Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman
Yes, I read this because I enjoyed the television show that was based off of this memoir. So let’s just get that out of the way. I know they say “never judge a book by its movie” which also goes for television shows, but for me it’s going to be impossible to talk about this book without referencing the Netflix series.
Piper Chapman in the television show is a spoiled, self-centered Manhattanite from a WASPy family who doesn’t (at first) believe that she truly deserves to be in prison with all the criminals. She has a nebbishy louse of a fiance named Larry, as appealing as a jellyfish and with the same resolve, and a single friend, Polly, a brittle and high-strung woman of the sort who look older than their age no matter how much they spend at the Clinique counter, and a selfish overly-preserved mother who just wants Piper to pretend none of this is happening. In the show, Piper is one of my least-favorite characters. While she eventually does achieve some redemption, she’s not the kind of person I’d like to spend any amount of time with. She’s a common enough character on television, the sort of person we’re supposed to admire for her beauty and strange ability to afford a desirable apartment in an expensive ciy despite the evident lack of any marketable skills.
Piper Kerman is a spoiled Manhattanite from a WASPy family who doesn’t (at first) believe she truly deserves to be in prison with all the criminals. She also has a fiance named Larry. That’s where the similarities pretty much end. Kerman’s Larry is a rock of a man whom she adores and eventually marries. Kerman has a wealth of good friends, a loving and suppportive mother, and the insight to know that her plight is not nearly as dire as that of the others around her. She’s also shy and introverted, reads insatiably, and writes as often as, well, as often as the sort of person who writes a book. In short, Piper Kerman is the sort of person whom I would like to have as a friend, which made my enjoyment of her memoir that much keener.
Kerman talks a lot about the other people in prison with her, and I could see how their character traits and physical traits and in some cases, their nicknames have been edited and reused for the show. The show has a Pennsyltucky, Pornstache and Tasty, the book has Pennsyltucky, Gay Pornstar and Delicious. Both the show and the book talk about the characters with a great deal of sympathy and fondness. These are real women with real problems and real lives, even when they’re fictional.
Kerman also uses this book to talk about the shameful state of prisons in America. Our huge percentage of incarcerated citizens is America’s most grotesque superlative. She doesn’t get too detailed with statistics and percentages, and she doesn’t hit you over the head with how horrible it is, but she opens the conversation. Prison destroys lives, not just for the incarcerated, but for their families and communities. I know a lot of people will be incensed that no one seems to care about something horrible happening until it happens to a pretty blonde middle-class white girl, but if that’s what it takes, so be it. I really hope that we see more in the media about our shameful minimum sentencing laws, locking up non-violent drug offenders, and damaging lives with no though beyond a desire to punish. It’s something I feel so passionately about that I try not to think about it too much because it makes me overwhelmingly sad.
It’s a pretty good memoir about something that most middle-classed people don’t ever think about (but should.)
