Book Six: In the Sanctuary of Outcasts

One would expect to read about a certain repentance in a memoir of this nature.  Author Neil White was convicted of financial crimes and sentenced to eighteen months for bank fraud.  This book documents the tale of his incarceration in the Federal Medical Center in Carville, Louisiana.

The book takes it's name from Carville's history as the United States' national leprosarium.  Yes,  I said leprosarium.  Individuals with Hansen's disease or leprosy were forcibly quarantined in this remote location 1980s.  Abandoned by family members and society, Carville allowed both refuge and hope in some semblance of life for the afflicted.

I supposed I expected to see some great epiphany from the author who would renounce his behavior of check kiting; instead, I was nauseated by his soliloquy of a storied upbringing and the circumstances that resulted in his illegal actions. Spare me.  White obviously feels he deserves a better class of people and fails to recognize, he's a convicted criminal.  He treats his incarceration as a mere roadblock in his path to inevitable greatness.  Menial tasks are an affront to his charm and education.  And the fact that he may be exposed to leprosy and his good looks be marred... White comes across as simply obnoxious.  The final straw for me was "I missed my cologne.  For years, I would douse myself with British Sterling every morning."

The former publisher and entrepreneur White traded his normal fall from grace sent him to mingle with a mix of societal rejects and grand schemers.   It's those characters that this reader found interesting and elevates an otherwise forgettable memoir.  Ella Bounds, delivered to Carville in 1926 by her father when she was a child.  She used her hand cranked wheelchair to befriend White in the cafeteria.  She would become both mentor and friend during his stay.  Stan and Sarah, the blind couple who relied on each other and Stan's tapping to walk their way through Carville's corridors and who rejects White's attempts at benevolence.  Names like Steve Read and Frank Ragano are dropped like they somehow make White part of a secret club.

As I see it, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is a polarizing read.  White's megalomania is exhausting; the  history herein truly is fascinating and that is the book's saving grace.