Customer Reviews

Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

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. Most of all, after she credits the women at Danbury for their friendship and kindness, I wondered if she simply left without turning back or if she kept in touch with anyone, wrote letters, saw anyone who got out on the outside (like Pop)? I felt robbed of one last chapter, which I felt the book was leading up to.

All in all, this was enjoyable, but not something I'll enthusiastically recommend.

Piper Kerman in the book of her year in prison, tells us the on-going sentiment of prison is that 'You come in alone, you walk out alone'. She, however, found the opposite. She found friendship with her fellow women prisoners, love from her family and much encouragement from her friends near and far. Her experience as she has written it, is an eloquent statement of life on the inside.

Piper Kerman is a woman who had it all. She came from a loving family, she was intelligent and had opportunities that others she came to know did not. She attended Smith College and after graduation she looked for a life. She felt at odds, she had some lesbian tendencies, and fell in with a woman who was smuggling drugs into Europe and the US for a great deal of money. She never smuggled drugs but she did carry money. She tired of this lifestyle quickly, and moved to San Francisco and started a new life. There she met Larry and after a year of friendship, she realized she was in love. How could such a thing occur? Well, she was lucky. Larry's job brought him back East, and they settled in New York City, a happy loving life.

One day the doorbell rang and Piper's life changed. Her old life came crashing back, and she was charged with money laundering. She was given a sentence of 15 months in jail. She was told to report to the Danbury Minimum Security Center in Connecticut. And, off she went in Feb with Larry at her side. From that point on she was known as Kerman. The minimum correctional center was not as horrific as she thought. Most of the women were supportive of each other. There was no forced lesbian sex. She found friends and bunkies, those that bunked together in the cubicles. She had a job first helping with electrical problems and then with construction. Kerman tells us about her friends and fellow prisoners and life as she knew it for a year. The guards were mostly OK, a few losers and a few sexist pigs. The wardens were rarely seen. And, as Kerman says, the prison ran itself. No one was really in charge. There was no real assistance, no education about living on the outside, no counseling or therapy of any type. Holidays and birthdays were celebrated by the inmates. You got to know those that were helpful and those who had access to food. Kerman received books and mail almost everyday from her myriad of friends. And, the most important thing was visits from her fiancee, Larry and her friends and family. They came every week and they kept her going. Kerman was asked to testify in the trial of someone who was involved in the smuggling operation in Chicago. She did not know this person, but she was flown via prisoner transport, (not a form of travel any one of us wants to take, ever). She spent time in Oklahoma City prison and then Chicago. None of it was pleasant, but she made it through. Kerman did her time.

The title of Kerman's book 'Orange Is The New Black' is taken from the support her friends showed. They wore orange shoes.. Piper Kerman grew up in prison. She learned to accept responsibility for her actions. She felt the pain she caused her loved ones and friends. She did, however, make new friends and saw a totally different way of life. Piper Kerman has given us a glimpse into a year of her life in prison. This was a realistic view of life most of us will never see, and it was told in a simple straightforward manner. Most of us have an idea of what we think of those in prison. Never will I think the same nor make judgements. Therefore but the grace.. I want to know about Pop and Natalie and the rest of the gang. And, most of all, how are you doing Kerman?

Highly Recommended. prisrob 04-08-10

Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison

I became interested in Piper Kerman's story when I read Larry's contribution to the NY Times Modern Love column and saw that her book was forthcoming. I bought the book and kept reading and reading, hoping for something interesting to pop up. It didn't.

The first chapter is great, but the whole middle section is crammed full of details about every person who she meets in prison. And so many people are introduced you can't even keep them straight. And of course her fiance and family are amazingly, perfectly supportive. She makes one small dig at her mother (about asking her daughter if she thought her mom looked her age) but other than that, every member of Team Piper comes off amazingly (and unbelievably) well.

I would like to know how she re-entered society, how it felt to be job-hunting with her criminal record, how difficult it was to fall back into her relationship with Larry after being imprisoned for 13 months. Instead, I got details about crocheted sex organ toys and a disagreement at the prison salad bar.

I'm sure prison wasn't easy or enjoyable. I just wish the book had told more of the interesting part of the story and less of the repetitive details.

Not that long ago, I got cuffed COPS-style and it completely freaked me out--my wrists ended up bloodied and bruised. I grew up in a WASPy middle-class environment in a suburb in Massachusetts. In 1991, I graduated from Simmons College, a small women's college in Boston. Piper Kerman graduated from one of the Seven Sisters-- Smith College-- at around the same time. That's where the similarities between my life and Piper's life end. In 1992, I drove across the United States with a friend from my days as a competitive equestrian. While I visited San Diego, Las Vegas and Bryce Canyon, Piper hung out in Bali with drug runners and carried drug money to Brussels.

A decade later, Piper's criminal past, which she had long left behind, caught up with her. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed, well-educated Piper found herself in lock-up for a felony. Sentenced to 14 months in the women's correctional facility in Danbury, Conn. Piper chronicles every detail in <strong><em>Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison</em></strong>, a candid and reflective memoir.

Only 30 pages in, when Piper surrenders to the women's prison in Danbury, Conn., I find my own heart racing as she describes the process so vividly. I would have had a major panic attack and passed out. Piper remains relatively composed as her fiancé dropped her at the door. Piper decides from the get-go that she needed to be brave, even if she just puts on a brave face. If she didn't remain in that state of mind she felt that she'd be doomed to harassment and not getting through her sentence unscathed both emotionally and physically.

When Piper first arrives she immediately notices the tribal system where many women tend to "stick" to their own--blacks with blacks; Latinos with Latinos; whites with whites and so-forth. Over time, Piper has friends of every color and more importantly, these women accept her. [It was all very West Side Story--stick to your own kind, Maria!] Piper ends up in B Dorm aka "The Ghetto."

In <strong><em>Orange is the New Black</em></strong>, Piper provides the real scoop on good prison guards vs. bad. She details earning various privileges like using the phone and procuring special items from the commissary. Then there's smuggling choice food from the cafeteria in the front of one's underwear for cooking up later. There's a plethora of protocols and methods to avoid trouble or privileges revoked. Piper recalls work duties. First she works in the electrical area and learns many tricks. Then she moves on to construction which allows her a bit more freedom and some fresh air. A true respite for her. Then there are a few prisoners who make passes at Piper which she manages to ward off, avoiding any insults.

It's not all completely terrible despite being locked up. Piper slowly makes a close posse of friends on the inside. She reads a ton and has so many books that she lends them out to various inmates. To avoid stress, Piper runs on an outside track six miles a day and longer on the weekends. She also starts yoga classes with a vegetarian known as Yoga Janet. Piper gets hooked and finds it's a great stress-reducer and a chance for personal reflection. Things also aren't all rosy. There are many times when Piper falls into despair and retreats to her bunk to read or runs around and around and around the track to escape into NPR or a college radio station.

Piper touches on several controversial subjects including incarceration of non-violent drug offenders. I agree with her on this one. It's similar to arresting the prostitutes by not the johns. Or pimps for that matter. One Dominican lady in her 70s was in for four years for a "wire charge": she took phone messages for her drug-dealing relative.

She discusses restorative justice as a result of reflecting on what she had done and some of the women she befriended in prison-- <em>But our current criminal justice system has no provision for restorative justice, in which an offender confronts the damage they have done and tries to make it right to the people they have harmed.</em> Many who itch to return to the streets go right back to the drugs that got them locked up. The Bureau of Prisons [BOP] lacks the basic ability, funding and time to rehabilitate the incarcerated and thus the recidivism to commit the same crimes once released remains real. Some women turn to bad behavior as a coping mechanism against their poverty, lack of family support, abusive spouse and boyfriends and general hopelessness. She also talks candidly about her shock that very little is done for the women who've completed sentences and have no resources for release: reuniting with children and family members, finding housing and finding employment.

Piper's story is at times upsetting and at other times amusing. She's a courageous woman and <strong><em>Orange is the New Black</em></strong> is a gift to readers and an inspiration. Its truth will open your eyes to unfair treatment, lack of rehabilitation and repeated frustrations within the U.S. prison system. <em><strong>Orange is the New Black</strong></em> is at turns daunting, authentic, provocative and spellbinding. The best part is that it's about women from all different backgrounds bonding to endure a miserable situation.

I was skeptical about this book at first (Why does the white girl with the literary hipster friends emerge from prison with a publicity blitz and a book deal, yada yada) but the author's thoughtful and nuanced interview on [...] won me over. So glad I got over my judgemental self and gave this book a chance. Orange is the New Black is funny, surprising, haunting, compassionate, filled with unforgettable characters, and most of all, beautifully written. The author's journey through the prison system is, of course, completely fascinating, but her emotional journey is what makes the book impossible to put down. Perhaps most importantly, she never forgets to place own story in a broader context. As terrible as her experiences in prison were, many of her fellow inmates--who do not share her education, relative wealth, or social status--faced much more daunting prospects in life, in court, in prison, and after their release. Our common understanding of what women experience in prison is influenced more by Roger Corman films than by reality. There are many women in prison whose voices need to be heard, and Ms. Kerman does an excellent job of articulating the reasons why we should be listening.

Piper Kernan gives the reader a good view of what life is like in a women's minimum security prison. She goes into great detail on the day-to-day existence of an inmate. The jobs, food, visitation, guards, and recreational activities are all very well described. However, this book must be read with a critical eye to fully appreciate it. The reader must understand that Kernan is trying to put herself in the most positive light possible, and what she does not say is very important, too.

For example, Kernan says that she only delivered drug money once, and that was the extent of her involvement with her lesbian lover's drug operation. However, on page 22, in describing the evidence against her, Kernan says "the evidence the government had gathered against me - it included a detailed statement from her that described me carrying cash to Europe." She wants the reader to believe that she pled guilty on the basis of only an admitted drug dealer's statement and nothing more. However, The key word is "included." That means the government had a lot more evidence that Kernan does not share with the reader. It is doubtful that her very expensive lawyer would have allowed her to take the plea if that was all they had. It is far more likely that Kernan was much more deeply involved in her lover's drug operation that she reveals and that the government really had the goods on her.

Also, in the "Questions for Discussion" on page 325, question 3 begins with "Piper is indicted for a crime she committed several years earlier and is sentenced to more than a year in prison." There is absolutely nothing in that sentence that tells the reader that Kernan pled guilty of her own accord. It tries to give the impression that if a person is indicted, the government can send them to prison without a trial. This is juvenile in its effort to make Kernan appear to be the victim of an evil government that is out of control.

Kernan never seems to say that what she did was wrong. It is not until page 180 that Kernan finally admits that what she did helped to increase the suffering of the female drug addicts that she was incarcerated with. But, Kernan only gives her guilt trip one short paragragh before going back to her theme that society is really the villain here and that these unfortunate women should be given counseling and treatment rather than prison terms. She completely overlooks the fact that most of these women committed other crimes to support their drug habit.

This brings us to the biggest error in Kernan's reasoning. Throughout the book, she insists that drug offenses like hers are non-violent crimes. She completely ignores the fact that many burglaries, muggings, and car-jackings are committed by addicts trying to get the money to buy drugs from people like Kernan and her lover. The money she carried to Europe probably included the life savings of some elderly woman, stolen to get drug money. But, Kernan ignores this because she did not steal the old lady's money herself. Her refusal to face this fact is probably due to her super-liberal, priviliged upbringing, which allowed her to close her eyes to the unpleasant realities of life. She just doesn't think about it, and that makes it OK in her mind.

Finally, Kernan's life was not negatively impacted at all by her incerceration. After being released, she tells us "Work began a week later, at a marketing job created just for me at a tech company that was run by a friend." Must be nice to have a friend who can make a job just for her. Of course, he did make wait a whole week for it. Ah, the problems and miseries of the idle rich.

It's very hard to feel any sympathy whatsoever for this author's so-called "predicament".......she's NOT the victim she portrays herself to be.

I really wanted to love this book because the idea/subject is so interesting and intriguing, especially in light of Martha Stewart's shocking stint in Camp Fed.

But I was very disappointed and came away with the feeling that the author was smug about her backround and upbringing. Enough already with the constant reminders that you graduated from Smith! Wake up! You did time in prison, get over yourself, get humble! When Piper is in Dorm B aka "the Ghetto" she refers to being concerned that other prisoners are jealous that she's "got it like that" because so many friends and family members are sending her books to read. How fortunate for her. She should be grateful to others...this does not represent any accomplishment on her part. Also, the author seems to indicate that since her drug trafficking/money laundering crime happened years ago that it "did not really count" compared to the other inmates' (some of them seemed more hardened criminals) offenses.

There IS some altruism on the author's part, and also some genuine kindness and insight but overall the author's attitude regarding social classes vs. her own social standing is a big turn off.

Even her jacket photo looks rather smug.

Bottom line: If one commits (or is even an accessory to)a crime, and they get caught, they should accept responsibility for their actions (rather than blaming others ie: Nora)and also let humility be one of the lessons learned from the experience.

I found out about this book through a popular woman's magazine and I was so interested in it that I paid full cover price. I wish I had not. Unlike some of the other reviewers who read the book in one sitting, I have had a hard time reading this book. I find the writing rambling and unfocused. The author jumps around from topic to topic and back to topic in a stream of consciousness kind of fashion.

I am interested in reading about a woman who has had this kind of life changing experience, even if it was not a more "hard time" kind of experience. In some ways, Kerman exposes the minimum security prison's inability to provide some education and proper meals for the inmates. She illustrates the bonds that can form between women of different backgrounds that are brought together by circumstance. I believe, however, that this book would benefit from some editing and organization in the writing style. I hope I can finish it, but I will not be keeping it on my self for a re-read at a later time.

I love memoirs. I love reading about other cultures, lifestyles, religions, etc. I especially like reading about those things that I, myself, will never experience. I loved the book, "I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced" for that very reason. And, I really liked Orange is the New Black for the same reason.

I hope to never find myself behind bars. However, I could relate to Piper Kerman more than I could relate to Nujood Ali. I am white, in my 30s, educated, and from the East Coast. For this reason, I tried to put myself into Kerman's place and imagine what I would do or think if in the same situation.

Ms. Kerman was honest and her words very thought-provoking. I believe she handled her situation and her time behind bars with dignity and grace. I think with this, and a little bit of luck, she emerged stronger, wiser and more appreciative of the little things in life that we often take for granted.

I feel the same way having read this book.

This shallow "memoir" is an absolutely painful read. After reading the beautifully written "Fish" by TJ Parsell I was intrigued. What I got, however, was a ridiculous self indulgence by Kerman, who takes EVERY opportunity to remind the reader that she is educated, white and good looking (?!).... (you never once get to forget she graduated from Smith). Nearing the middle of the book it became simply laughable how she related constant examples of how popular she was and how "hip" she was with different ethnicities. Equally annoying, however was her references to how "different" she was then the typical prisoner. Some of her biggest struggles involved juggling all of her friends and family who wanted to come and visit her, getting two subscriptions to the same magazine etc. Lacking in depth, insight and wisdom this should have stayed in her personal journal.

I would highly highly recommend "Fish" by TJ Parsell in comparison this is just a disgrace.