Monday, July 14, 2014

Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman, 327 pages, 11.5 hours on audio

When Piper Kerman was young and carefree, she got involved with an international drug operation, acting as a courier for drug money across borders. But she got her life straightened out and put it behind her, building a career in TV production and meeting the perfect guy. Six years after she left the drug operation, Kerman's past came back to haunt her, ultimately landing her in a federal correctional facility in Connecticut.

Orange is the New Black is Kerman's memoir of that time, talking about the friends she discovered, the lessons she learned, and the realizations she made about the American penal system, particularly as it pertains to women's low-security prisons. I had heard about the Netflix TV show based on this book, though I haven't seen it (and I'm still not sure if I'll make room for it on my queue), but I enjoyed this book and the revelations Kerman made during her time "on the inside." I get the feeling that she sugarcoated it for the reader a little bit, which is probably both good and bad at the same time.

As I experienced this as an audiobook, I have to say that I really enjoyed the narration by Cassandra Campbell. The reader can make or break an audiobook, and Campbell did a great job, making use of several accents and inflections that didn't seem forced or obnoxious, but added depth to characters. I definitely recommend this format for this book.

No comments:

Post a Comment