Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780722105542
Format: Import
ISBN number: 0722105541
Label: Sphere Books
Manufacturer: Sphere Books
Page Count: 238
Printing Date: 1987
Publishing house: Sphere Books
Sale Popularity Level: 1052988
Studio: Sphere Books
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Rated by buyers 
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I COULDN'T READ THIS BOOK FAST ENOUGH. IT HAD ME ENTRALLED FROM PAGE ONE AND I HAD ALREADY SEEN THE MOVIE. OUR PRISONS ARE CAKE COMPARED TO OTHER PLACES IN THE WORLD. EXCELLENT BOOK!
Rated by buyers 
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Basically, this book tells an interesting story of a drug-dabbling hippie who runs afoul of the Turks and pays a toll that is very arguably high for the crime that he commits. The narrative is a bit simple and lacking in detail/insight, but this book was never intended to be anything too deep - it was created for mass appeal and sales. Also, it's an interesting counterpoint to the movie of the same title.
Now for a bit of sidebar discusion - as with most of these sorts of stories (ie, those that are told from the prisoner's point of view), the prisoner is portrayed in a sympathetic light to the point of distorting/clouding the fact that he commited a crime, and a serious one at that. And while I'm not one to suggest that the author didn't pay for his crime and then some (and then some more), or that he didn't get an EXTREMELY raw deal in light of his transgression, let's face it - he was a damned fool for trying to smuggle drugs through this (or any other, for that matter, but especially this) part of the world. Turkey ain't Western Europe or Scandavia even by the standards of our times (forget about 1970!) when it comes to treating drug smugglers leniently. All one has to do is to be an occasional reader of news to realize that the countries of the Middle East (and let's assume for the sake of the present argument that Turkey is one of them) and Asia will thoroughly skull-thump those who think they can get away with this crime in their neck of the woods (and who don't have the connections to scam themselves out of being caught in the event that they ARE caught -- but that's another topic.) One would have to be a damned idiot, no, a damned NAIVE idiot to merely consider doing what Hayes attempted. And we haven't even broached the subject of Hayes REALLY intended to do with that hash if he had gotten to the USA with it, or how many lives may have been negatively affected by that hash had it reached the US.
To paraphrase Hayes himself -- don't mess with drugs, and definitely don't mess with drugs in the Middle East/Asia...the authorities there will come down hard on your little hippie heinie!
Rated by buyers 
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Both the book and the film is full of exaggeration, revenge and hatred towards Turkey and Turks. Only 30-40% of the story may be true which I am pretty sure would also be the same in many countries 36 years ago. All the rest is full of lies. But portraying one of the worlds most interesting and beautiful city like it was is a real shame and pitty. I am a Greek living in Athens who visits Istanbul and beaches at the south of Turkey with my family at least twice a year and know what I am talking about. I don't know anyone who was in jail but dealt with police a few times and everyone was always nice and very helpful especiallyy to foreigners.
Rated by buyers 
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It's incredible that this yankee brat likened this drivel of book to Papillon, one of the greatest books ever. How dares he, this spoilt NY brat who couldn't figure out if to smoke hash or pot or be gay or not.
It's one of the worst books ever! It has nothing to do with Papillon at all!
It's a diary of a whiner, a naive primitive, spoilt American, and a criminal brat.
Let's face it, he did endeavor to smuggle and he was a drug user. There's no way around it!
Papillon is a march towards grace and soul freedom over elements and hurdles of life told in the most adventurous style. This lowly tale is a strife of a spoilt New Yorker, who never once had to work in his life and had everything handed to him on a platter. His tribulations are of personal nature only second guessing his sexuality and penchant for drug abuse. Nothing in the book makes for good reading. It's of no spiritual or uplifting value.
Rated by buyers -
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 discusion 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.
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