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I got interested in reading Orange is the New Black after reading an excerpt in the New York Times, and reading an article from Piper's fiance Larry in the Times as well. I just finished it, and I found it really interesting - the details she provides on life in prison, the rituals, the jobs, the treatment of prisoners, is really fascinating and a view on a minimum security prison I'd never seen before. But I was often frustrated with Kerman's lack of details - I had no sense of how it was that she was free to just go do yoga or run around the track whenever she wanted, or what kind of hours she worked at her electric and construction jobs. I was really moved by the descriptions of the other women in prison and of the friendships she formed, but I also had trouble keeping the women straight, especially when she'd bring up a name that she hadn't mentioned in several chapters, and I would try to remember who Delicious or Pom-Pom or Toni was.
I did find her to be a bit smug, going out of her way to explain that while most prisoners kept to their ethnic "tribes," she was friends with everyone, other prisoners came to her for help with their homework or legal work, she lent out all of her books and gave away all of her possessions, etc. While I liked her voice, I felt she went overboard in trying to portray herself as non-racist, and as someone who didn't feel above everyone she was incarcerated with.
Mostly though, I was disappointed in the ending. For the last 100 pages, I was looking forward to the end, to what happens when Piper gets home. She ruminates a lot on the balance between getting used to prison rituals but not getting so comfortable that you forget the outside world, so I wanted to know how she found the adjustment to home, whether there was any tension with Larry.Read more ›
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540 of 615 people found the following review helpful
I really liked this book. It is written like a series of sequential articles rather than a narrative with true character development, but it still provides interesting insights into the rhythm of institutional prison life, with its mind-numbing bureaucracy and its mash-up of humanity trying to adapt or deal with incarceration. It is told from Kerman's pov, and thus her reactions to life in prison make up the bulk of the book, but she still provides a lot of food for thought about our prisons and the people who live in them.
I came to the book through the Netflix mini-series, and the only reason I watched that was because of Kate Mulgrew who is "Red", but I found myself completely drawn in by the series story line and the lives of the characters in the movie, in spite of the fact the show was much, MUCH more shockingly graphic than anything I typically enjoy (used tampon sandwich for starters). After the mind-blowing ending of the first season of the mini-series, I had to read the book to see whether something like that incident really happened. The answer is thankfully no. There are no deaths in this book, no overt sex, no pregnancy drama, no drug-running drama, no brutal attacks, and so on.
It is difficult for many people to have compassion for people who are in prison or to care about their living conditions since they "made their bed", but I think books that remind us of our common humanity with "others" are important and worth reading, and so I added a star to the book's rating.
Recommended. And if you are put off by the graphic nature of the mini-series, this book is a "safe" read. If you are hoping to read graphic descriptions of events portrayed in the mini-series, you will be disappointed.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Although it is most definitely not a literary masterpiece, Orange is the New Black will leave you wishing you were back in high school categorizing the “cool” kids. Best I can say is that the writing is sophomoric. True, the concept of writing about prison life can be interesting, however Danbury seemed to harbor more of a sleep-away camp atmosphere than a penal institution should offer. As an aside, I also have blonde hair – did I say I have blonde hair? Maybe you didn’t hear me – I have long, luxurious blonde hair; the world revolves around my blonde, impossible to ignore, tresses. Perhaps the most infuriating part of the novel is the “brown nosing” the author does when describing her co-inmates. This is nothing close to resembling the TV show “Lock Up.” Kerman eats good food, spends fortunes in the commissary, is gifted more books than she can read, and is sought after for her literary prowess (maybe her inmate letters are at a higher level than the writing in this book). Her ability to belittle her inmates by use of apophasis is astounding – is she an Orange County housewife? Great lawyers for Piper, uneducated DAs for her friends; Piper the obsessive athlete, uncoordinated schlubby cohabitants; Piper’s upper crust speech, the gutter verbiage of her bunkmates. Not to make the novel sound trite and meandering, it does have a redeeming point – it has an ending. If you are lucky, you will not begin reading this unfortunate autobiography, so you will not need to think about reaching the anti-climactic ending. Needless to say, I was unimpressed. Reading this story was a two-week sentence (how long I dragged myself through this nightmare) without being guilty of a crime.
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This item: Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison
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