it was a great pleasure to meet them both. I appreciate Mr. Lamberton's descriptions of the prison environment, and especially of his observations and very nice drawings! of the animals, plants, and insects that he studied during the long years of his incarceration, which obviously helped sustain him, along with his supportive family. Very moving.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The review from Mark Slouka of the San Francisco Chronicle is excellent. The book is extraordinary and writing it is an extraordinary achievement. I learned about nature, the prison system, and Arizona.

[rach · Rating 3 out of 5]

not necessarily bad just sent me into a reading slump because it felt so hard to get through. i just can’t read books without like a definitive plot! writing and illustrations were very pretty though

[Maria Hrickova · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.8

[Jenn Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a class when studying the U.S. mass incarceration system. The book was well-written, and the author's story was compelling. I just cannot get over the fact that he does not appear remorseful for his predatory behavior toward a student. He treated it as if they just had an extramarital affair, but he was indeed a predator. I was hoping he would show some humility and remorse for what he did to his victim not just his wife.