SINS AND NEEDLES

A confessed felon tells of his redemption by faith, the love of a good woman—and needlepoint.

How outlaw, druggie, and convict Ray Materson went straight is a straightforward story told here in the first person (though wife Melanie is credited as co-author). Ray’s resumé progresses from busboy to cocaine cowboy. As a drug counselor, he learned where to cop the best dope. He attempted a stick-up with a shoplifted toy pistol, got quickly busted and quickly confessed. (It seemed like a good idea at the time.) In jail, the foiled stick-up artist planned a daring escape with a simulacrum of a gun. Again quickly busted, he was dealt a 25-year sentence. It didn’t take long before he experienced an epiphany in the slammer, where, by his accounting, he led a blameless life. When he discovered that he could embroider like Grandma using contrived equipment and unraveled socks, he became a prison star. Fellow inmates commissioned works in exchange for cigarettes (the universal prison currency). The creation of original art in his cage studio gained favor with his warders and the public. One particular fan became his promoter, his girlfriend, and eventually his wife. (Their prison honeymoon is discreetly described). Ray discusses daily life in the pen, but his central concern is incarcerated folk art, and his text is amply illustrated with small examples related to the narrative. In its way, this is a catalogue raisonné, with graphics of the kind Grandma Moses might have rendered had she been in the Big House. Readers may judge the art themselves, but it was interesting enough to attract a New York dealer—a dealer in art, not the stuff other dealers once offered the author, who was paroled and is now free.

Hard to say how heavily it’s embroidered, but this is a tale of salvation sufficient to make Oprah happy, if only she still had a book club. (Illustrations)