Orange is the new black

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.

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.