| View Larger Image | In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir | Hardcoverby Neil White (Author)
| List Price: | $25.99 | | Price: | $17.15 | | You Save: | $8.84 (34%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | William Morrow | | Edition: | 1st Edition | | Page Count: | 336 Pages | | Publication Date: | June 01, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 10,400th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780061351600
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Daddy is going to camp. That’s what I told my children. A child psychologist suggested it. “Words like prison and jail conjure up dangerous images for children,” she explained. But it wasn’t camp . . . Neil White, a journalist and magazine publisher, wanted the best for those he loved—nice cars, beautiful homes, luxurious clothes. He loaned money to family and friends, gave generously to his church, and invested in his community—but his bank account couldn’t keep up. Soon White began moving money from one account to another to avoid bouncing checks. His world fell apart when the FBI discovered his scheme and a judge sentenced him to serve eighteen months in a federal prison. But it was no ordinary prison. The beautiful, isolated colony in Carville, Louisiana, was also home to the last people in the continental United States disfigured by leprosy. Hidden away for decades, this small circle of outcasts had forged a tenacious, clandestine community, a fortress to repel the cruelty of the outside world. It is here, in a place rich with history, where the Mississippi River briefly runs north, amid an unlikely mix of leprosy patients, nuns, and criminals, that White’s strange and compelling journey begins. He finds a new best friend in Ella Bounds, an eighty-year-old African American double amputee who had contracted leprosy as a child. She and the other secret people, along with a wacky troop of inmates, help White rediscover the value of simplicity, friendship, and gratitude. Funny and poignant, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is an uplifting memoir that reminds us all what matters most. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 64 reviews)
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A unique story of guilt and redemption by Lynda M. O'connor (Lake Forest, Illinois)  5 Stars
November 27, 2009
In my busy life, I fall into bed around midnight and try to read a few pages of a book I am reading. When I bought "In the Sanctuary of Outcasts" I had no idea that I would finish it so fast. Once I started reading this book, I actually retired to my room a lot earlier so that I would have more time to read this memoir.
I met Neil White in Oxford last year and was astonished to hear about his life. He is attractive, charming, and down to Earth. Neil's story is a cautionary tale of skewed values and false pride. His book is amazingly honest, easy to follow, interesting and surprising. It goes to show you that you never know who is going to teach you what life is all about. The people that you least expect to, are the ones that give you strengh and wisdom.
I loved "In the Sanctuary of Outcasts" because the topic is something I know nothing about. I learned about life in prison and what leprosy is all about. Neil moves the story along and makes you want to turn the page. He is a great writer.
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In the Santuary of Outcasts by Jessie H. Neilson (Destin, FL) 5 Stars
November 20, 2009
A "Grishamesque" beautifully written true account of the author's months in an extrodinary prison setting. A must read for those who like to read a book that they just cannot put down.
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terminology disappoints by Claire Manes (louisiana)  3 Stars
November 19, 2009
I read Neil White's book several months ago and found it well written and compelling but very disconcerting. I have finally been able to clarify the reasons for my disappointment. Mr. White had an opportunity to educate the public about leprosy/Hansen's disease, but he failed to carry through.
The residents at the United States Public Health Hospital in Carville, Louisiana, where White served his own incarceration had been fighting for at least 50 years to educate the public about the nomenclature of their condition which they referred to as Hansen's disease. The Star, the patient edited international magazine published as early as 1941 in Carville always had as its mission, "Radiating the Truth about Hansen's Disease." Brazil had used the term Hansen's disease instead of leprosy since the 1930s. Yet anachronistically and unnecessarily in the 1990s Neil White insisted on calling the patients leprosy patients, a term the patients rarely, if ever, used for themselves.
There is a case to be made in the beginning of the book for the term leprosy. The idea of spending prison time in a hospital that treated those with that condition was disconcerting and frightening. However, White beats his readers over the head with the term. The men and women he met in Carville were residents of a hospital, patients, and his friends. He did not have to use or overuse the term leprosy in reference to them.
Unfortunately, he chose to use the term and in doing so invited and indirectly endorsed its use by other; witness the references to leprosy and the even more unnecessary and stigmatizing term "leper" in the reviews of his book. The people at the hospital deserved far more dignity than that, and Neil White missed his chance to give it to them.
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left me wondering by Sunshine (Fl USA) 3 Stars
November 02, 2009
I give it three stars because as a good read in itself, a good story, and as I never had heard of Carville before and it's history was intriguing to me.
It's strange though and left me wondering because throughout the book I couldn't help but to keep thinking to myself that something feels insincere about this man.
I do not know him, and would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but something doesn't sit right with me about the whole "story" he has chosen to tell and especially the reason behind why he is telling it at all.
I'm skeptical but hopeful that it was more than a money making project for him while he had nowhere else to be and nothing else to do.
It would be hard for these mere months to erase his lifelong traits that he has valued somehow. I can not fathom his life at all! Oh well, Actions speak louder than words, and time will indeed tell all.
Stay in the breeze, Mr White, stay in the breeze!
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carville by Kay F. Burton (tenn)  4 Stars
October 26, 2009
very well written and extremely interesting. gave me a new perspective on hansons disease.
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