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Sam is a compulsive writer. Convicted for killing an intruder in his home, he writes the ‘Prison Notebook’ from his cell in solitary confinement. This is the second time in his life that he is imprisoned. Over fifty years earlier, he was in a juvenile jail falsely accused of raping his sister. In-between the two terms, he lived a hermit’s existence in the forest. There he decrypted god to discover serenity in the world of existential nihilism. From earliest days solitude remained his desired companion. He equates societal living with slavery where essence supersedes existence and turns living “into a numb, perfunctory experience.” The ‘Prison Notebook’ is a compilation of anecdotes drawn from the protagonist’s life. A tale is woven by connecting the dots from his childhood through to the end of his life. Each chapter title is a countdown to his seventieth birthday. On the same day, he plans to kill himself. For Sam, death is a transformation into a state of oblivion that alone can offer “ultimate freedom.” The story is nameless and placeless symbolising Sam’s own unadulterated psyche. He never mentions any character by name. There are two separate individuals in the book that he refers to as the “boy.” His own name too is only revealed by the author of the epilogue. The location where it transpires is similarly unknown. Yet, given that there are references to Genet, Orwell, Shakespeare and the Bible, it can be deduced that the events take place in some country in the western hemisphere. The ‘Prison notebook’ is a novel questioning the foundation of cultural values imposed by society.
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