Piper Kerman

Follows the author's incarceration for drug trafficking, during which she gained a unique perspective on the criminal justice system and met a varied community of women living under exceptional circumstances.

My Year in a Woman's Prison

Orange is the New Black

Piper Kerman does a great job as a person in a position of privilege. She takes her voice and sheds light on the stories of the women she encounters during her year in prison. She points out exactly how her class, her race, her family - gave her access to different treatment or support than the women she depicts in the story. While the real story is less dramatic and raunchy than the show, it’s no less captivating or entertaining, and at times even more compelling. 

Kalista Dickson

Von der 5th Avenue in den Knast Das Buch zur US-Kultserie! Piper Kerman lebt glücklich mit ihrem Verlobten in Manhattan, als ihr eine Jugendsünde zum Verhängnis wird. Das Gericht verurteilt sie zu einer 15-monatigen Haftstrafe, und Piper tauscht Designeroutfits und Loft gegen orange Häftlingskleidung und eine Zelle in einem Frauengefängnis. Über die Zeit dort, über Schikanen, bösartige Attacken, aber auch über Freundschaften und vor allem ihre toughen und warmherzigen Mitgefangenen schreibt sie ohne Selbstmitleid, humorvoll und sehr unterhaltsam. «Ich liebe dieses Buch in einem Maße, das mich selbst überrascht hat. Eine wundervoll erzählte Geschichte darüber, wie unglaublich Frauen sein können.» Elizabeth Gilbert, Autorin von «Eat, Pray, Love» «Dies ist ein ernstes und großherziges Buch, das das Leben in einem Frauengefängnis sehr detailliert und – das ist entscheidend – mit Empathie und Respekt für Piper Kermans Mitinhaftierte schildert, von denen die wenigsten über ihre Möglichkeiten verfügten.» Dave Eggers «Dieses Buch können Sie nicht aus der Hand legen, weil Sie selbst in diese Situation hätten geraten können. Oder Ihre beste Freundin. Oder Ihre Tochter.» Los Angeles Times

Mein Jahr im Frauenknast

Orange Is the New Black

Tobias V. Langhoff

I find prison life fascinating, and this memoir is a fine but boring recollection of a privileged WASP woman's year as an inmate. Guards are dumbstruck as to how a nice girl like her could end up in prison, inmates who are serving ten times her own sentence reassure her, she gets nice birthday presents from her cellmates, she has a fiancé and their own house waiting for her when she gets out; her troubles inside seem much, much less significant than those of other prisoners. You get glimpses of other people’s personal stories that seem much more compelling than the author’s, but at the end of the day the book is as often slow and repetitive (not unlike prison life itself) as it is interesting.

As anyone who has watched the show can probably guess, the book is mostly the basis of the first season (and the beginning of the second). The subsequent seasons have, for the most part, original storylines that are wholly fictitious. There are, however, some elements from the books even in season three, such as Martha Stewart’s incarceration, which surprised me.

The story does a fine job portraying the prisoners as human, and documenting both the mundane and somewhat exciting things that occur behind the walls – never nearly as exciting as the show based on this book, however. Several characters are recognizable in their TV series counterparts, and the basic backdrop is the same, but this is not a drama. At times it is a good protest against the US justice system, which the author now works to reform, which is where she best uses the more intriguing stories of her fellow inmates – mostly because her own stint in prison didn’t seem too bad.

Derek Barlas

Great book - really enjoyed it. Original source for the TV show but its so much better than the show. None of the exaggerated nonsense ie murdering and burying bodies in the greenhouse etc. Just a true life account of one ladies experience with the justice system in the USA.

Dawn

I love the tv series based on this book so I thought I'd give the book a try. The book us almost always better than the movie, right? No. I liked the book but I didn't love it. The tv series was VERY loosely based on the book. It wasn't anything like I had expected. There were not as many characters in the book as in the tv show. The book was a little dry for my taste. There wasn't much of a story to base a whole novel on.

Caitlin Hooker

Loved this book so much more than I ever thought I would. I haven't seen the Netflix show, but after the reading the book, I really don't want to. It was perfect.

My Year in a Women's Prison

Lacy W

4.5 stars. 

I know that I have used the term "insightful" in my tweets about this book, the RTC piece and an update. It's probably severely overused now and you guys are probably sick of me saying it but I can't help it. This book was  insightful. My eyes were opened to just how horrible the penal system in here America really is. 

I'm going to be honest and say that I never thought prison to be that bad. TV shows and movies (for the most part.There are obviously a few exceptions, although I can't think of any off the top of my head) have made prison seem almost like a holiday. Even when I started watching MSNBC's  Lock Up, I still thought prison to not be that terrible. Even when the went to the most Seg and places like that, I truly thought  how bad could it be?

I was incredibly wrong and I feel stupid for even thinking such thoughts. As a psychologist in training, I should have known better. But TV shows and movies gloss over the nastier aspects of anything unless it's a documentary or something like that. For now, I shall leave it at that. I plan to write a two part (maybe even three part) blog piece about this book, the TV show and the penal system, and what little I know about it and my feelings on it. So stay tuned for that. 

On to the actual review. 

This book is about the year that Piper Kerman spent in a minimum security level prison. Piper talks, incredibly honestly might I add, about what she did to end up there, how she fared in prison and how she felt. 

I felt Piper's word to be refreshing. She was unapologetically honest about how she felt being in prison. She knew she made a mistake but honestly didn't think it was that big of a deal until she saw the effects of what drugs can do to people. Before that happened, I thought her to be almost pretentious. Her tune quickly changed and I respected her more. 

As the book continued, you could tell she was getting back into prison slang. The book started out very proper and nice. Then as she delves more into her year in the prison, the tone changes. She starts using prison slang and it becomes more, almost profanic like. You would have thought she wrote part of her story behind bars. I didn't mind this though. I preferred it, even. 

If I could give any sort of negative feedback, which is hard when it's a memoir, is that it was very dense in several places. Piper uses this memoir to spew facts about women behind bars and how little rehabilitation prisons actually do. Don't get me wrong, I think that's awesome. Using this wildly popular book-turned-TV-show to talk about something that is obviously very dear to her heart is a great way for it to get attention. But at times, there were huge paragraphs of just solid information and it got to be dense and hard to read. I think I skimmed some of it because I just couldn't get my eyes to focus on the words. 

However, that didn't deter me from really liking this book. Fair warning though: the TV is almost nothing like the book. I was able to spot some of the characters from the show but not all of them. The things that happened in the TV show don't happen in the book. I'm telling you guys this because I went into this book with that exact expectation and I didn't get it. I was disappointed and it nearly caused me to not finish the book. So I'm sorry if that is considered a spoiler but I hate it when someone doesn't warn me about something like that. I only want to do the same for you. However, once I decided to throw that notion away, the book easily become a lot more enjoyable. 

I think that everybody should read this book. The American penal system is so messed up and Piper does a good job of explain just how awful it truly is. She knows exactly what it's like to be the one behind bars and I think that gives her more credibility. I really highly suggest this book.

Midori Kobayashi

2/5 stars


While this book did teach me a lot about American prison life, the author's story is coming from an extreme position of privilege. As a white university-educated upper-class woman, Piper is completely unrepresentative of the general prison population. For example, while other women worry about where they are going to live when they get released, Piper's fiancé is buying an apartment in Brooklyn. She somehow manages to make prison life sound pretty good- a place to make good friends with a bunch of women making the best out of a bad situation. Which jbtw is so only because of her privilege and "good looks" as we are reminded of so many times throughout the book? But do we actually delve deeper into the problems the general prison population faces? Do we take more than 2 lines to talk about it? No. We just talk about how everything is rainbows and sunshines for Piper because of her fancy lawyer and bundles of money. 

Maybe it was my fault to go into this book thinking it was gonna be anything close to the title "My year in a women's prison" but this was nothing short of a disappointment. 

We have a racially biased justice system that over punishes, fails to rehabilitate, and doesn't make us safer.


  Book Trigger Warnings- Drug sales, Lesbophobia (brief), Prison

Jeannette Ordas

Maybe because I watched a lot of prison movies as a child (Escape from Alcatraz was one of my favorites), I always thought landing in prison seemed like a semi-plausible reality for adults. This wasn't a quick read for me but it was interesting and educated me on the daily grind of prison livin'. There were a few things I wasn't keen on. Some characters that were briefly introduced once and then casually mentioned later - it was hard to keep track. She also would bring up anecdotes and they just seemed like tiny tid-bits dropped and forgotten. But the overall experience made for an interesting, albeit, surface journey into the world of women's prisons.

Haylie

Some people need to chill. It's a memoir, so it's only going to be from Piper's perspective...not what we get from the television show. I was wary because I thought of earlier episodes where Piper is portrayed as really annoying and self-centered, and thought maybe I shouldn't read this book. I did, and I felt that it was actually an insightful critique of our justice system. It's ridiculous that someone can get a two year sentence for a marijuana charge, but a guard only gets a month for sexual assault! I felt the author acknowledged her privilege and felt it was necessary because people can forget that she was a white woman in federal prison - a middle to upper class one at that. Is it the best perspective on prison life? No, because it's only this one viewpoint. Would it be cool to have a woman of color that served time in the prison's perspective? Absolutely. If anything I'm a little annoyed at the show for focusing a lot on the romantic relationships (Piper/Alex, Piper/Larry, Larry/You-Know-Who-If-You-Watched-The-Show, Guard/Prisoner, etc.) rather than the inner workings of the prison system and its false characterization of people the memoir mentions to add dramatic flair (Pennsatucky, period). I thought this was a pretty good book; the author called herself out and she called the Justice system out and that's that.

Annie

Pop Sugar Challenge:
- a memoir

Read-O-Rama Challenge:
- a book with diversity

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187–424—one of the millions of people who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns to navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of behavior and arbitrary rules. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with small tokens of generosity, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison—why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they’re there. Praise for Orange Is the New Black “Fascinating . . . The true subject of this unforgettable book is female bonding and the ties that even bars can’t unbind.”—People (four stars) “I loved this book. It’s a story rich with humor, pathos, and redemption. What I did not expect from this memoir was the affection, compassion, and even reverence that Piper Kerman demonstrates for all the women she encountered while she was locked away in jail. I will never forget it.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love “This book is impossible to put down because [Kerman] could be you. Or your best friend. Or your daughter.”—Los Angeles Times “Moving . . . transcends the memoir genre’s usual self-centeredness to explore how human beings can always surprise you.”—USA Today “It’s a compelling awakening, and a harrowing one—both for the reader and for Kerman.”—Newsweek

Tracie McMurray

I was fascinated by the narrative of life in a women’s prison. I have not watched the Netflix series. In fact, I did not realize it was based on a true story. I’m glad I read this gritty look at guilt and facing your self.

Mary Rose Luksha

This is the perfect example of why I like to read the book first and then watch the movie/tv show later. Unfortunately, that's not the way it happened. 

I devoured Orange is the New Black on Netflix. The relationships the women share and the prisoners' backstories are my favorite part of the show. While there are some huge things that are different between the book and movie, (I won't reveal specifics no worries), even those basic ideas are missing from the book. In the book, Piper talks a lot about stoicism. So when she talks about the relationships she made in prison, and their value for helping her do her time, they seem to lack an emotionality (which I attribute to her stoicism). I don't doubt she honored and respected those women, but it didn't always come across in her writing. And I understand that prisoners aren't keen to talk about what landed them in prison, or perhaps Piper couldn't write about it to protect them or for some other reason, I understand that. I think the main difference between the show and the book is that the show is all ups and downs and drama, and the book is one even keel. Ultimately, the difference between fiction and non-fiction.

That being said, I liked the book. An inside perspective on prison is not something I've ever encountered. And I think Piper nailed the majority of the problems with correctional facilities. She even put forward some solutions to minor problems, and we always seem to be in short supply of solutions. She learned lessons and wrote about them in ways I hadn't thought of, so that was interesting.

I wish I read the book first, I probably would've given it a higher rating.

With her career, live-in boyfriend and loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the rebellious young woman who got mixed up with drug runners and delivered a suitcase of drug money to Europe over a decade ago. But when she least expects it, her reckless past catches up with her; convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at an infamous women's prison in Connecticut, Piper becomes inmate #11187-424. From her first strip search to her final release, she learns to navigate this strange world with its arbitrary rules and codes, its unpredictable, even dangerous relationships. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with tokens of generosity, hard truths and simple acts of acceptance. Now an original comedy-drama series from Netflix, Piper's story is a fascinating, heartbreaking and often hilarious insight into life on the inside.

My Time in a Women's Prison

Leigh Osborne

I enjoyed it more than I thought and I thought it was much more tamer than the TV Show.

Vivian

Have to say that the TV show is far more interesting.

Amanda Rocha

https://thewandererliteraryjournal.wo...

Orange Is The New Black routinely pays homage to its form, by referencing books throughout the entire Netflix original series. After the first season, the show heavily diverges from the truth of the memoir it was based on, though the show still makes an effort to honor books by including them in the characters lives. Not only do inmates rely on story to get through their incarceration, but their incarceration becomes a story (ie. Orange Is The New Black: A Memoir by Piper Kerman).

OITNB may weave a tall tale, but a tale that is rooted in truth. Although the lives of Chapman and the other inmates depicted on the show are fictitious, they are based on real people in true situations. The show brings to light real issues that exist within the prison system, and educates us while entertaining us.


Image result for oitnb standing on tables the animals

The show dramatizes and exaggerates the realities of prison riots, and idealizes an outcome that could benefit the entire prison system. By grouping all of the worst-case scenarios in a Murphys-Law sort of way, the show educates people about prison life, laws, and serves as a sort of guide on How-To avoid prison.

The memoir Orange Is The New Black: My Year In A Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman follows her seven-year long experience with the federal correctional system, chronicling her own experience while simultaneously exposing some of the greatest flaws and oversights of the system. 

When federal agents knocked on her door with an indictment in hand, Piper Kerman […] was forced to reckon with the consequences of her very brief, very careless dalliance in the world of drug trafficking.

Following a plea deal for her 10-year-old crime, Piper spent a year in the infamous women’s correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, which she found to be no “Club Fed.” In Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, Piper takes readers into B-Dorm, a community of colorful, eccentric, vividly drawn women. Their stories raise issues of friendship and family, mental illness, the odd cliques and codes of behavior, the role of religion, the uneasy relationship between prisoner and jailor, and the almost complete lack of guidance for life after prison.

In the show, Taylor Schilling plays Piper Chapman, a character inspired by Kerman whose plot is fictionalized in order to expose a larger amount of issues within the prison system.

The Netflix Original remains loosely based on the memoir, borrowing mostly the book title and setting from the book while taking extreme liberties with the plot line and characters. The memoir itself follows only Piper’s experiences; therefore, most of the back-stories and minor characters in the show were created for the show. Many characters of the series are purely fictional, though some are adapted from people Kerman actually met while in prison. For example, although the show writers created the back-story for Sophia (played by transgender actress Laverne Cox, and named Vanessa in the book), there was a trans woman living in the cubicle beside Kerman in prison.

Despite the differences between the book and the show, both remain fascinatingly captivating descriptions of the prison industry and have helped to raise awareness of criminal justice issues within the United States.

The series has earned four Emmys, four SAG Awards and a Peabody, and have raised public awareness around the problems of mass incarceration and its disproportionate effects on communities of color.

Ellie Younger

The TV show Orange is the New Black is vastly different than this memoir. Piper Kerman smartly depicts the difficulties of prison, and the injustice found in our justice system. Through the unfairness and pain, there was strength. Her story was sometimes hard to read, but the pure resilience was wonderful to see. Humans are strong, and their potential to forgive, grow and change is incredible. We need prison reform, and this book makes that fact even more evident.

Paige Carter

Engaging. Funny. An easy read with good content.

Annalee Harris

Piper Kerman chronicles her thirteen-month stint in prison in this autobiography. Personal, enlightening, and curious, Kerman explains how she navigated prison life; from befriend bunkies to making delicious contraband cheesecake.

Piper Kerman is the epitome of white privilege, and she's not ashamed to brag about that. She comes from a high-class white family (even bragging about her "WASP" status), had a well-paying job, and decided to dabble in crime out of sheer boredom. She paints everyone in her life to be the villain and refuses to accept responsibility for any of her actions; it was Nora's fault she did the crime. It was her family's fault she did the crime. It was her socioeconomic status' fault she did the crime.

She claims several times throughout the novel that she's "not racist, but ...". She regularly describes her fellow inmates with derogatory terms; she is outright transphobic, homophobic, and racist. Most of the black women were described as dykes with poor English; the Latinx and Mexicans are lumped together and Kerman uses the terms interchangeably; any white woman who struggled with drug addiction was called either a hillbilly or "Eminemlette"; and everyone was beneath her (despite them all being criminals--Kerman included). She was extremely condescending and loved the fact that, as a rich white woman, she got more privileges for being a "Northerner" and rarely got in trouble for breaking the rules. Her fiance Larry is just as bad; Kerman loved sharing his "beautiful, enlightened" writings, which were unpalatable and hilariously cringey.

Orange Is The New Black is revolutionary in the sense that it gives us all a look into the prison system. But from a privileged white woman's perspective, what was there to learn? That systematic racism exists and the system is broken--but it's fine, because at least Kerman got out unscathed? She was bitter that the system tried to "break her" because she couldn't figure out how to use the phones--then brushed off the fact that the minorities who she shared cells with consistently got their rights revoked or got sent to solitary confinement for baseless reasons. Kerman acts as if her stint in prison was a trendy thing she went through and the book read like a Yelp review for a yoga class she didn't like and wanted to speak to the manager. Despite trying to expose the prison system, Kerman unintentionally proves she's part of the problem.

Olivera Mitić

Average, not necessarily memorable and pretty boring at times. The TV show is so much better.

Carolina Poças

OMG
ESTE LIVRO... ESTE LIVRO...... É ABSOLUTAMENTE FANTÁSTICO!

Este livro surpreendeu-me imenso, não estava à espera de o odiar mas também não estava à espera de gostar mais dele do que da série, que é das minhas favoritas. Aliás, agora acho que deixei de ver a série da mesma forma. Tudo na série é exagerado, e algumas cenas são demasiado impensáveis... mas série é série, se fosse igual à realidade certamente não atrairia tanta gente.

Mas... falando o livro. Maravilhosamente bem escrito, com "personagens" (são pessoas verdadeiras, por isso fico um bocado confuso ao que lhes devo chamar...) fantásticas. Tal como na série, senti uma ligação emocional muito forte em relação às pessoas mencionadas no livro, especialmente com a escritora, Piper (o que é irónico visto que odeio a personagem da Piper na série). 

Se são fãs da série não peguem neste livro por pensar que o nível de comédia e de ações idiotas e mirabolantes, este livro NÃO É de comédia, nem tem o objetivo de o ser. Por favor parem de criticar por não ser parecido com a série, se vêm a série sabem que algumas cenas são demasiado mirabolantes para ser minimamente verdadeiro. O objetivo da Piper Kerman ao escrever este livro foi dar a mostrar outra faceta das prisionerias, elas não são monstros, são pessoas com sentimentos e passado. Aliás o principal objetivo da escritora foi mostrar o degredo que é o sistema penal dos EUA. 

Se gostam de livros de "self-discovery" e livros passados em prisões, e histórias emocionantes sobre prisioneiros ou prisioneiras têm de ler obrigatoriamente este livro!!! 
ESTOU APAIXONADA POR ESTE LIVRO! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :))))

StaticWaffle

Having come to this book after being a fan of the show, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t expect it to be as entertaining, or as heartwarming, or as heartbreaking, or as enlightening about the prison system as the show was. But it was.

This book is about Piper’s experience in the prison system. Not the people she serves time with. If you are looking for a book about the difficulties the minorities face within the prison system, I suggest you look elsewhere. While she does touch on these subjects, they are from her perspective.

Keeping that in mind, I thought this book was wonderful. She shared many touching anecdotes from her time there and tied them nicely into the lessons she learned from them. I enjoyed reading through the experiences she shared, but they are not meant to be a detailed analysis of the prison system as a whole and this book does not (and does not try to) speak for other people’s experiences.

Megan Leprich

Let me just first say that I never jumped on the bandwagon and watched this on Netflix. But now I'm glad that I didn't because I'm super happy I read the book first. Oh my goodness I loved this book. I'm normally not one for nonfiction or memoirs but this was amazing. You almost feel like you are in the facility with her the details are so in depth. I think I'm now going to be ordering Netflix and watching this show. Love love loved it!

Kerri McDonald

How to review a book when you have no real strong feelings about it? This is the dilemma I am in.

This is a book about the author's time behind bars after being convicted on a decades old drug charge. It's definitely an interesting view on life in prison, but I got a really weird vibe throughout the book that the author was almost... bragging? Perhaps it was because I listened to the audio version and the narrator's voice had a hint of smugness to it. I don't know, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. Still, the overall novel was good and I enjoyed the various stories of Piper's life as an inmate. It also brought up some very good points about the our judicial system. I wish she had spent more time delving into those, but I understand this is supposed to be a snapshot of her own experiences.

Overall, I liked it, but it's definitely not one of my favs.

Orange is the New Black My Year in a Woman's Prison

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