INSOMNIAC SONG

NON-FICTION

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

 

Author: Piper Kerman

Page Count: 327 pages

Date Published: 2011

Publisher: Spiegel & Grau

Synopsis: 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. 

 

 

Piper Kerman is a nice blonde lady whose family and friends laughed when she told them she was facing a 15 month prison sentence. She’s the last person that anyone would expect to go to prison. This is something she’s going to remind you of repeatedly. Why is she in jail? Her reckless years after graduating from Smith ended with conspiracy charges from trafficking drugs and money laundering. These crimes were committed while she was lounging in Bali and exploring different countries with her older, raspy-voiced lesbian girlfriend. It’s made clear by Kerman that she was lost and confused during this time, unsure of who she was or what she wanted out of life. Girls like Piper only commit crimes like this when they’re lost and unsure, right? Of course, there’s no real remorse for her crimes.

 

During her time in a women’s prison in Danbury, Connecticut, her boyfriend maintained a website that sold things like “Free Piper” tshirts and kept those on the outside informed about her situation. She had far too many visitors, books and letters pouring in already. Piper was so popular that she received letters from friends of acquaintances, who’d been told about her. Other women would be lucky to receive any sort of communication from the outside world.

 

She makes fast connections despite what should be barriers like race, age and background. Piper finds a place among these various groups, even becoming the recipient of a birthday party and being gifted pedicures. This acceptance, from women serving longer sentences for similar crimes, rings a bit false. Many of these women are incarcerated each year with severe punishments and never seen the cushy prison life that Piper served. She remarks on these women, commenting on the drug addictions and sentences some face as if it’s harsh laws at fault for their predicament. Were her own years of involvement with a drug cartel not enough experience to show her that those smuggling heroin are a real problem?

 

Piper isn’t the only one who takes her crimes lightly. Her future husband, Larry, wrote two New York Times columns about their relationship. Larry writes that her life has ‘real glamour’ and refers to her crimes as exploits. He makes Piper’s crimes and her sentence seem like a fun story to tell over drinks to a group of jaded friends. Perhaps, to them, that’s exactly what they are, exploits in a charmed life.

 

The memoir offers no real insight into her experience. Piper tells herself, and her readers, that anyone can survive anything for a year. Yet, there’s no emotional or spiritual growth. Even when she’s awaiting trial with her former girlfriend, Piper sticks firmly to her ‘I’m a good, strong person’ mantra. She never seems to get past being that good, pretty blonde girl, who made the reckless choices. I’ll agree that anyone can survive anything for a year, but more often they come out of it with deep emotional scars and a new way of seeing the world. With Piper’s memoir, I was left feeling that everything was far too sugar coated to be plausible.

 

 

Rating: 2.5/5