There is an interesting review in the New York Times of Cullen Thomas’ book Brother One Cell. This book is a story of Mr. Cullen’s experiences in South Korea after he was caught mailing himself a block of hashish and was subsequently jailed for several years.
Mr. Cullen, at least has the ability to make the most of his ’stupid foreigner trick” and write a book about his experiences. As per the review:
Mr. Thomas’s first inkling that he has made a serious mistake comes during his interrogation, when he is stimulated with a cattle prod, then tapped lightly on the skull with a nightstick, just enough to make the point. Mr. Shin, the unsmiling prosecuting attorney, assures him that he is in deep trouble, facing long years in prison. Mr. Shin is, in his own way, a kindly man, rather fascinated by Mr. Thomas and eager to improve his English. (At one point, he summons Mr. Thomas from his cell in the city’s detention center to ask him what the “Wuthering” in “Wuthering Heights” means.)
[...]
Like Solzhenitsyn’s Denisovich, Mr. Thomas finds a grim satisfaction in work. He is happy to cobble shoes for the Korean riot police at the rate of 80 cents a day. Even better than the loose camaraderie and open spaces of the factory floor is the prison sports program. Each factory has a basketball team, and Mr. Thomas, a first-round draft pick, emerges as the Michael Jordan of the South Korean penal system. The rules combine the N.B.A. and Confucius. When Mr. Thomas is tackled on a drive to the basket, no one seems to regard this as a foul, but the players can see that he is upset. As a face-saving solution, he is awarded four free throws.
The review is here. Read and, unlike Mr. Cullen, enjoy.
25 Comments
Links to a lengthy interview with Cullen Thomas and an excerpt from the book can be found here
Fair warning if you follow the link and listen to the interview with Dr. Hash. Listening to the interviewer’s voice is more painful than spending 3.5 years in prison. Like a cross between Grandpa Simpson and Liza Minelli.
Holy crow, the interviewer Diane Rehm’s voice is unbelievable! To be fair, she has a physical ailment which produces the horrible voice — but gosh, isn’t there some other career she could pursue?
I’ll probably buy the book out of professional interest, but honestly speaking, who cares about what this goof has to say? He mailed himself a brick of hashish.
I think I read a snippet from his book in a recent issue of GQ. Truth be told, after reading a similar book about a guy who spent a decade in a Thai prison, his experiences in Korea seemed tame in comparison.
Who is American the guy to whom reference is made in the review who was jailed for smothering his children to death?
Diane Rehm has a daily NPR talkshow in the DC area. A nice lady, with some days better/worse than others.
I doubt that no-account pothead who is now profitting from his crimes could answer the man’s question about “wuthering”.
That embarrassing excuse for an American should be required to reimburse the South Korean government for his stay as its guest.
When Cullen’s arrest made the news, a colleague remarked that a great way to screw your enemy would be to mail him some drugs next time you’re overseas.
Sonagi, I seem to remember Charles Mingus did just that to one guy and then called the police.
That was a fairly positive review–a couple others I read were not as kind.
For all the Penguin Classics “aren’t I deep” namedropping (Nietzsche and Tolstoy, Thoreau) he does, he comes off sound a lot more like Forrest Gump.
Yeah let’s buy this guys book so he can profit from his stupidity.
Sheesh. The Times review lays it on pretty thick.
Yeah, just a “wide-eyed innocent” wannabe drug dealer. Boo. hoo. “Passage into adulthood.” WTF? He was 23! And, he mailed a kilo of hash to a Seoul post office. They should have tacked on extra jail time just for the stupidity.
I’m inclined to get the book just to read about prison life in South Korea, but I have a feeling the guy’s writing would ruin it for me.
Is it so bad that someone who made a mistake when he was younger wrote a book to tell the tale? If the chairman of Hyundai wrote a book about all the ’stupid’ things he’d done in his life, it’d be a best seller in Korea. You guys are just being critical because the mistake in question is in regard to narcotics *phear*.
If I didn’t want anyone to make a profit from the mistakes they had made, id have very little music to listen to, art would be dismal, and the world would certainly seem empty. I’d probably also have no God.
Yeah, I cried when OJ Simpson couldn’t keep his royalties. So much emptier the world seems.
Having committed my own share of offenses in Korea in my youth, all I can say is “Amen, brother. I’m glad you made it out of there okay.”
I can’t think of better training to be a writer, but what a terribly painful way to go about it.
Thanks, I will. I’m planning on writing a book about that someday. I expect you to buy a copy.
LOL
Careful Dogbertt, someone may steal your idea and make a musical out of it. I can see the name of it already, in lights . . .
“but honestly speaking, who cares about what this goof has to say? He mailed himself a brick of hashish.”
Thank you, Mr. Carr. This guy deserves no sympathy for his extreme stupidity and for the reviewer to equate his experiences with Solzhenitsyn’s is little short of ludicrous.
What a terrible waste of perfectly good hashish.
Elvis love child? That rings a bell from back in the day. Where are you from?
The name’s from a Vancouver punk band.
If you want to read a more worthwhile account of day after day spent in a Korean prison, let me instead recommend Suh Sung’s autobiography which was translated into English in 2001 under the title “Unbroken Spirits: Nineteen Years in a South Korean Gulag” (Japanese title from 1994: Gokuchuu 19-nen). Suh was a Zainichi Korean who arrived in the ROK from Japan to enter graduate school, only to soon be arrested and accused of communist sympathies, then tortured so brutally that after a few days he set himself on fire. Against his wishes, he survived (horribly disfigured) to serve out his long sentence. Needless to say, upon his release, he returned to Japan. Then again, if anyone has not yet read how the North treats Zainichi, let me recommed “The Aquariums of Pyongyang” first.
I am amazed at the lack of humanity some of you righteous folk display (dogbertt, Cat, EFL and others). I believe everyone is responsible for what they create. Your writing on this site leaves nothing for the reader save your anger. Where it truly comes from is not apparent. Why do you want to create lasting imprints of your anger here on this website? Especially when A. I can guarantee you did not read the book (you could have even read the GQ PDF I found on his website for free—that way you are not helping the guy make money from his blunder), so why do you think you can comment on what it is about? and B. your hostility towards someone who openly discusses the fact that they made a mistake points to a world with no redemption and no forgiveness. Is that what you want? Why are you creating that with your angry words? If you are not interested in this work then go find something you enjoy and comment positively on it. Do you really think that your voice and opinion is so valuable to the rest of us? Do you feel we need to be influenced by how you think because you are right? As I said, I am truly amazed.
You. Can. Stop. Reading. Here. The rest is predictable…
caught this worthless a-hole on television the other day. extremely boring(long winded). if anyone can please explain the ending of the program to me i would love it. why were they celebrating his release that way (waving the american flag etc…)? he did break the law, right? he was by no no more a prisoner of war or innocent. from what i gathered from the program he got off easy compared to what he could have received and still seemed insulted by his treatment. He said something like “i was overcome by a feeling of disregard. like the feeling you have when you are in someone elses home. the costs are not as high” or something like that. they probably should have made him serve the full time. on top of all the bullshit coming out of his mouth,the man has the personality of a bread crumb.