Visiting Life - Bridget Kinsella

I picked this one up based on the subtitle's promise - "Women Doing Time on the Outside".

From the flyleaf - " Why in the world would anyone get involved with a prison inmate?"

Bridget Kinsella is a highly educated woman, an editor at Publishers Weekly. While trying to sort her own life and future out after a disastrous and childless marriage, Kinsella decides to try her hand as a publishing agent. A manuscript from a prison writing class ends up in her hands. She is struck by the writing and on a whim decides to begin a correspondence with the inmate, Rory Mehan. As their relationship progresses (Kinsella is now visiting regularly) the book descends into a self serving missive. I was quite interested in the interviews she did with a few women who are actually living this life, not visiting it for short time as is Kinsella. I wish she had expounded more on their experiences. This is a slim book and didn't take too long to finish. I did read it all, although I found myself skimming past the overly described self discovery passages. I found it difficult to actually believe/feel the connections and healing that she claimed from this relationship.