WhenRachel Kushner set out to writeThe Mars Room, there were a few things she knew immediately.
She knew she wanted it to take place inside an institution maybe a prison.
On second thought,The Mars Roomwas definitely going to be about a prison.
Credit: Scribner
“About all the parts of the criminal justice system that are so subtle most people don’t notice.
Did we mentionThe Mars Roomis funny?
They’re still waiting for the guide to the guide to the handbook.
Lucy Raven
And then she spent 10 days going undercover visiting prisons throughout the state.
“It was a very illuminating trip.
In the years since, Kushner has been to prisons countless times.
Her work with Justice Now has led her to friendships with current and former inmates.
“I’m still very involved in the lives of many people I met,” she said.
She learned that long-termers with a lot of social clout are known as “shot callers.”
She learned that the guards come mostly from underprivileged situations themselves.
She learned that stabbing someone with a prison shiv is harder than it sounds.
She learned that the guards are in their own gangs.
She learned that prison recipes really are just as weird as that cheesecake fromOrange Is the New Black.
Even with all that, Kushner took almost no notes during her many prison visits.
“But this book weighed on me hugely and felt completely different.
My last book was fun.
It was a bleak version of humanity.”
So what does she want now?
The short answer to that?
“I don’t think art can be message-y or political,” Kushner said.
“Why not just write an op-ed?
And I’m not the person to do that.
Romy Hall, the novel’s protagonist, says it best:
I had learned already not to cry.
Two years earlier, when I was arrested, I cried uncontrollably.
My life was over and I knew it was over.
I kept on not waking up into anything different.
