Doing Time Outside — Ginnah Howard

Fiction. Compelling, gritty and funny, DOING TIME OUTSIDE travels the back roads of family life to better understand what it means to be tied by blood and love to the world of mental illness, addiction and incarceration. Through compassion for her characters and the bouyancy of her voice, Howard gives us a novel with a generous and intelligent heart. "Catskill's wordsmith Howard has a gift for the choice, mundane detail: the vinegar chips and Advil headaches and warmth of a dog's fur on a cold day. Her turf is the Upstate New York just outside of the weekender realm, and her people are fiercely smart and loving throughout their frustrations and misunderstandings. You start really, really wanting Rudy to make it, a topic around which Howard builds mind- bending suspense. It all comes together in a knockout ending--Howard's characters have grown and so have we. A beautiful read."--Chronogram