Hotel Graybar by Curtis Dawkins

To write a book of stories under the premise of a life sentence behind the back must offer a strange feeling. Curtis Dawkins, a confessed murderer, would not write this book for anyone, he would not claim fame and glory because he knows that he will never leave the walls of the prison in which he is confined.

On the other side of the walls is the morbidity, the controversy ... From Kenneth Bowman, brother of Thomas the victim of Curtis, who believes that a guy who should be sentenced to capital punishment should never have published a book, to many other writers who they value in the stories the extreme literature of someone cut off from society.

Deep down, I don't think it's about atoning for sins or condoning guilt. Curtis Dawkins wanted to write about prison experiences and an editorial thought that it might interest the narrative perspective of someone who will never live in freedom again. His case, that fateful night in which he decided to kill, is only a shadow referred to in the credits. The day he killed he was drugged, but he never wanted to hide behind a reduction of his consciousness. He did it and has to deal with it deprived of free life. Shortly before taking Thomas' life, Curtis had been with his children watching a baseball game, like nothing. Then he smoked crack and his soul took refuge in the darkest of its recesses.

It was perfectly fair to put Curtis in jail. But there is no reason to condemn the soul. Internally, the worst sentence may be borne by each person himself. And there, in the internal forum there is no hope of redemption with the passage of time. Thus, the idea of ​​all freedom ends up turned into a remote dream that stigmatizes each new awakening and that, in the case of this book, slides between each of the stories. Characters such as prisoner 573543, or the child who dreamed too much end up being dreams of a soul that wishes it had not surrendered to the darkness of that action ...

Among the most routine aspects of the prison, with its particular organization, and also taking advantage to make explicit very particular notions such as the passage of time and the feeling of confinement as a kind of death in life, Curtis Dawkins also contributes a sordid imaginary, an acid transition between fiction and reality, a kind of prisoner syndrome that transforms into confusion, broken dreams and guilt that only conformed into a delusional fantasy can provide some meaning and hope when living behind bars.

You can now buy the book Hotel Graybar, a set of short stories by the doomed Curtis Dawkins, here: