WILLOW IN A STORM- JAMES PETER TAYLOR & KATHLEEN MURPHY-TAYLOR

well, I have had this book sitting on my shelf for a few months before I finally got around to reading it. I was actually kind of dreading it, thinking it was going to drag on and talk about pointless details of a man's life in prison. I also thought that maybe it would just be too damn depressing. Neither of these things happened. Yes, the book was long, and full of detail, but I would not have gotten rid of any of it; I feel it was all neccissary for the book to be as powerful as it was. Although the book was depressing, I also think that it was just as inspirational, so it had a good balance. Below is my review that I did for www.frontstreetreviews.com. This memoir is amazing and it would benefit everyone to read it. I would not recommend it to teens, only because some of the subject matter can be traumatic to read.


This was an extremely powerful memoir. If ever there was a book that successfully exuded raw, human emotion, this is the book. James Peter Taylor endured years of torment, abuse, frustration, depression, unfairness, and punishment. What is amazing is that this man lived through all of this to tell his story.
James Peter Taylor grew up in a household that was not all that healthy. His father abused him in many forms. He did have a lot of positive, influential family members, but they seemed to pass on when he was just a boy. James got hooked up with some bad people, had some head injuries, and before he knew it he was in jail. James spends a little while in jail for crimes that aren’t too major, then when he gets out, he commits his biggest crime; in the midst of trying to rob a bank he kills someone. This is the setting for what becomes his 40+ years in the prison system.
What shocked me the most, and tugged on my heart strings the hardest was the fact that our fellow human beings can treat a man so poorly. Yes, James Peter Taylor murdered a man in cold blood. Yes, he deserved some form of punishment. His entire stay in the prison system was not simply to pay for his crime of murdering a man; a big portion of his stay was due to people in a seat of power, who held a grudge, lied, falsified documents, and just didn’t care about this man’s life. I cannot think of a time when I have felt so much disgust for my fellow human beings. James Peter Taylor paid for his crimes, but who is going to pay for the crimes that were committed against him?
Another issue in this story that totally shocked me was the fact that this poor man was raped more times than I can count. He said that in order to stay safe in prison he had to act feminine so that a male lover would claim him as his own and offer him protection from the other inmates. How sad that it is a well known fact that things like this go on in the prison system, and yet we do nothing about it. If a man or woman is raped out in the community, we as human beings balk at the notion of someone committing such a horrendous crime and we do all we can to make sure the rapist is punished; yet when this happens in prison, we turn a blind eye. It is disgusting.
I think that this story was meant to shock and awe its readers. I think that it was also meant to show the world that there are people out there that maybe do things they regret, but that they can come out of their experience a better, and changed person. It is a beautiful and uplifting story to know that this man has found happiness after having so much of his life spent behind bars. I would recommend this story to anyone; especially those who work in the prison system, or have a seat of power that have maybe turned a blind eye on some injustices that are being done to people. Shame on them. I hope this book opens their eyes and makes them realize that it’s time to take action.