Judith Favor

Author

  • Home
  • Books
    • The Beacons
    • The Edgefielders
    • Silent Voices: A Family Memoir
    • Sabbath Economics
    • Spirit Awakening: A Book of Practices
  • Judith’s Work
    • Stillpoint California
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Ghost Ranch
  • ABOUT JUDITH
  • BLOG
  • Contact

Review: The Sun Does Shine:
How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

October 30, 2018 By Judith Favor

By Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin

St. Martin’s Press, 2018. 272 pages.
$26.99/hardcover; $16.99/paperback (available June 2019); $13.99/eBook.

Reviewed by Judith Favor on October 1, 2018 in Friends Journal

The Sun Does Shine is the true story of an innocent black man’s unjust conviction, his despair on Alabama’s death row, and his practice of peacemaking behind bars. In “The Death Squad” chapter, Anthony Ray Hinton’s anguish is palpable as he describes men in chains being walked past his cell to the electric chair. He leads inmates to bang on the bars of their cells during electrocutions, raising a holy ruckus of accompaniment and protest.

Hinton eased racial grudges and grievances by aiding KKK and African American inmates alike. “A book club will help things stay more peaceful,” he told the warden, pointing out that reading books would be a good way for the men to quietly spend time and focus on something other than the negative aspects of life on death row. He also added, “I do think it will help [the guards] have an easier time doing their jobs.” His resourcefulness led to the first death row book club. In chapters titled “Love Is a Foreign Language” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” Hinton reveals which authors forged community between black and white convicts.

I was disappointed in two aspects of The Sun Does Shine. My friend Rosie on death row cannot read it, because hardcover books are forbidden in her facility (and in many others too). My greater hurt is all the women missing from the afterword. Preceding nine pages of “the men and women who sit on death row in this country” (as of March 2017) listed in “Pray for Them by Name,” Hinton writes:

Statistically, one out of every ten men on this list is innocent.… Read these names. Know their stories.… The moral arc of the universe needs people to support it as it bends.… Read the names out loud. After every tenth name, say, “Innocent.” … The death penalty is broken, and you are either part of the Death Squad or you are banging on the bars. Choose.

He chose a provocative way to conclude, but I am pained that, for some reason, the women on death row in Central California Women’s Facility and other facilities are not acknowledged.

During the author’s reading at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, I was moved by his honesty, his vulnerability, and his simplicity. Hinton’s true voice is inscribed on every page, and his tears, too. Three relationships kept him going through 30 years of wrongful incarceration: his mother’s unconditional love, his friend Lester’s faithful visits, and legal advocate Bryan Stevenson’s commitment to setting him free. Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy, took Hinton’s case to the Supreme Court where all nine justices confirmed his innocence. That day at the bookstore, Hinton gave the crowd one closing bit of advice: “If you ever get arrested for a crime you didn’t commit, do two things. Pray first, then make your 911 call directly to Bryan Stevenson.”

The Sun Does Shine may deepen the commitment of Friends working for prison reform, offer fresh insights to Friends conducting Alternatives to Violence Project workshops with inmates, and perhaps inspire new AVP volunteers.

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Friends Journal

« In Original Light
Lives That Speak: William Dolphin »

Please Join My Subscriber List

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

[recaptcha]


Buy on AMAZON

The Beacons novel by Judith Favor banner image link

PAPERBACK | KINDLE


For more information:
Apocryphile Press

Recent Posts

  • The Compromise… a love story
  • Embodied Writing through Contemplative Inquiry
    with Rev. Judith Favor
  • Leo & Cordelia slide
  • Lives That Speak: William Dolphin
  • Review: The Sun Does Shine:
    How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
  • In Original Light
  • Lenten Writing
  • The Art of Spiritual Direction
  • The Beacons
  • The Beacons slide
  • READERS’ GROUPS: Some Open-Ended Questions
  • ASKING WRITERS about The Beacons of Larkin Street

Judith Wright Favor's new historical novel
Buy from Amazon
Read the First Chapter


ARCHIVE of POSTINGS

  • February 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • November 2018 (2)
  • October 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • February 2017 (2)
  • January 2017 (6)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • October 2014 (1)
  • September 2014 (4)
  • August 2014 (3)

RELATED LINKS

  • "As It Is: Spiritual Journaling" online e-course signup page for Judith Favor at Spirituality & Practice
  • EarthPeace Monument Constance and Don Waddell’s dream of a lasting symbol to represent efforts to bring about peace to the world is now becoming a reality.
  • Ghost Ranch Website Education & Retreat Center
  • Stillpoint California

RELATED LINKS

  • EarthPeace Monument
  • Stillpoint California
  • "As It Is: Spiritual Journaling"
  • Ghost Ranch Website

TAG CLOUD

As It Is online class Author Event biography blurbs Counseling Eleanor Scott Meyers Friends Journal Ghost Ranch historical novel Journaling Midwest online class Pilgrim Place Quakers Readings reflections seminars Silent Voices Stillpoint testimonial The Beacons The Edgefielders The Friend Magazine travel Veterans weeklong William Dolphin writing

CATEGORIES

  • Book Reviews
  • Books
  • Essays
  • Ghost Ranch
  • Interviews
  • Quakers
  • Questions
  • Spiritual Direction
  • StillPoint
  • Workshops

Copyright Judith Favor ©2017, All Rights Reserved