No Bed of Roses

New York: Vantage Press. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. (c.1978). First Edition. Hardcover. (price-clipped) [tiny nick at bottom edge of front cover, tiny spot on top of text block, no other significant wear; the jacket is moderately rubbed/scuffed, with a small scar (from sticker removal?) at the top right corner of the front panel]. Vanity-press book that (like many such) looks very much like a fictionalized/disguised version of the author's own life. Although it's pitched as the story of one "Tom Bently," told by an omniscient third-party narrator, it occasionally transitions (usually awkwardly) into first-person voice, and there are enough confluences between "Tom's" life-experiences and those of the author (briefly described in the rear jacket flap blurb) to stoke the reader's suspicions (and confusion). The more interesting passages have to with Tom's experiences working as a corrections office in an Indiana prison. .