Book Review- Piper Kerman's Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison

Earlier this summer, I discovered the new Netflix original series, Orange is The New Black, based on Piper Kerman's memoir of the same name. The series is fantastic and easily one of the best new shows of 2013. I binge watched it in less than a week and can't wait for season two. To tide me over and also to get a deeper look at Kerman's story, I bought her memoir.

A little background for those who are not familiar with the series...shortly after graduating from Smith College, Kerman dated a woman, Nora Jansen, who was dealing drugs internationally. Kerman got involved with money laundering and drug trafficking, crimes that caught up with her years later, after she had ended her relationship with Jansen and settled down Larry Smith, her fiancee, who knew nothing about her past. Kerman served thirteen months in a minimum security prison in Danbury, Connecticut for her crimes. 

Although Kerman's book alludes to many of the colorful characters and crazy scenarios that have popped-up in the television series, the book leans more towards Kerman's observations regarding prison policies. Kerman paints a pretty bleak picture of the current prison system, with its outward stance on reform, yet in actuality it's a place where prisoners kill time before they are reintroduced to society without the skills to easily steer clear of recidivism.  

Kerman is educated and from a wealthy background. Upon her release from Danbury, she had a job, finance and home waiting for her. She points out that a majority of the women were not returning to the same situation as her and in particular, they did not have the education or job skills to keep them from lapsing into old habits. Kerman found the education program to be nearly non-existant and the prison jobs were not often affording prisoners new or useful skills. As excited as they were to be released, many women dreaded leaving the comfort zone and structure of the prison. 

Kerman never makes a plea for lessening punishments, but she does make a strong argument for making prison time an opportunity for positive change and making a bigger attempt to release prisoners back into society as capable individuals. Maybe we could spend less money on housing prisoners, if we spent a little more to make sure that the current prisoners were not basically set-up for failure upon release.

We need to make an investment in people and show compassion as they serve their time. It's not about letting people off without consequences, just making them feel like they have the ability to have value in society.  The prisoners were constantly subjected to verbal abuse and made to feel worthless. It was maddening to read Kerman's accounts of prison bureaucracy and senseless rules. There seems to be so much wasted time and resources. 

Beyond Kerman's take on the societal implications of prison, the book was fascinating from the stand-point of reading about a life that is so different from my own. Kerman seems to cover every possible facet of prison life that one might be curious about and it is covered in much greater detail than in the television series.  

If you love the series, this book is a great companion piece. It's dryer and more analytical, but it will give you a good idea of where the lines blur between the fantasy of the show and reality.  

My overriding sentiment upon finishing the book was one of respect for Kerman. I think it takes a lot of guts to admit your wrongs in such a public way. I also respect that she   owned up to how her role in the drug trade had impacted those around her. Kerman really felt this guilt as she encountered drug addicts living with her in prison. Kerman took the worst time in her life and has not only grown from it, but by getting her story out, she is spreading awareness for an important social cause.  

Book Review- Mary Otis' Yes, Yes, Cherries

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I've loved everything from Tin House publishing, but for some reason, Mary Otis' short story collection: Yes, Yes, Cherries has sat on my to-be-read bookshelf for years. Prior to reading the collection, I had not heard of Mary Otis. I've had such great luck with enjoying books from Tin House, that I just scoop up what they publish without reading up on the authors or content of the books. I never quite know what I am going to get.  

Yes, Yes, Cherries is a short, quick read. It's easy to finish in a few hours, even if you slow down your reading speed to absorb Otis' beautiful prose. And you should slow down! 

Otis writes stories that go to dark places, often with characters either engaging in taboos or living on the fringe of society. The striking thing about her characters, is there is no judgement. I felt neutral while reading about them, as if it was a character study and I was just waiting to see how it all played out. I think this might be considered a negative if the format wasn't short story, but as the stories averaged twenty pages, I didn't need to develop empathy with the characters. It was engaging enough to see how the various scenarios conclude.  

I felt like all of the stories were written to provoke the reader into their own mind game of what would you do? The characters are thrown into various immoral activities, such as the woman who has an affair with her landlord, while the landlords mentally ill wife desperately tries to befriend her or a nearly homeless woman who takes a job at a dry cleaners out of desperation only to discover that her place of employment is a front for criminal activity. 

Not all of the characters in Otis' stories engage in morally questionable behavior. She also writes characters that are awkward or normal characters written into uncomfortable situations. The very first story of the collection, Pilgrim Girl, is about pre-teen with a desperate crush on her next door neighbor. The girl, Allison, interacts with both her crush and his wife in really bizarre and uncomfortable ways. I was squirming while reading the story. 

Otis has an off-beat take on the world and it shines through in her writing. It keeps it interesting and all of the stories in her collection are strong. As much as I enjoy reading shorts, I would love to see how her literary voice would translate to a novel.  

Book Review- Nancy Jo Sales' The Bling Ring

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I broke a New Years Resolution to read Nancy Jo Sale's The Bling Ring.  My resolution was to hold off on buying new books, with the exception being ebooks for my Kindle strictly for vacations. My UK trip is still a few weeks away and last week I decided to take a look at the British Airways inflight entertainment schedule.

Naturally, Sophia Coppola's The Bling Ring, inspired by Sale's book, is one of the options. I'm a huge fan of Coppola, yet missed the movie when it was in theaters. I had been planning to read the book while on vacation and rent the movie upon returning, but noticing it on BA's schedule, made me impulse buy the book and devour it within two days.

I'm so glad that I broke my resolution, because Sale's investigation of the aptly named Bling Ring was fascinating. The Bling Ring was the name given to a group of Southern California teenagers who in 2008 and 2009 committed a string of robberies targeting celebrities. The kids were so enamored with the celebrities that they felt by stealing their clothes, jewelry and sometimes even underwear that they could somehow become celebrities themselves. 

These kids were brazen. They targeted celebrities that they felt had superior fashion sense, such as Rachel Bilson or Miranda Kerr. In some cases, they would find a particular article of clothing that celeb had been photographed wearing and go after that specific piece. The teens would wear the stolen clothing out, often to the same clubs that the celebrities frequented. They flaunted their crimes. 

Sales makes a compelling argument that technology not only allowed for the ease in which these crimes were committed, but it has also changed the way in which we view celebrities. With the popularity of social media sites, celebrities are accessible in ways that they never have been in the past.

The minute a celebrity leaves their house or travels out of town, a paparazzi or even just a fan, snaps a photograph and puts it on the internet. The kids used this to their advantage, as they knew when a celebrity was on a flight out of town and gone from their homes. They used Google Maps to find out information regarding their victims property, including the best entrances to the homes.

We live in a society in which we demand that celebrities trade in their privacy to gain fame. There are no barriers and the kids took this a step further, by actually breaking into the one area that should still be off limits. The common response from all of the celebrities targeted was one of a loss of security, not so much for the property, but because their one safe haven was violated.

On a personal note regarding the topic of celebrity privacy, yesterday, I was at a children's play area in Burbank with my friend and her daughter. Her daughter started playing with a little girl and they really hit it off. It turns out that the kid was the child of a celebrity and is rather well-known herself. There was a lot of protection surrounding this little girl, including having her use an alias. She seemed very sheltered and a bit sad.

I was thinking about it a lot last night, especially with regard to the privacy issues raised in this book and then this morning,  one of the first stories that I saw on the E! website app was an article on Suri Cruise. These children are famous by association, yet their lives are on constant display. Public demand + ease of technology + very little legal protection = a big problem. I hope that some of the recent anti-paparazzi legislation passes.

The most striking element amongst the teens involved was their overwhelming sense of entitlement. This entitlement even seemed common among their parents, who were quick to defend the teens. All of the defendants escaped without a very harsh punishment and I got the feeling that the only one it really affected was Nick Prugo. Prugo showed a real sense of remorse when caught and made efforts to come clean with police, so much so, that he was accused of ratting out the other teens.

Most of the kids involved were from a privileged background, yet they felt entitled to be on the fast track towards the type of fame that comes with being a socialite and reality TV Star. Someone like Paris Hilton, who was one of the victims, was a celebrity that the kids hugely admired. Some of the girls involved were even filming their own reality show for E! Television, when they were arrested. They arrest and trial were worked into the production only increasing their exposure and fame. 

The amazing thing was along with this sense of entitlement, it was as if they really didn't think that they were doing anything wrong or that it was possible that they would get caught. Most striking was Sales' interviews with one of the defendants, Alexis Neiers. Neiers babbles on and on about how she was wrongly accused and that the truth will come out. She is incoherent and it is as if she thinks if she tells her lies enough that they will become the truth. Or maybe she even believes her own lies. She sounds like a scared little kid. 

Sadly, to some degree, the Bling Ring kids remind me of many kids that I know in my own life. It's an unfortunate trend in our society to want more than we need and to never feel anything is enough. I don't know anyone who would push as far as the Bling Ring kids, but I do see a smaller scale of parents spoiling their children rotten and the kids becoming entitled and complacent.  This, coupled with the fascination towards fame and getting rich quick, leads some kids to devalue school or to create unhealthy goals.

Our society has forgotten how to press pause on immediate gratification and this is a big problem. The Bling Ring kids are an extreme version of the problems that plague many people in society. We should take Sales' examination of their case as a teachable moment and take a critical look at our own lives. 

One last take-away from the book... don't leave a key under the doormat! Paris Hilton's house was robbed several times and each time, the kids just opened the door with a key found under the mat. Lindsay Lohan and Rachel Bilson both had alarm systems that they didn't use. I know that we all want to trust and feel as though we live in a place that is secure, but that's not reality. I have several friends who live in great neighborhoods and have been victims of home robberies in the last year. The best defense is to be proactive with security. You never know who is lurking around your neighborhood.