Book review: 'Channeling Mark Twain'

Author: Carol Muske-Dukes

Publisher: Random House

Pages: 267

Price: $24.95

In a Nutshell: Known for the beauty of her writing, both in prose and poetry, Muske-Dukes may have written her best book with this one, a novel about a poet named Holly who volunteers to teach a workshop in a New York women's detention center. Based on the author's own experiences, the narrative is filled with tension, humor and realism. One of Holly's students, a black woman, claims to be a direct descendant of Mark Twain and tries to prove it by speaking in a steady stream of words taken from Twain's writings.