Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (udgave 2011)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a good portrayal of her struggles. I don't like the show because I find the main character in the show annoying. However, I didn't find the narrator in the book annoying. I was much more empathetic to her. Her story is much more understandable and you can see yourself in her circumstances when you read it. On the show, I just think she's a twit and an ingrate. ( )

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Good and entertaining. ( )

If you are expecting a juicy book version of the TV series you will be sorely disappointed. I don't blame you, at first I was doing the same, but as I read through the book I realized I preferred the more "real", and less dramatic cast in the book over the caricatures of the inmates shown in the series.
Piper Kerman does a fantastic job bringing the women of the prison to life. At the same time shedding a light on the terrible prison conditions and overall lack of resources available to prisoners which further highlights the surprisingly heart warming sense of community illustrated throughout the book.

My main complaints revolve around the seemingly repetitiveness of the book, which is essentially a compilation of notable events throughout her stay. Perhaps the book was a bit too long because I was getting tired of this recipe near the end.

Lastly I listened to the audiobook version of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed the different voices employed by the narrator for each character. I'm not sure if the audiobook came before the TV series but some of the characters sounded eerily similar! ( )

I started this book right after I finished The Secret History, by Donna Tartt. I was at first struck by the contrast in writing ability and style. Kerman is the clear loser in that kind of comparison. She's a competent writer, fortunately, for she has a story to tell that needs to be heard.

The important story is not so much the unusual case of a middle-class, highly-educated young woman landing in prison. It is more the story of the prison itself, and of prisons in general in this country.

Kerman went to prison for her part in a drug ring. She was recruited by a woman she deeply admired, and found it easy to accept the gifts that eventually led to a requirement that she do something in return. In other words, she casually took advantage of drug money without, at first, being responsible for obtaining it. When she was asked to deliver her first load she couldn't say no. It was never anything she enjoyed, but she did it with more worry about her own safety than about the effects those drugs might have on others.

She quit when she couldn't handle the stress any more, and started her life over. Fell in love, moved to another state, thought it was all behind her. But the wheels of government can grind ever so slowly and still get you. And they did. Her name was given up by someone else in the ring, looking for a lighter sentence. Kerman was convicted but she had to wait six years before she actually stepped into prison. This because the feds wanted her testimony in another case.

For those six years Kerman went about her daily life, changing what she had to, telling those she felt needed to know. She found she had support from her family and her boyfriend, shocked though they were. She also had friends who stood by her. Living in a kind of limbo without any of that kind of support would undoubtedly have been a kind of sentence in itself. I had difficulty imagining living under this cloud. Kerman, to her credit, did not dwell on it overlong. I actually wish she had told us more about this period. But she was anxious to get to the prison experience itself.

I happened to watch season one of the Netflix adaptation of this book before I read the book. I was surprised to find as much correlation between the book and the series as I did. The other prisoners she met matched closely those in the series. The main difference is that incidents in the book were expanded in the series, were taken to more serious conclusions. A series needs more drama.

What I took away from the book is a heightened sense of the wrongness of the prison system. There is nothing in the book that I did not know before, but by adding names and places, by personalizing the experience, the facts take on a deeper meaning. Why are so many people in prison for non-violent offenses, usually related to drugs? Why are there so few options for pregnant prisoners? Why is humiliation a part of the prison experience? So much is so wrong, and yet is "the way it has always been done". My hope is that this book brings a greater awareness to the serious flaws in our penal system and even brings out change. ( )

I received an advance copy of this book through goodreads. The book captured my attention from the beginning. Piper Kerman tells the story of how she became involved in transporting drug money shortly after she graduated from Smith. She had moved on with her life when her past caught up with her and she was sentenced to 19 months in prison (although it was several years between the time she was sentenced and when she began serving her time). I wasn't sure how enjoyable a book about daily prison life would be, however Kerman's writing style made for an interesting memoir. ( )