A Book to Read Even if You've Seen the TV series
"Orange is the New Black" has been praised as a groundbreaking cable TV miniseries. And it is. Reading the memoir Orange Is the New Blackit's based on, you may feel a bit let down--at first.
The cable TV series is one of the great inventions of our time. This supercharged version of the three-decker Victorian novel, in which vital, flawed characters energetically pursue their ends at cross purposes with each other, hatching schemes, making true friends and deadly enemies, is fast-paced, sexy, and exciting when done well. And it is done well in "Orange."
But if you want to find out what going to prison is like, read the book.
The TV series takes incidents and characters from the book and dramatizes the heck out of them. In an early episode, Piper, our heroine, disparages the food, not realizing the inmate in charge of the kitchen is present. The furious inmate sets out to starve her to death. Only by enlisting allies and concocting a scheme to placate her can Piper get enough to eat.
In the book, Piper disparages the food, and the inmate makes an angry retort. That's it.
In the TV show, an inmate named Crazy Eyes conceives a mad passion for Piper and courts her. Then stalks her. The one-sided love affair escalates almost to violence.
In the book, Piper meets Crazy Eyes and notes that she's pretty whacky. That's it.
What does go on in the book? Piper is lonely and bored. She does a lot of thinking, about her past life, and about the people she has left behind on the outside, and has to deal with on the inside. The memoir is well-written, sharply observed, and free of self-pity. Not to mention informative. You find out all you'll ever want to know about being a middle-class person going to prison, and you're eternally grateful you're not finding out first-hand.
The book also devotes a lot of space to Piper's friendships. She meets a few women from backgrounds completely different from hers who are not damaged human beings but strong, compassionate people. She learns from them and they look after her. But these friendships lack conflict, so they mostly didn't make it into the show.
The cable TV series can deal with only a narrow wedge of human experience. It can't get bogged down in loneliness and boredom. It has to be funny and fast-paced. Imprisonment is neither. The writer of a book has a range of material and flexibility of technique TV dramatists can't match.
The cable TV series is one of the great inventions of our time. This supercharged version of the three-decker Victorian novel, in which vital, flawed characters energetically pursue their ends at cross purposes with each other, hatching schemes, making true friends and deadly enemies, is fast-paced, sexy, and exciting when done well. And it is done well in "Orange."
But if you want to find out what going to prison is like, read the book.
The TV series takes incidents and characters from the book and dramatizes the heck out of them. In an early episode, Piper, our heroine, disparages the food, not realizing the inmate in charge of the kitchen is present. The furious inmate sets out to starve her to death. Only by enlisting allies and concocting a scheme to placate her can Piper get enough to eat.
In the book, Piper disparages the food, and the inmate makes an angry retort. That's it.
In the TV show, an inmate named Crazy Eyes conceives a mad passion for Piper and courts her. Then stalks her. The one-sided love affair escalates almost to violence.
In the book, Piper meets Crazy Eyes and notes that she's pretty whacky. That's it.
What does go on in the book? Piper is lonely and bored. She does a lot of thinking, about her past life, and about the people she has left behind on the outside, and has to deal with on the inside. The memoir is well-written, sharply observed, and free of self-pity. Not to mention informative. You find out all you'll ever want to know about being a middle-class person going to prison, and you're eternally grateful you're not finding out first-hand.
The book also devotes a lot of space to Piper's friendships. She meets a few women from backgrounds completely different from hers who are not damaged human beings but strong, compassionate people. She learns from them and they look after her. But these friendships lack conflict, so they mostly didn't make it into the show.
The cable TV series can deal with only a narrow wedge of human experience. It can't get bogged down in loneliness and boredom. It has to be funny and fast-paced. Imprisonment is neither. The writer of a book has a range of material and flexibility of technique TV dramatists can't match.
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