What reviewers said about Sing Soft, Sing Loud
"A novel that celebrates the indestructibility of the human spirit...The only literary novel I know of about how women survive the street and prison, written with gut-wrenching realism by a woman who has been there. The humor takes you by surprise... This book is destined to become a classic ... brilliantly written."
--Elena Bradshaw in The Village Advocate
"A gritty, realistic look at life on the street and behind bars.... McConnel's insight into what prompts women to commit crimes, and to continue to commit them even after they've suffered through prison after prison, is unequaled. None of McConnel's prisoners are stereotypes. They are women with an awesome determination not to be destroyed.... They are real people, and they will change the way you think about felons."
--Allan C. Kimball in The Houston Post
"This novel is an achievement not only because it exposes in detail the practices of a prison system obsessed with power but because it offers involving and moving characterizations."
--Jean Keleher in The Library Journal
"Patricia McConnel's accounts of prison experiences are utterly convincing, and her forthright, passionate style is skillfully balanced with admirable objectivity and compassion...electric, highly engaging..."
--Ingrid Wendt in Belles Lettres
"Sing Soft, Sing Loud is a troubling book: bitter and angry, manic, introspective, and lonely, at times funny with knife-edge humor that has crying woven through it."
--JoAnne Page in The Christian Science Monitor
"The center of these stories is the survivor's spirit and the ways in which women prisoners nourish that spirit in themselves and in each other...Keeping alive in spirit is the ultimate challenge-and victory-of life in prison...McConnel is a terrific writer. She handles voice and character and drama with great craft; she slips the reader inside her characters, where we ought to be; she destroys the safety and distance sociology offers."
--Martha Boethel in New Directions for Women
"...extraordinary, heartbreaking...the tales here range from grizzly to harrowing and back again...But...there is some good news. You can write your way through the bars, through space, through time...Sing Soft, Sing Loud reminds us that we are all in some prison of our own making...Everybody should read this book."
--Carolyn See in The Los Angeles Times
"McConnel writes with forceful authority and a natural story teller's instinct for character...She develops her characters with integrity and depth…"
--Carol Kleiman in The Chicago Tribune