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Summary: The Downside of Smuggling Heroine
Review: Definatley an interesting, quick and easy read. The atrocites described therein are gruesome and should not be read for the faint of heart. I have a hard time believing any person could concoct the saga of the Thai prison conditions unless seen first hand. Some of the descriptions warrant further inspection due to the affect time and drugs had on the author's mind. The reader must take this book for what it is, it is definately not the great prison novel nor does it purport itself to be. Needless to say I enjoyed it.
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Summary: Good book for anyone who thinks their life is tough.
Review: This book is powerful and an easy read. Fellows' story is well worth it
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Summary: Awesome fiction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This writer forgets that he did the crime and so he did the time. The writer makes it seem that prison should be a fun happy place. Well, he got what he deserved and his writings are no doubt warped by his drug soaked mind.
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Summary: Everybody have fun tonight, Everybody Bang Kwang tonight!
Review: Bang Kwang is a nice place to visit, but I definitely wouldn't wanna live there. The atrocities that go on in "Big Tiger" are beyond imagination. If Warren Fellows really did experience all of the things he says he did, then he must be commended for living to tell about it.The only thing I didn't like about this book was that it was rather brief. The author could have elaborated more. I don't see how you can compress 11 years of hell into just 206 pages.
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Summary: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time
Review: Implausibilities abound in this 200 page story of life in a Bangkok prison. Some of the accounts are no doubt cooked up by an altered mind admittedly hooked on heroin for most of his twelve year incarceration, with some parts reading like an Edgar Allan Poe drug-induced story. Warren Fellows obviously has a chip on his shoulder about Thailand, and his 20 year old dated accounts of Bangkok overlook the fact that Thailand is now a safe tourist Mecca that is anything BUT dangerous for all but the drug smuggling visitor. The final message is one that most Americans should already know - the penalty for drug use overseas is far too great to risk getting caught. If you don't believe that, or you like reading about wild adventures gone terribly wrong, then this book is for you.
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Summary: Fellows gives insiders look at Consequences
Review: Warren Fellows has given a book to the reading public that should be required reading for all who think they can play with fire and not be burned. In descibing his life behind bars Fellows takes us on a journey that leads to the most horrible existence one can imagine. Yet, through it all he takes full responsibility for being where he was. Having been involved with prisoners in Bang Kwang I can testify to the veracity of his account. His is not an isolated incident. It happens multiple times. Will anyone read and heed his warnings? I hope so!
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Summary: Bangkok Prisons Exposed
Review: Having read the report by Warren Fellows the reader comes away with the reality that he doesn't want to be in the Bangkok prisons. I have worked with prisoners in Bang Kwang, and I can testify that the conditions described are real. Maybe someone will read this book and realize the risk taking to make a "fast buck" is not worth it. It's too bad this book will probably not draw much attention.
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Summary: Insiders look into the prison system of Thailand
Review: The author gives the reader an "up close and personal" view of life inside one of the most infamous prisons of the world. He takes responsibility for being there. He paints a vivid picture of the daily life of the inmates. Having worked with men inside Bang Kwang, his descriptions are right on. Anyone who doubts the accuracy needs to visit Bang Kwang and talk to the prisoners. Bang Kwang is not a vacation! Fellows presents a situation that if people would read his work, listen to his warnings and heed his advice they would not have to suffer his plight.
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Summary: Good Fiction Novel
Review: I find the book full of holes and seriously doubt the facts and figures within the book Other than that, it's a pretty good fiction novel
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Summary: Would be captivating if better written
Review: This book is, to some extent, a memoir of Warren Fellows' experience with being imprisoned in Thailand for 12 years. Mr. Fellows, a native of Australia, was sentenced to life in prison for attempting to smuggle heroin out of Thailand to Australia. During his trail and imprisonment, Mr. Fellows serves time at several different facilities in Thailand. Finally after 12 years of a life sentence, he is pardoned by the King and deported back to Australia.
The prologue of the book begins by describing a scene involving a French prisoner who had a "problem" with the local insects. The scene, which is something right out of a horror movie, is described in excellent detail, enough to make my stomach churn. However, the book went downhill fast from there. The writing in the book is below average. I did not feel that the chapters flowed together at all. While I am sure that prison life is repetitive, Mr. Fellows described how he got into drugs, 12 years in prison, and what it was like to go home in 200 pages. I expected the book to contain more detail of what a day at a Thai prison was like. However, the book seemed to concentrate more on several randomly selected stories from those 12 years.
Some of the stories in the book were atrocious. The physical and mental terror that went on in the Thai prison system was astounding. For example, in retaliation for not ratting out a prisoner, a Thai guard made a group of prisoners who were playing dice stand in a tank of sewage for hours. There are other graphic stories of mental torture, such as the guards walking circles around a blindfolded prisoner, stopping for a minute, beating the prisoner, and repeating the whole procedure for a hour.
There are a couple of scenes in the book that do not seem to add up to me. First, the author mentions the dirty water in prison and how he thought it came from the river outside. In top of it, the water intake was supposedly a short ways downstream from the sewage outlet for the prison. Coming from a first-world country as Australia, which has clean water, then being forced to drink untreated river water contaminated with sewage, I suspect that the water would have made him mighty sick (coming from personal experience). However, there is no mention of that in the book (granted it could have been left out intentionally). I found it curious that the author would mention the dirty water in detail, but leave out how sick it made him.
Also, the author described a game (though he admits he never witnessed it) where the guards would make a "ball" out of bamboo, insert a prisoner, lock the "ball", and use it to try an teach an elephant to play soccer. Eventually, the elephant would get bored, and crush the ball with the person inside. I would think it would take a long time to make a "ball" out of a material such as bamboo (which does not have a consistent thickness, thus increasing the difficulty) that would be able to hold a prisoner securely, and be able to take a few kicks from an elephant before the elephant crushes it (granted the guards could be really bored and have time on their hands). These two events could very well be possible, but I just found them suspicious.
What the author describes of prison life in Thailand is definitely inhumane. While there was a lot of physical torture, it seemed that the mental torture was what drove prisoners over the edge. The book kept me reading as I was anticipating a climax to the book that never really came. By the title of the book alone, any reader knows the ending. In the end of the book, the author talks about how no one should have to go though this. While I do have sympathy for the author, if I am scared to go to prison in a certain country, I do not commit a crime in that country, as simple as that.
The book is a quick read and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in foreign prison life. I felt the book was just average. If you are bored and need something different to read, by all means pick it up. If you are looking for a white knuckle, on the edge of your seat experience, I'd recommend something else.
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