November, 2013: Orange is the New Black (Kerman)

Post date: Nov 22, 2013 3:35:31 AM

A surprisingly large group made its way through the truly remarkable fog to Nancy's house on Wednesday, November 20 to discuss Piper Kerman '92's memoir of her year in the Danbury, CT minimum security prison.

Before we launched in to the book discussion, we were thrilled to welcome Zucu back after a three year absence from book club, and get an update on her adventures--a year in London followed by a multi-phase backpacking tour of various locations around the world. She's now back in the East Bay and we were delighted to have her back at book club as well.

Moving into the book eventually, we had a lively but somewhat disjointed conversation, possibly because of the large number of attendees. Those of us who had seen the TV miniseries noted the distinct lack of sex in the book, which is certainly NOT the case in the TV show. It was especially interesting to hear Karen's views of Piper, since they were at Smith simultaneously, and lived in Hopkins house together. Some of us felt Piper was a little too good to be true, finding a way to be nice to everybody, but Karen said it rang true to the Piper she knew. The informal style of writing was generally felt to be appropriate to the topic, and Deebie remarked that she felt that Kerman was very successful in telling the story in such a way as to appeal to a wide audience.

As might be expected, we also discussed the discouraging topics of the "war on drugs" and mandatory minimum sentencing policies, as well as a few bright spots with mention of some reentry programs in California which sounded much better than the awful version Kerman experienced.