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. ( )

We were watching the TV show of the same name, and though I enjoyed it a lot, I kept thinking "I can't believe the book is like this." And sure enough, it's not. The book is far less sensationalist, far less dramatic, with far less intrigue than the book. The book itself is measured and mature, and shows a degree of introspection and a capacity for growth that the TV Piper has not yet demonstrated. It considers the flaws of the prison service, and how they fail their inmates and hence society - in short, it at least starts to grapple with some complex issues constructively, from an unusual point of view.

The book is actually a lot more life-affirming than the show, and mostly dwells on the ways that Kerman keeps her morale up. This is through small positive things (like running, reading, making microwave cheesecake) and of course through the friendships she establishes (sometimes against the odds). There is a slight issue here in that she ends up making the experience sound more pleasant than she is at pains to explain that it is, but that is, I believe, partly due to her steering clear of the people that she disliked (both in prison and in the book).

What the show has done is take a few tiny kernels of ideas, and then extrapolated from that, amping up the drama by orders of magnituded. Throw-away sentences become multi-episode story-arcs.

On one level, this is fine. The book as is would have made a worthy documentary about a women's correctional facility, but it would not have made a hit TV show. I'm totally okay with both versions coexisting. Except! Except that so many of the characters in the show are recognisable from the book - some even have the same names (which, admittedly, were changed in the book, but must surely still be recognisable) - and in the show some of them have done horrible things. I don't mind Piper's family and in-laws being portrayed as worse than in real life, as presumably she can explain to them, and they can laugh over the royalties and a cocktail. But it seems really harsh to have a poor inmate having a horrendous backstory appended to them.

Maybe Kerman went round and squared it all off with everyone, and my concern is undeserved. And, either way, it is not a fault of the book. Still, for better or worse, and hopefully not overshadowing the serious points that the book makes, it is one of the more intriguing things about it.

( )

This is a remarkable book. The author never wallows in self pity or anger and shows a remarkable capacity for empathy and understanding for her fellow prisoners. There is no stereotyping or judging just beautifully drawn characters all treated with dignity and respect. I couldn't put this book down. Highly recommended. ( )