Top 10 Jailbird Books: From Michel Foucoult To Piper Kerman

From Flavorwire:

By Kathleen Massara

People end up in prison for a variety of reasons; some for political crimes, others for robbery, murder, or rape, and even more for drug-related offenses. Then there are those who find themselves working at prisons, and they've been able to tell different, but no less compelling, tales. Whatever the reason, the following list of ten authors have written thought-provoking, disturbing, and even hilarious books about the prison system in the US and abroad.

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"Orange Is The New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison" by Piper Kerman

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Kerman is a Smith alumna who served a year in prison in Danbury, Connecticut for a drug trafficking offense ten years after the fact. She writes, "One day in the spring Nora returned home with a brand-new white Miata convertible and a suitcase full of money. She dumped the cash on the bed and rolled around in it, naked and giggling. It was her biggest payout yet. Soon I was zipping around in that Miata, with Lenny Kravitz on the tape deck demanding to know, 'Are You Gonna Go My Way?'" Attention New Yorkers: Kerman reads from her memoir tonight at Book Court in Brooklyn at 7pm.

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Kerman is a Smith alumna who served a year in prison in Danbury, Connecticut for a drug trafficking offense ten years after the fact. She writes, "One day in the spring Nora returned home with a brand-new white Miata convertible and a suitcase full of money. She dumped the cash on the bed and rolled around in it, naked and giggling. It was her biggest payout yet. Soon I was zipping around in that Miata, with Lenny Kravitz on the tape deck demanding to know, 'Are You Gonna Go My Way?'"

Attention New Yorkers: Kerman reads from her memoir tonight at Book Court in Brooklyn at 7pm.

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Comments

[JulianaSS]

04:00 PM on 03/09/2011

for a list about books, i would think one would pay more attention on how to spell a renowned thinkers name. Michel Foucault, not Foucoult.

[mmkay]

08:42 PM on 03/12/2011

Caught my eye too, and I clicked the link to this page to make the same observation. How can a literate person miss that he has an 'a' in his name?

[EStreetShuffler]

03:23 PM on 03/08/2011

Malcolm Braly's "On the Yard" is another great prison-related book, though I believe it was written in the 1960s.

[Jonathan A Lien]

04:03 PM on 03/07/2011

Thoreau, Wilde, and King seem so obvious, but they're absent, which makes me skeptical, but I'm going to read 2 more of their suggestions anyway...

[Milrepa]

11:33 AM on 03/07/2011

You can't miss SHANTARAM, omg. I think Brad Pitt bought the film rights.

[cameron d]

03:32 PM on 03/06/2011

45 years for trafficking drugs? What is up with your country?

[mmkay]

08:45 PM on 03/12/2011

Being 'tough'on drugs is the way to get elected and to keep job security for people in that industry. Rationality got nothing to do with it. But if you look at the Daily Show fairly often, rationality got nothing to do with a lot of things in my country. it's just an eleven letter word and that's that.

[namewithheld]

08:28 AM on 03/06/2011

Callisto by Torsten Krol.

[HST]

03:36 AM on 03/06/2011

Homeboy by Seth Morgan

[MSROADKILL612]

12:44 AM on 03/06/2011

Alexander Pearce was transported to Sarah Island in 1822. A month later, he escaped with Thomas Bodenham, Robert Greenhill, Matthew Travis and John Mather. After 15 days without food, they decided to experiment with cannibalism. The men drew straws and it was Thomas Bodenham who drew the short one. He knelt down, was killed by a blow to the head and subsequently served up for lunch. A week later, John Mather was foraging for roots when a hungry Greenhill crept up behind him, and swung at him with an axe. At that very moment, Mather moved and the axe glanced off his head. The two men wrestled and Mather seized control. However his good fortune didn't last long. Determined to eat him, the other three ganged up and killed him. Travis was bitten by a snake. Six days later, he too was on the menu. This left only Pearce and Greenhill. For a few days, each eyed the other suspiciously but vowed not to betray the other. Pearce thought Greenhill was lying and so killed him in the dead of night.

In 1823, Pearce was recaptured and confessed. Such was the fanciful nature of his story, no one believed him and so he was sent back to Sarah Island. Nine months later, he again escaped and for provisions, he took with him Thomas Cox.

A few weeks after escaping,Pearce was found. He again confessed to his crimes and even had a morsel of Cox to verify his story.

[MSROADKILL612]

12:38 AM on 03/06/2011

What about one of the earliest and best loved US authors - O Henry - not about doing time to my knowledge, but storys and characters often based on his time inside.

Not my cup of tea, but papillion would be one of the biggest sellers.

You think sing sing is tough. Read up on port arthur and norfolk island in the early days of OZ.

One story is a classic. Guy escapes from port arthur with ~7 others into total wilderness in Tasmania & eats them all (the ultimate game of who can stay awake longest). Confesses when caught but isnt believed. He then does it again but has some tasty morsels on his person when recaptured and is hanged. Who needs novels.

Some irish rebel actualy succeeds in escaping and becomes a big time politician in boston I think.

A leisurely row from Sydney to Timor

Mary Bryant escaped in the Governor's six oar cutter with her husband, baby son, three year old daughter and five other Convicts. They then rowed to Timor, (5000 Kilometres from Sydney) navigating the uncharted Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait. Upon arrival in Timor, they claimed to be ship wreck victims but were soon identified as Convicts and sent back to England for trial. On the return journey, Mary's husband and son died of fever. Sadly for Australia, the English press found her tale of perseverance quite stirring and so rather than transport her once more, she was freed

[mazrio]

10:43 PM on 03/05/2011

Um, two words: Leonard Peltier.

[Richard Lee Wilson]

08:45 PM on 03/05/2011

dang, man...and no Chekhov "The Island"? Or, Dostoyevsky "House of the Dead"....then theres The Aqauriums of Pyongyang......seriously, Ive been to jail, for long time....and you edu..mmmcated people cant put one classic????Really? I taught classes on prison lit...and you guys suck....what about Toer?The Indonesian Solz.? He wrote a four part novel in prison on toilet paper smuggled from his anus to his wifes hands....what book that you placed here can compare?

[mlrose529]

12:05 AM on 03/06/2011

I'm with you 1000%. This list is woefully inadequate. What about 'Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson'. The man died writing that one. And why nothing from any of the Soviet-era Russian political prisoners? Also, wasn't it Dostoyevsky who had that great observation (and I'm paraphrasing liberally) that to break a man you make his life one of purposeless labor...digging a large hole and filling it up again or carrying pitchers of water back and forth all day long? Some of the selections on the list, while possibly great reads, have not had the social impact that would merit their inclusion.

[Richard Lee Wilson]

08:40 PM on 03/05/2011

You folks here are whacked ...completely deranged ...how can anyone forget to mention "The Gulag Archipelago"? Or, to be pc: Leonard Peltier?
Or, Brendan Behans "Borstal Boy"....serious, HuffPo needs to abandon its lit teaching...go back to news

[GaryNOVA]

02:39 PM on 03/05/2011

um... where's the count of monte cristo?

[GaiasChild]

01:50 PM on 03/05/2011

and scott peck md, road less traveled, people of the lie (sometimes people in prison can find out where the early betrayals took place and heal it all up and live well

[GaiasChild]

01:49 PM on 03/05/2011

o i was thinking autobiography of a yogi and various sacred texts . . . betcha they are hot too