A young man with a naive sense of being indestructible, comes up against reality in a foreign jail. Cut-off from everything he knew, this is the story of how he found his way to freedom.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sticking to the point would be advisable to some..,
By Takis Tz. (InYourHead) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Midnight Express (Paperback)
This legendary book (and later movie of the same caliber) has provoked and is still provoking so much off the point debate that it's hard to fathom.A discussion about Turkey and its pros and cons belongs either in a different forum or upon a different book as a vehicle for argumentation. Even Hayes himself despite his martyrdom had said publicly after his escape to the States that his intention had never been a defamation of Turkey or the Turks. So lets leave it at that. To the book itself, this is indeed a momumental reading describing the utter and surreal ordeal that Hayes, a convicted hash smuggler endured while incarcerated in the Turkish prison system. He describes a system which was designed (or left to its own devices?) to devalue human existence and destroy human dignity. In conditions mildly called appalling, Hayes went through 5 years of sheer soul and bodily torture until his incredible and unlikely escape which spared him life imprisonment. He himself spares the reader none of all the disturbing details and descriptions as he unravels his nightmarish narrative. The Midnight Express is a book that punches hard at the incarceration system (as prisons in many other parts of the world are similar or worse) and the sheer disregard for human dignity. Credit to Hayes for not trying to redeem himself by claiming wrongful conviction. He accepts that he commited a crime according to that country's law and that he knew he was as he was commiting it. He doesnt accept (to put it again, VERY mildly) the severety of the penalty and the way it was carried out. It's a book that will no doubt unnerve the reader who's unfamiliar with such literature or who's never given much thought to such issues. It's a scary experience even as an innocent turning of pages and will keep you hostage with its gloomy, borderline deathly and insane atmosphere. It will also provide some serious food for thought about the limits of human perseverence as a whole. Written in a very direct and engaging style, Hayes proved a talent in writting and if you've read other such books you know that not everyone could achieve the level of directness and the effect of making you feel other the way he did. Worthy of its fame by any standard. For anyone interested in a similar and perhaps even more disturbing book try the "Damage done" by Warren Fellows.
24 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WAITING FOR GODOT IN A TURKISH PRISON,
By
This review is from: Midnight Express (Paperback)
This is the vivid, detailed, and eye-opening autobiography of student dropout Billy Hayes, who relates his years from 1970-75 in the prisons of Turkey, where he was imprisoned for smuggling hashish. Captured at Istanbul airport by a random search, he has to learn to handle himself inside quickly if he is to survive. His case takes years to go through the courts, slowed down by the grinding wheels of the Turkish injustice system, crooked lawyers, and the bureaucracy found the world over in these cases. American status does not protect him, he is sentenced to life imprisonment, commuted to thirty years. There are graphic descriptions of everything that goes on: there are Turks, Europeans, one or two other Americans, and children all imprisoned together.He has various plans for escape, the title of the book being his code word for his escape plan. His first plan revolves around getting a psychiatric discharge or escape from an easy prison. A couple of the other prisoners do escape, one by sheer cunning and the other by clever bribery. One or two fail spectacularly. One man is beaten so badly by the warders that he murders one of them when he is released and gets put straight back into the same prison, where now his status is much higher, as murder is considered a 'manly' crime there. Billy keeps himself going by correspondence with home and a past girlfriend, and adapting to but not succumbing to the prison regime. He has to learn to stay alive as a person and keep his humanity by forming friendships and alliances where he can. One of the great ironies of being inside in Turkey for smuggling hash is that there is free availability of hashish and other drugs, which are used by all--police, prison guards, and prisoners alike. Eventually he is transferred to a low security island prison where he can steal a boat, row to the mainland, and escape to Greece. He returned home, much the wiser for his experiences, and co-wrote this book and also signed the Hollywood deal which led to the famous film of the same name. An exciting story, and an eye-opening account of the seamy side of Turkey.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, Quick Read worth the time,
By duganolan (CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Midnight Express (Paperback)
Read this book in the 80's, curious if it would be as good as the movie. It wasn't as near as exciting, but just as entertaining.I was surprised the movie didn't mention Billy Hayes 1st attempted escape; it would have been great movie material- Hayes' description formed vivid mental images that would have been great low-light film sequences. His final escape to Greece was much more interesting than the movie's little jump dance in the Turkish streets. Anyway neither the book or the movie disappoint. It is a classic of the prison-genre, of the human spirit, and of good ol' survival. It is not on the scale of Papillion, and should never be compared to that work... Papillion is unique, kind of untouchable really.
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