John David's Blog: Life--Observed and Reported - Posts Tagged "death-row"

I Wish You Were Never Born by James Gregory Marlow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


First of all, a disclosure:

I am the narrator of the audiobook version of this book. I took on the project because it was interesting, and because I believe everyone has a story to tell, and the right to tell it. Also, this post contains spoilers.

With that said:

Mr. Marlow's story is fascinating, if only because he is a man convicted of serial murder. A man who admits to being a serial murderer.

As an author confined to a luxury apartment on Death Row at San Quentin prison, Mr. Marlow's access to the "tools" of the writing trade is somewhat limited, and it shows.

His story is there, but you must chip away at the stone to get to it. The editing is rough, even disjointed. If he had access to an editor, perhaps even some face time, his story would have been much more coherent and easy to read.

Keep in mind that he most likely never actually spoke with his editor, and probably had no access to email, either. Any editing was probably done via letters that were exchanged weeks or even months apart.

The story he tells is incomplete. The parts that you want to know more about, like his childhood and his relationship with his mother, are very light and topical. These will perhaps be covered in more detail in another book?

He does a good job of putting the reader at the scene of his crimes, without doing so in a graphic or disrespectful way. Fanboys (and girls) of "torture porn" type stories will be disappointed, because Mr. Marlow does not go into great detail about the murders, perhaps thankfully so, from the reader's perspective.

For me, the most moving detail regarding the crimes, (and I don't know if Marlow even noticed it as he wrote it) is how one of his victims was more concerned about her car, (that her dad had given her) than she was about herself.

As a father, this detail resonated strongly for me, and I just wanted to weep for the poor child, who thought her dad would care more about the condition of some lifeless machine than is own daughter.

His Letter of Apology to the Victim's Families is perhaps the most powerful and moving rhetoric in the entire book. Mr. Marlow has the soul of a poet, and I did my best to capture the emotion of that letter in my read.

You will not find gore in this book. You will find a great deal of insight into the mind and the crimes of a man who was tortured and abused as a child. You will not be surprised that he became a torturer and abuser himself.

As ye soweth, also shall ye reap.



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