Ghost Tango: For a Dangerous Man with a Beautiful Mind

by Janeen Ledford

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979783038
• ISBN13: 9780979783036
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: W.L. Ransom Press
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.7" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

This story will capture your attention

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (10/08) "Ghost Tango" tells the story of a woman who is the only female instructor in a men's prison that holds violent felons. She teaches as a GED instructor. She chooses not to learn about the crimes that her students have committed. This enables her to treat them with more respect and not identify each person for their crimes. She is given many rules which are in place to protect her; one of which is that she cannot divulge personal information to the inmates. She circumvents this rule a bit in the lessons that she creates for her students. She writes essays about life in Appalachia where she grew up and has now returned. These essays take the prisoners out of their prison and into a different world. In turn, the prisoners begin to write their own stories that are about where they came from and how they ended up in prison. The teacher encourages them to continue their educations so that they won't end up back where they started. She also finds herself drawn to an attractive Cuban prisoner who is supposed to be very dangerous. As she struggles with her attraction to him, she continues to encourage him to better himself. This teacher has a lot to learn for herself. As she is teaching, her eyes are opened to prison politics and the rampant racism that exists among the inmates. The prison is a learning place for all. "Ghost Tango" by Janeen Ledford tells a very compelling story. Written in a cursive style font, it made me feel more like I was peeking into a woman's private diary. Even though it is a fictional story, it seemed very real to me. The author's descriptions are very vivid and brought both the Appalachian setting and the prison setting to life. I found myself reflecting on the story long after I was done reading. I highly recommend this novel.

Ghost Tango

Ghost Tango is a riveting novella which quickly holds the reader's attention. Ms. Ledford provides a compelling story regarding the starkness of prison life, thoughts of what might have been, and the hopelessness of the characters' situation. If you are open to a thoughtful read, which has you thinking long after you have closed the book, Ghost Tango is well worth your time.

Ghost Tango

This is not the typical book I would have chosen, but a friend sent it to me. I found Ghost Tango enthralling although the subject could have been oppressive. The writing was poetic, flowing and wonderfully descriptive - profound, yet easy to read. I was drawn into the prison where a teacher was instructing male inmates, and felt as though I was there, watching their lives unfold. I sensed her struggles and theirs, and found myself hoping for some kind of redemption for these violent men. I plan to read it again.

A compelling, nuanced view of a teacher's relationship with a gifted inmate

I picked up this book a few days ago, thinking that I would read bits and pieces of it, or make my way through it very gradually. Ledford's poetic narrative style at first glance makes the book appear to be a challenging read, as poetry rarely yields its fruit to casual reading, but I was surprised by how inviting and natural I found her writing style to be. As it happened, once I started to read it, I never put it back down, except to sleep, until I finished it the next morning. Ledford's nuanced portrayal of the relationship that forms between the teacher and her Cuban inmate student comes across as authentic and credible, and though the focus is on the relationship rather than plot, Ledford succeeds in maintaining suspense around how the relationship will unfold. I could see this book being a great gift for a teacher who works in a violence-prone urban setting or anyone interested in prison culture and reform.

Kool Read Makes You Think

If you are looking for challenge to your imagination and edgy storytelling in a quick read that will stay with you long after, then Ghost Tango is for you. The locale is the mountains, the setting a prision for violent criminals. Intrigue and cunning mix with tension and feeling in a lyrical tale, or is it tale, of a teacher and student both with a past. The story has prisioners with too much time to do and a teacher with too much time to do nothing inside a maximum security prision where their goal is learning to read and their objective is to avoid gang violence and other terrible evils of their days. The teacher is pretty, despite forced demur clothing, a reformer seeking another impossible challenge. The student is a violent ganger who may just have genius intelligence. They dance for us. This is a story you may read twice, in the same day!