Leaving Disneyland

by Alexander Parsons

Doc Kane is sixteen years into a twenty-year murder sentence. Days away from a parole hearing, he means to get out and start a new life as a Square John-a law-abiding citizen. Within the predatory confines of Tyburn Penitentiary, however, he has debts to pay. To start, Doc has his duties as a "heavy" in the D.C. Blacks, a gang that has protected him. Then there is his new cellmate, a young dealer doing life without parole whose ignorance of the prison's code threatens them both. Finally, there are the Sergeant Grippe, who is bent on "rehabilitating" Doc, and Raven, whose intentions are veiled but no less menacing.

Beyond these dangers, Doc faces a deeper dilemma, one embodied by Dead Earl, a thumbless junkie and reminder of a past Doc would deny. The experience of sixteen years surviving in a violent prison has shaped Doc as profoundly as a river does its course. And if character is fate, Doc's chances for a life on the straight-and-narrow are slim unless he can reshape himself. This, he discovers, is the real struggle. If he's to have any hope for his future, he must first confront his past.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2001

Reviews

[Patrick O'Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can tell when a writer hasn't lived the life he's trying to portray. They just don't have it down all the way. There's nuances and terminology missing. Most have certain ideas of how it’s supposed to be instead of intimate knowledge, and most times they get it wrong. They're like tourists saying they live in a place they're visiting. Although it's nice when tourists write about us. It makes us feel special – like what we've lived and experienced actually means something to people who haven't. Alexander Parsons did the research to get the sense of prison, the state of mind and the terminology down. He credits the book: The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison by Pete Earley as his source – which is a good book and a good place to take information from. However Pete Earley is another tourist, so there's a problem there – a problem that gives Leaving Disneyland a slight lack of authenticity. And as I began to read it this irked me and I almost dismissed the entire book, and if I had I would've missed a great story. Ultimately, regardless of first impressions, Parsons develops his characters. He finds their meaning, and draws the reader in. The second half of the book, where his protagonist Doc Kane, is out on parole after a 16-year bid and trying to adjust to a world that has passed him up, shines as Parsons mines Kane's inner conflicts. This is hard subject matter, and even harder to get right and Parsons took it on.