About the book
Read and enjoy this book about how difficult times turned around a lifestyle that was groomed to be squeaky clean. Times got hard and the use of this lifestyle was just to be a temporary fix to get finances back on track. The lifestyle fixed the financial troubles alright but it also became addicting where there was no end in sight as the money came faster than it could be counted. An investigation started and paranoia set in and the downfall began.
Book Review – Reviewer: Oren O. Cousins
It is a sort of literary phenomenon when a Jamaican, or a person of any other nationality for that matter, has the inclination or literary aptitude or even the privilege to write a narrative for publication about his personal experiences as an inmate in a United States prison. The autobiographical account, “No Name Just 216-513”, is one such rarity.
Espeut is a tremendously soul-stirring and graphically fascinating writer. Born in Kingston, Jamaica of respectable parentage, he attended one of the elite , traditional high schools. He was taken by his mother to the United States to attend college , and to emulate the many college -bred and university graduates among his family and relatives.
He dropped out of college and was a coat and tie employee in one of United States’ major banks. He later abandoned banking and became a very successful car-dealer. .He was encouraged to enter car-dealership in Baltimore, and went there with his wife and baby son. There began a downward stretch in his career.
He was not making enough money even to feed his family. He decided to resort to hard drug trafficking.
Being an extraordinary salesman , he made money. He established two legitimate businesses as a front for his nefarious profiting, and he lived as he himself described it “ celebrity style”. But unknowing to himself, he fell under the surveillance of the Baltimore Police Department, and when they had enough evidence , they arrested him.
Espeut, in his book, graphically tells of how he managed to survive imprisonment, while managing his legitimate business outside, and dealing with domestic and legal matters:
He says , without much rancor : “ In prison which I often refer to as a cage, I became a no name, 216—513. …….The number 216-513 was my new identity.
Everything he possessed in the prison had to have this number marked on it.
His disclosure of prison life , the attitude of prison officials and guards, the wiliness of fellow-inmates, the treachery and disloyalty of associates, the tumult of emotional build-up bordering on insanity —some inmates actually go berserk—in Espeut’s impeccable and masterly simple style is gripping and even exciting, yet simple, sometimes pitiable, sometimes horrifying and sometimes laughable.
“No Name Just 216- 513” is replete with insightful observations, changing moods, brief philosophical arguments and epigrammatic injunctions: The narrative converges towards an penitent and redemptive conclusion, with an experienced advice to young men and women who may be tempted to drift into the rocks and shoals of a perilous and treacherous sea by the name of hard drugs: He confesses:
“ If I knew then what I know now, I would have chosen a different path,”
The author of “No Name Just 216-513”, strongly explains his reason for writing this remarkable and lucid account:
“ I am thankful for life and hope and pray that after reading my story, it will
touch and inspire young and old to stay on the right path no matter how hard the right path gets.”
What better message can a writer give to the world , than that he had walked “through the valley of the shadow of death”, and had survived because he believed that God was in , above, and around him?
About the Author:
Wayne Anthony Espeut was born on November 18, 1959, in Kingston , Jamaica, the second son to respectable parents , his mother a college graduate , his father a university graduate. He ,with his brother, spent his earlier years in rural Jamaica with his school-teacher aunt., his mother having migrated to the USA. He attended one of the elite traditional high schools in Kingston, then joined his mother in America to attend college. Dropping out of college , he was employed at a major USA bank. He abandoned banking to become a very successful car-dealer. Convinced that car-dealership in Baltimore offered greater profits, he moved there with his wife and baby son. Hardly able to provide for his family, he resorted to trading in drugs. He made money, and as he himself expressed it, he lived a “celebrity life” , until he was caught and imprisoned. He spent seven years of incarceration preparing the material for his sensational and instructive book, “No Name just 216–513”. Espeut lives in Baltimore as a legitimate and successful businessman.
Where to Buy the Book
Buy NO NAME…..JUST 216513 at Lulu.com
