- Paperback: 288 pages
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 9810575688
- ISBN-13: 978-9810575687
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 655,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When you first pick up Escape you know that you are going to be in for a literary treat. David McMillan skilfully guides his reader through the arduous realities of a pan-continent drug smuggler who suddenly finds himself looking at a death sentence in Thailand's notorious Klong Prem prison.
Escape is, refreshingly, not a diatribe against the harsh Thai justice system. Instead the author offers an incomparable insight into the relationships, wit and fights for survival that occurs day in, day out in such hell holes. The truly amazing thing however is that amongst all of the hopelessness, despair and madness going on within the prison walls, McMillan manages to prepare, plan and execute an audacious escape which, against all odds, he gets away with.
Having read many other books in this genre I have no hesitation in recommending Escape to other readers who will find this authors style to be both hugely amusing and non-egocentric. The only criticism that I have of David McMillan is that he hasn't published a sequel yet!
Escape is, refreshingly, not a diatribe against the harsh Thai justice system. Instead the author offers an incomparable insight into the relationships, wit and fights for survival that occurs day in, day out in such hell holes. The truly amazing thing however is that amongst all of the hopelessness, despair and madness going on within the prison walls, McMillan manages to prepare, plan and execute an audacious escape which, against all odds, he gets away with.
Having read many other books in this genre I have no hesitation in recommending Escape to other readers who will find this authors style to be both hugely amusing and non-egocentric. The only criticism that I have of David McMillan is that he hasn't published a sequel yet!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thailand's Klong Prem prison has become a synonym for Asian hell-holes, a reputation not reduced by the large numbers of jail tourists who schedule a visit in their itineraries to their imprisoned countrymen and women between shopping at the floating market and swilling Singha beer in a Patpong girlie bar.
David McMillan was held in the `Bangkok Hilton' awaiting trial on drug charges in the mid-`90s for almost two years. If his trial had ended the way most local trials do, he might still be there today, as sentences range between thirty and ninety-nine years. Before his trial ended, McMillan escaped, becoming the first Westerner to successfully break out of Klong Prem, a feat no one has yet repeated.
ESCAPE is not the usual, crying, my-life-in-hell story. Firstly, the author makes no excuses for his life as a drug smuggler. Emotional responses to the good, the bad and the ugly in the 12,000-strong prison complex are reported through the reactions of the fifty or more fellow inmates who McMillan describes as he relentlessly pursues his search for the perfect escape plan.
Secondly, the circumstances of how McMillan came to be arrested in Chinatown and why so many agencies are set against him are revealed in the style of a thriller. Despite the author appearing often cold and ruthless, this reader could not help being alongside him as both accomplices and plans fall away.
Supporting characters are surprisingly varied for the closed environment: not only Eddie the junkie-courier from Switzerland, Chang the Taiwanese cook, Kelvin the sorrowful Hawaiian, Rick the conniving English bar owner, but also Germans pretending to be barons, Nigerians actually princes, young clubbers, jaded Americans, mysterious Chinese and a mad anarchist-scientist serving fifty years' for being the translator on a Canadian drug deal. As well, a motley collection of languishing Australians, surreally presented at a real embassy Christmas party inside the prison grounds.
Throughout escape plans A-to-Z (including a comic attempt to brazen through the corridors dressed as UN medics pretending to evacuate prisoners during an epidemic), McMillan is supported or hindered by those closest to him, including his girlfriend, a part-time jazz singer from New Zealand.
Despite the hard-boiled waterfront-reporter voice of the author, I couldn't help wondering if the true McMillan began as one of the near-suicides in the remand section, quickly passed aside in the early chapters, before changing into the one who got away. My copy was published in Singapore where the death penalty still applies; appropriate for a book that never laments, apologises or preaches, yet tells more in fewer words about people facing death or oblivion than books twice as thick.
David McMillan was held in the `Bangkok Hilton' awaiting trial on drug charges in the mid-`90s for almost two years. If his trial had ended the way most local trials do, he might still be there today, as sentences range between thirty and ninety-nine years. Before his trial ended, McMillan escaped, becoming the first Westerner to successfully break out of Klong Prem, a feat no one has yet repeated.
ESCAPE is not the usual, crying, my-life-in-hell story. Firstly, the author makes no excuses for his life as a drug smuggler. Emotional responses to the good, the bad and the ugly in the 12,000-strong prison complex are reported through the reactions of the fifty or more fellow inmates who McMillan describes as he relentlessly pursues his search for the perfect escape plan.
Secondly, the circumstances of how McMillan came to be arrested in Chinatown and why so many agencies are set against him are revealed in the style of a thriller. Despite the author appearing often cold and ruthless, this reader could not help being alongside him as both accomplices and plans fall away.
Supporting characters are surprisingly varied for the closed environment: not only Eddie the junkie-courier from Switzerland, Chang the Taiwanese cook, Kelvin the sorrowful Hawaiian, Rick the conniving English bar owner, but also Germans pretending to be barons, Nigerians actually princes, young clubbers, jaded Americans, mysterious Chinese and a mad anarchist-scientist serving fifty years' for being the translator on a Canadian drug deal. As well, a motley collection of languishing Australians, surreally presented at a real embassy Christmas party inside the prison grounds.
Throughout escape plans A-to-Z (including a comic attempt to brazen through the corridors dressed as UN medics pretending to evacuate prisoners during an epidemic), McMillan is supported or hindered by those closest to him, including his girlfriend, a part-time jazz singer from New Zealand.
Despite the hard-boiled waterfront-reporter voice of the author, I couldn't help wondering if the true McMillan began as one of the near-suicides in the remand section, quickly passed aside in the early chapters, before changing into the one who got away. My copy was published in Singapore where the death penalty still applies; appropriate for a book that never laments, apologises or preaches, yet tells more in fewer words about people facing death or oblivion than books twice as thick.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Most of us might pass by gut-wrenching stories of prison escapes, but this true prison break story breaks the mould. It is really a story of loyalty and friendship. Readers unimpressed by the credibility stretching fantasy of 'Prison Break' will welcome the hard truth in these pages.
Without the jazz-club chanteuse who flew to Bangkok the moment she saw his arrest flashed on the nightly news, the tireless supporters and his enduring friends David would have never managed the near-impossible jailbreak. Every chapter left me wanting more, and as ever, the truth is stranger than fiction. This book deserves to be moved from the airport racks to the libraries.
Without the jazz-club chanteuse who flew to Bangkok the moment she saw his arrest flashed on the nightly news, the tireless supporters and his enduring friends David would have never managed the near-impossible jailbreak. Every chapter left me wanting more, and as ever, the truth is stranger than fiction. This book deserves to be moved from the airport racks to the libraries.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Extremely Boring Book
One of the worst books that I have ever read. He talked too much about other people rather than about him and his experience in the jail. Finally, gave up after a few chapters. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Danko
Should have spoken more about himself
this book took me three days to get into as it was a slow read, too much about others n not enough about him
finally about three quarters into book i finally put it down. Read more
finally about three quarters into book i finally put it down. Read more
Published 5 months ago by FREESPIRIT
PREDICTABLE>>>
Escape is an exercise in how to extend beyond the relevent details for the consumer a book that could be read and digested in the 1st and last paragragh. Read more
Published 8 months ago by finder
Prison Break Opens Door to the Grand Conspiracy
I read this book six months ago and only now begin to see all the links - and I'm no conspiracy-theory nutcase. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2008 by M. V. Lang
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