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Title details for Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman - Available

Orange Is the New Black

My Year in a Women's Prison

by Piper Kerman
Cassandra Campbell
Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
3 of 3 copies available

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 ago. 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 women 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, where the uneasy relationship between prisoner and jailer is constantly and unpredictably recalibrated. 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, Orange Is the New Black 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 23, 2012

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781452627663
      • File size: 322288 KB
      • Duration: 11:11:25

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Most prison books recount rape, assaults, and other horror stories from the wrong side of the wall. This memoir is, on the other hand, a realistic look at the life of a rich woman in a minimum security prison, where the biggest challenges are boredom and life-sucking sameness. Piper Kerman's literate account of life in the pen is an engaging work made even better by Cassandra Campbell's delivery. It's tough to make more than a dozen characters come to life and even tougher to give each a distinctive voice; Campbell makes it sound easy. The book seems more realistic than the Netflix television series based on it. The television show is replete with the sex and brutality one expects from prison stories but lacks the day-to-day heart of the book. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 27, 2012
      Kerman is now a successful and respected vice president of a communications firm based in Washington, D.C.âbut she took a long and turbulent road to get there. In 1998, Kerman was indicted on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, and later served 15 months in a women's prison. In this audio edition of Kerman's memoir about her experiences in prison, Cassandra Campbell provides skillful narration, capturing the essence of the story and its protagonist. The narrator's subtle portrayal of Kerman is subtle, yet ripe with tension and raw emotion. Despite a somewhat lackluster, overly reserved performance in the audiobook's early chapters, Campbell soon turns up the heat, ultimately delivering a compulsive listening experience and a memorable turn as Kerman. A Random/Spiegel & Grau paperback.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 8, 2010
      Relying on the kindness of strangers during her year's stint at the minimum security correctional facility in Danbury, Conn., Kerman, now a nonprofit communications executive, found that federal prison wasn't all that bad. In fact, she made good friends doing her time among the other women, many street-hardened drug users with little education and facing much longer sentences than Kerman's original 15 months. Convicted of drug smuggling and money laundering in 2003 for a scheme she got tangled up in 10 years earlier when she had just graduated from Smith College, Kerman, at 34, was a “self-surrender” at the prison: quickly she had to learn the endless rules, like frequent humiliating strip searches and head counts; navigate relationships with the other “campers” and unnerving guards; and concoct ways to fill the endless days by working as an electrician and running on the track. She was not a typical prisoner, as she was white, blue-eyed, and blonde (nicknamed “the All-American Girl”), well educated, and the lucky recipient of literature daily from her fiancé, Larry, and family and friends. Kerman's account radiates warmly from her skillful depiction of the personalities she befriended in prison, such as the Russian gangster's wife who ruled the kitchen; Pop, the Spanish mami
      ; lovelorn lesbians like Crazy Eyes; and the aged pacifist, Sister Platte. Kerman's ordeal indeed proved life altering.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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