Have you ever done something and gotten away with it and hoped it wouldn’t come back around one day and bite you in the butt? Maybe you cheated on a math test and it’s the only reason you passed the class. Or you told your parents you were working an extra shift and you used the time to hang out with a friend you weren’t allowed to see.
What if you did something really bad? What if you broke the law, smuggled drugs into the country and was part of an international drug ring? Fat chance? Well, Piper Kerman probably isn’t someone you would point out in a crowd and say “she has criminal written all over her face.” She was a young, middle class girl who was taking some time off from school and work to travel internationally with her girlfriend – and smuggle drugs and money all over the world. She was fortunately that during her “experimental phase” as she called it, she wasn’t caught or arrested. When things got too close for comfort, she abandoned her friends and decided to straighten out.
Ten years later she’s engaged to a nice Jewish man, working as a creative director and her past is completely behind her. Only a few of her current friends even know what she did back in her early twenties. But the past does not stay hidden for long.
Piper’s old drug smuggling ring has finally run out of luck and is being squeezed by the Feds to name accomplices. Piper’s old girlfriend is quick to name her and next 7 years is straight from Piper’s worst nightmares. First, she spends six years fighting the charges with her fiancé and her lawyer. Finally she is sentenced to 15 months in prison and must turn herself in to Danbury Women’s Prison, a minimum security federal penitentiary.
Prison is not something that Piper has ever intended on experiencing in her life. It’s full of all different women, from middle class white women who are serving time for fraud to “Spanish mamis” from Brooklyn who are also facing drug crimes. As much as Piper would like to keep the advice she was given before she entered prison and “keep to herself” and “don’t get too friendly with anyone on the inside,” she finds that this tactic hasn’t worked well for those who’ve tried it. They end up homesick, mental cases who never leave their beds.
When in Rome… Piper decides to befriend the women she’s living with. She’s accepted into a few of the social groups, learning skills like construction and electrician skills and even how to make “prison cheesecake.” She joins a group of yogis, takes up running and even attends movie night with the chef and her “family.”
The reason for this book, as far as I can see, is to speak to the friendships and comradery that Piper was able to find in the prison. In a place where everyone knew she “didn’t belong,” she was able to form strong bonds with the women who helped her survive. If the people on the outside who visited gave her strength, then the people on the inside kept her sane. They taught her how to serve her time without going crazy.
A few things to point out about this book.
- This is a true story, but I do think that Piper glamourizes the women in her story.
- Unlike the Netflix version, the story is not filled with lesbian sex and Pensatucky is actually a friend of Piper’s in this story.
- While the book is about the comradery that Piper experienced behind bars, it would good to pay attention to her description of the quality of life she has while there.
- I’m thinking some of the testimony given, since this is a memoire, is most likely biased.
This book was extremely interesting. I loved to see how Piper evolved from a scared self-surrender to a tough, experienced prisoner who took the newbies under her wing. It’s terrible how callous she became to certain things such as lack of privacy, quality of accommodations and the mental state of her fellow inmates. I also wonder how Piper would react to being in for more than 1 year. If she has to face, say 5 years, would her attitude be the same as it was when she was only facing 13 months?
Have you ever been fascinated by true story of adversity or survival? What is the name of the book?
