Cullen Thomas, following in the proud Long Island tradition of turning overseas jackassery into coin, discussed recently his book “Brother One Cell” at the Korea Society in New York. If you’ve got an mp3 player, download the podcast and give it a listen.
In case you haven’t read it, the New York Times review is here.
14 Comments
Well, that made me laugh. Good one.
Bought it, read it. I liked it.
His pronunciation is very good, proof that (forced) immersion is one of the best ways to learn a language, any language.
Any ways, the dude’s got every reason to complain about Korea, particularly its legal and bureaucratic system and let it filter into what he thinks about Koreans in general. But, he didn’t let that happen, and I’m glad that he didn’t because if he stood still and simply pouted the whole time, he would of never grew as a person.
Nor would he have made money from his execrable book.
Isn’t there a “Son of Sam” law in New York?
I haven’t read the book, but after listening to him reading it on the podcast the other day, I’m with dogbert.
I do have to give the guy credit though. Teaching English in Korea, and getting busted for drug smuggling and going to prison might be the only ways for this guy to make money, and he found both ways early on.
Anybody know how well this book is selling outside of the Korean expat and Korean community?
what a waster
“Anybody know how well this book is selling outside of the Korean expat and Korean community?”
I don’t think this book is very well known in Korean community circles in North America. It’s not marketed to Asian Americans. Snippets of the book were in GQ magazine.
It probably hasn’t sold that many copies and I doubt it’s a big money maker. Unless you are James Cavell, you are not gonna have a best seller on your hands if you write about Asia in America.
Given his circumstances at the time, I’m hoping Thomas’ book has less talk of “pillowing” than Clavell’s.
No… not pillowing… more like “blanketing”…
If you read it you’d understand.
I get the feeling I don’t want to understand…
Hahaha….. yeah, it’s certainly not the highlight of the book.
Haven’t read the book, but I did listen to the pod cast. When I discussed his presentation and Q&A session with my Korean wife, she asked, “What’s he doing now?” An excellent question. Probably attending speaking engagements and recording pod casts, would be my best guess beyond asking a lot of folks if they “want fries with that?”
Actually, I recall one or two Peace Corps Volunteers who could gush at the inane, simply because they were “sitting on straw mats in the middle of Asia.” Certainly Thomas got over that, but it was a bit funny and familiar listening to his enthusiastic voice inflections as he recounted making friends and finding himself while in prison. After listening to him, I could easily imagine him talking someone into taking a risk of buying weed in Korea, too.
Well, a man has got to make a living, by hook or by crook…
Once again I am baffled by some of you. Dogbert, honestly, are you THAT concerned with the money Cullen makes off his book? Can it really be THAT much money that it upsets you so? Or are you one of those moral-high grounders that is clean of sin. Whatev.
Part of Cullen’s story, (really just his initial idea to sell drugs and his capture) is now an episode of NGEO’s Locked Up Abroad program. Get all up in arms about this one too Dogbert! He probably made a fortune and now that no-good drug dealer is going to be a movie star!
This guy is a college graduate and a committed professional writer. Go to his journal page on his website and read some of his other pieces if you have any doubts. So, hmmmm, it seems like he wants to profit from his WRITING now, NOT drug dealing. What a criminal!
Hi Cullen.
Have you met Gabe?
The writing in Cullen’s book was panned by the reviewers I read, who nonetheless admired his fortitude and ability to make lemonade from the lemons he dealt himself.
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