Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is The New Black, chronicles just about a year of doing time at a minimum security women's prison in New England. This book was the basis of the Netflix show of the same name, but it's a very different piece of media. Like any memoir, it's rooted in the author's personal experience. So while many of the characters, and even some of the incidents, will be familiar to those who watch the show, the book is really all about Piper.

Which, for me at least, worked just fine. She doesn't spend much time dwelling on her crime, but rather focuses her attention on what it actually means to be a prisoner. What comes through the most strongly is the dehumanization, going from being a person with autonomy to a number at the mercy of the system. There's virtually no privacy, there are strip searches required for every visit with someone from the outside world, the smallest concessions are subject to the capricious whims of prison officials. While many of the women are due to be released relatively soon, there's no meaningful rehabilitation or real preparation to be re-integrated into the outside world.

It really makes you think about what the point of prison actually is. Kerman's case, in particular, was a crime that was nearly a decade behind her by the time she actually saw the inside of a cell. She had long since ceased to be a threat to society, so protecting the world from her by putting her away clearly wasn't the point. The near-total neglect of actual education or career prep that might enable women to be able to quickly secure a job that might keep them out of the kinds of situations that landed them in prison in the first place shows that rehabilitation isn't what's going on. Our ever-growing prison population shows that deterrence isn't working. So it's just punitive then. And what point does that actually serve? Do most people feel like it's a moral victory to imprison low-level drug offenders, with all the costs that it entails?

Kerman is a good writer, and is more sympathetic than her television portrayal would suggest. She accepts her guilt for her crime, and while she's certainly surprised and upset that her brief stint with crime comes back to haunt her years later, once she's gotten used to the idea, she's mostly regretful about the impact it has on her family and loved ones. She takes the reader inside a world that most of us won't ever experience, and renders it with empathy and humor. This is a solid read, and as long as you're not expecting it to be just like the show, I'd definitely recommend it. ( )

I found this to be engrossing. What struck me the most was Ms. Kerman's message of humanity as shown through her relationships with other inmates. She managed to write an inspiring, positive book about a horrible experience. I couldn't put it down! ( )

I’m really glad I decided to read this one. I wasn’t in need of a inside view of the US prison system, but I definitely see the good to be had from reading Piper Kerman’s account of her time doing time.

The one thing I really appreciated about this book was the absence of self pity from our author. If this had been a poor-pitiful-me story, I would have DNFed the sh*t out of it. Kerman never once gave me that impression in this book. In fact, she reiterates multiple times that she had to own her mistakes and serve her time for making them.

I appreciated that she wrote about the years before her incarceration. I think it gave the reader insight into how she got herself into trouble and what emotions lead here to make the decisions that she did. I can relate to her younger self’s desires to have adventure and live an above average life.

Now, to address what many readers have pointed out through countless reviews; Yes, Piper Kerman is a privileged, white woman and this did affect the way her incarceration and subsequent release went. She even writes about this in the book. These reviewers aren’t writing anything that she hasn’t already and I think it very unfair to berate her for something that she really had no control over. Privileged or not, she still served time in the US prison system. Moving on.

Kerman is accurate with her assessments of the prison system. There is a dire need for change. Some could argue that serving time for minor crimes should be reevaluated. But then I have to ask, what’s to keep society from increasing the number of minor crime violations? In a vacuum, Kerman’s 10 year old minor drug crimes aren’t as serious as other drug crimes, but if the sentencing for this were reduced, where does it put similarly scaled crimes at? What does that do to the big picture? I worry that any change to how a crimes like this are dealt with could have negative repercussions. …I’m not saying anything more than a crime is a crime, for which you should serve the time for committing it.

Full review: https://wanderinglectiophile.wordpress.com/2018/01/03/review-orange-is-the-new-b... ( )

Going to prison isn't so bad if you're perky! Disappointing. I heard the author interviewed on WNYC (probably Leonard Lopate) and thought her story might be interesting. I'll take Ted Connover any day. ( )

I admit, I only discovered this book because of the show. If you're buying it expecting a similar experience you will be disappointed. For me though, while the book is different, it's equally enjoyable, just in a different way. It's an interesting look into the prison system with humor and grace. Yes, you will recognize some of the characters (although some have different names than the show) and incidents but it is obviously not a chapter/episode match up. I found it enjoyable. ( )