9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Insider's View, April 4, 2000
This review is from: Stranger in Two Worlds (Paperback)
Jean Harris'"Stranger In Two Worlds" is a remarkable document of an upper middle class woman's experience in a state prison. Her descriptions of the circumstances and characters are colorful and tragic, and yet full of unexpected humor. She describes her fight to retain her dignity and gain dignity for young mothers in prison by founding an in-prison day care center so that inmates may remain connected, in a positive way, with their young children. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the justice system, the prison world, or women's rights.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book about a nutty woman, February 11, 2010
This review is from: Stranger in Two Worlds (Paperback)
A very well written book, that tells you just what it is like to be a long term prisoner in a women's jail, with the combination of callousness, caring and damaged people who inhabit it.
I also understood why an upper class woman with a good defense team could be sentenced to such a long term for a crime with extenuating circumstances. It is clear from her own words that she would not let her attorneys do their job, and would rather have her unbelievable version of events told in court than have a successful defence. A woman of intelligence, who brought great improvements to her jail, she has little insight into herself and her neuroses.
The book is a page turner, from her obsession with the arrogant Scarsdale Doctor, to the shooting, her trial and her humiliation and recovery in jail. I recommend this book
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bogus pity party, July 9, 2007
I went to Jean Harris's high school in Cleveland, OH. Naturally, she was the biggest celebrity alumni ever produced and everyone knew and followed her story from murder to prison. Now that she's out of prison, and being that it's nearly 30 years later, maybe Jean feels differently about her actions. I feel differently about this than I did years ago. But her book now makes me just as angry as it did when I first read it years ago.
Jean Harris grew up as a young lady of privilage from an old fashioned world that seems like some distant fairy tale. I picture a world of cotillian balls, white dresses and gloves, cocktail parties, butlers, etc. She married and taught school for several years, eventually divorcing and becoming the head of an exclusive girls' school in Virginia. She becomes involved with a man named Herman Taunower, future author of the Scarsdale Diet and her victim in a botched murder / suicide.
She does a good job of laying the ground work for the crime. Being in such a position as head of a private school she was under constant pressure and working very hard to keep the machine running. Her relationship with Taunower was codependent and seemingly tempestuous. They were engaged to be married early in the relationship, but they both backed off, settling for a lifelong non cohabitational partnership. They seemed far from happy, despite their understanding. Herman was not faithful to her, and he made no secrets about it. Yet, Jean seemed to accept this. Her job took a lot out of her, and Herman was prescribing pills for her to keep going and calm her down. Soon she was hooked and had to keep going to him for more.
The straw that broke the camel's back for her was a combination of things. She had run out of pills, couldn't get a pharmacy to fill them, and had a discipline situation at her school. A few students were busted for pot, and she had to do something about it. The anger from the student population and conflicting sides was tearing her apart. And although she was well aware of his infidelity, she seemed to focus all her anger onto one of the "other women". She saw his office assistant as a trophy wife type, a bimbo not worthy of a man like Herman and not her equal. Read her suicide letter, about how she made references to "her t--- all frosted with chocolate" and things. Jealousy. That's all it is.
Killing Herman? Well, all I can say is that she shouldn't have done it. If she really wanted to kill herself, she would have done it. And she didn't have to do it in front of him. SHe would have gone off someplace and done it on her own time. I think she intended to kill him then herself. Otherwise why didn't she just DO IT? Instead she couldn't bring herself to do the deed to herself.
As for her time in prison, it's deserved. She killed the man, she should serve the time. But, we all know that prison isn't a pleasent experience. You are stripped of your dignity and privacy for the crime you committed, that's the price you pay. She made use of her time, educating and working while behind bars, instead of rotting away.
Now that she's been out for many years and left to spend her remaining years in seclusion away from the public eye and out of the slammer, maybe she regrets her actions. Free of her addictions, free of her jealousy, free of the man who caused all the problems, she probably has a different perspective. My mom said to me "a lovely lady like her shouldn't have been put away like that." I say "Well she shouldn't have shot the guy, she committed a crime." I hope her woman scorned routine was worth it, as she lost several productive years.
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