Life before Prison Freedom of the Road

Easy and Willie are truckers because that is what Easy was doing when he found the puppy sitting beside a bad accident where a fellow trucker had been killed. Believing he had the dead trucker's puppy Easy felt a fraternal obligation to care for the despondent little dog in honor of his brother trucker. Along the way Easy lets us see into his life and thoughts. Easy has two sons from a ten year marriage to an airline stewardess who aren't accessible to him. Easy and Willie drove Tina Turner's tour bus for awhile. When the first Willie,(Original Willie) contracts cancer and dies we get to suffer a little with Easy but he quickly gets another labrador that he feels is so like Original Willie that there may be a spiritual connection. The adventure continues when Easy and Willlie II, or Willie Jackson as the second dog is known, help to locate the red truck involved in an Amber Alert. The little girl is standing there pulling at the dog's ears and laughing when the police arrive to retrieve her. Throughout this story is Dollar's tendency to criticize the prison system as it is right now. A system which Dollar feels is not serving the interests of the nation's communities. The for profit business interests have become more and more prevalent in what cannot be seen as other than an industry based on the beds in prisons staying filled to meet bottom lines. The book shares the bond between the Willies and their master. It shares the story of one man who once shared freedom with his companions and was as normal as anyone you may know. That same man now has little real hope of ever again being free.