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.
My Rating: 3/5
As a casual viewer of the Netflix series (I think I've seen the first 2 or 3 seasons) of the same name, I was interested in this book to see how realistic the show is because fortunately, I know absolutely nothing about the prison experience.
Piper Kerman gives a harrowing account of her experience in a minimum security prison. There were aspects that the show has incorporated well like the strip searches, the showers and even some confrontations with other inmates.
There were so many characters from the show in the book even though most were not mentioned by name, or had an extremely lower role.
Piper comes across as humble. She was very aware of her privileged background in comparison to her fellow inmates but she used this to help others like doing her bunkmate's coursework.
One thing I definitely liked more about the book than the show was Piper's partner Larry. I do not like him at all in the show, but in the book he was 100% supportive and kept Piper's networking going, because being incarcerated can really kill your social life.
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