Nogales was a great surprise for me, in terms of my response to it. After the first couple of pages it proved to be a paradox; being riveted to it, not being able to put it down, and at the same time already wishing for it not to end. For the first time in thirty or so years I read late into the night, finishing half of it. I woke next morning to the excitement of continuing reading it, and finished it the same day.

Not a new idea of courage, but unique in its direct, simple statement of facts. The format is great, comprised of many short chapters. I was left over and over again in the sense of completion of one stage, coupled with the anticipation of something new entering the story field.

Actually, the whole book is paradoxical. Reading about brutality, ignorance, great suffering, and at the same time being aware of a humor that brought audible laughter from me. It's like the traditional description of warrior-ship----fearlessness(doesn't mean without fear) and humor, together. Both potentials of human being, the worst and the best, co-emergent. It is a real challenge to how I have always held life as an either/or event. It is also a book that brings to light how the U.S. constitution can be abused in its defense of the American people.

The back cover of the book compares it to "Midnight Express", "Papillion", and "The Shawshank Redemption". I will add one more similarity, "The Great Escape". The hero of Nogales takes an escape route that I suspect is the essence of originality and uniqueness. At least it is one I have never heard before. And, it worked!

Last, this is a story for those of us who adore an adventure into life's curious experiences of mystery, survival, and the courageous heart. Harry Potter fans will want to read this one.

 

This is a story that could have been found in today's news headlines. Clearly, our state department has learned little in the 30 plus years since Steve and Bob were wrongly imprisoned in Mexico. Innocents have all to often been caught up in political agendas and abandoned. I praise and admire Steve and Bob's bond such that they enabled each other to remain strong and hopeful in their effort to survive their ordeal.

I am ashamed of those in this country, in whom we place so much faith, who ignore the pleas of our citizens abused by those with whom we do business. No parents should grieve as did Bob's and Steve's. No mothers should suffer as did theirs on seeing, in their sons, the pain and suffering one can perpetrate against another.

I, too, read this in one sitting...with the occasional interruption from my children who needed to be fed or entertained. Truly gripping from the very first chapter.

 

I had to read this book. The title wasn't enticing and I'm not much for stories which would twist me in knots and depress me......but I knew the author. He is a much acclaimed therapist in North Carolina and having worked for the state he devoted his talents, not to make money, but to counsel those who worked for the state and help them. This was provided free of charge as a benefit at the time. How could I not at least pick up a book not normally in my venue of the Devil Wears Prada and My favorite year.

Great surprise! I picked it up. I was drawn into an extremely well written story of actuality that I could respond to. I did feel the pain and the happiness, I did cry with the horror and the beastiality of man to man. How can a therapist create such riveting prose and stinging descriptions of the depravity of man as well as the triumph of his spirit.

I understand there are those who will make this into a political lesson, but the honest truth is that beneath the horror and terror is a story of one man, one young man, who had to deal with the deck he was dealt and was able to rise above it. I like to believe it was his solid family background and professional education that helped him though along with sheer tenacity.

But whatever it was. It was. An Amazing, easy read story to make you think and share with your friends.

 

 

This is a story that gets more captivating as you move through it. It runs the gamut from man's inhumanity to man through all things in between to finally brotherly love. From savage to servile, this novel covers it all in a wonderfully rich tale of great emotional proportion.

Steve and Bob should not have survived, but survive they did and this is an extremely readable (several have done it in less than 24 hours)tale. It is hard to put down, and when you do, it nags you to come back to it.

This novel also show cases the effectiveness of our young embassy staff. If they could be any more inept, they would probably be ambassadors. It is painful to read how American citizens are treated by their fellow countrymen. In the end, it is regular people helping out other regular people and it is heart warming and confirmatory.

This is a very good novel, enjoy!

 

This is a great book. I have bought copies for my friends. The author describes it well when he says the book is a celebration of all things that can go wrong. It seems that everything went wrong but he survived and held onto his sanity and his humanity.

The story is a really good one and even though the events described are full of horror, you at least know from the title that it has a happy ending. It is just hard to imagine how it can possibly get there. The author writes really well. His short sentences and short chapters keep the events distinct and exciting. Even though the book is described as a memoir, it reads like something happening in real time, not in the past

Each character is crisply drawn so their essence stands out. The lines between good and evil are clear and I suffered with each setback and rejoiced in every gain, no matter how small, for the good guys.

There is plenty of food for thought within the pages. What are the factors that help us keep our humanity? We know that strong values, good friendships, and a sense of humor are essential, but what else does the author point to? Belonging to a community, doing what we can to help those even more unfortunate, and taking opportunities when they show up. The author just tells his story, straight out without editorializing, allowing us to look for ourselves.

This is a book that really engaged me. I have a deep respect and admiration for the man who survived the ordeal and went on to address the injustice. The book is a good reminder that life is capricious and yet we can learn and grow wherever we find ourselves.

 

The day that I received Nogales in the mail was exciting and scary. I had read the original manuscript years ago and knew I was about to open up part of the past that made me very sad. You see, the author of this book, is my brother Steve.

I had trouble putting it down, but there were times when I had to stop to wipe away the tears. It seemed like only yesterday that our family was receiving calls from the prison to tell us to send money or we may never see Steve again. The book was written so well that it took me back easily to when I was 16 and thought I would never see my brother alive again. I have thought many times over the years how anyone could go through what he did and turn out to be the extraordinary person that he is today. As hard as it was to turn every page, I couldn't stop. The book just pulls you in. I knew I had to get through all the horrible things that happened to him to get to the ending. I remember the night in the airport like it was yesterday. That was the night our family's nightmare was finally over. That was the night my brother came home.

 

I was friends with Steve and Bob in college. I graduated the summer they went to Mexico. I read the article Steve wrote for Penthouse and knew he was turned down for a movie, "Midnight Express" which was turned in first; otherwise, we'd be talking about the movie, "Nogales". It is a narrative of survival. I teach English and Civics, and I've found no atrocity in history is without the evils, power and greed, both play pivotal pawns in the world.

I've lost touch with all my college friends but through Facebook was able to connect with Steve's girlfriend in college and found out about his book. I ordered it and read it last night. It is very difficult reading a book your friend wrote-you feel and momentarily live your friends' nightmare and are forever changed.

I hope writing this gave some closure to both Steve and Bob; although, there is no such thing as closure-even psychiatrists know this truth. I love them both and am humbled by this book and having known both of them, my friends.

 

This story is one that needed to be told, and any one who travels outside our borders, should read it. It is so easy to find your self in the wrong place at the wrong time, and chances are, the out come will not be as good as the ending of this story. This is the story of two young men who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they are unprepared for the events that follow. Betrayed by their own country, it is up to the author to save himself, with the help of friends. Another "Great Escape" even though only one escapes, Mr. Wilson fights for the rights of those left behind and succeeds.

 

Excellent written! This is a book I want my teenagers, family and friends to read! I was recommended to read this from my friend Joann Wilson, (Steve Wilson's sister). While reading "Nogales" made me emotional knowing some of the people involved. Also being a Mom to Teenagers! Teenagers have too much trust when the world cannot be trusted!!
This book should be recommended in the High School Reading Programs. All ready, I recommended this Book to be placed in our Town Library. Our Library is only the next town over where the Wilson's family use to live!

 

What a great book. I could not put it down. A story of things gone wrong and two friends trying to make it out alive. Fantastic....

                                    -T. Newsome, Lake Gaston, NC

 

This is a book every last one of us should read. The story may have taken place some years ago, but it's eerily similar to the events transpiring today. It struck a long-dormant chord in me. I remember that period well. The most polarized time in the U.S since the Civil War. Steve Wilson and his friend Bob Smith, though a part of the 'which side are you on - 60's through 70's', were still confident, if not naive bright youths who believed in the American dream. One could travel to not-so-far off places, have adventures, visit a different culture, and still do it in safety. They soon discovered that nothing in life that's real is safe. In reading the book, you feel as though they are watching a movie. Marauding bandits, crazed natives, revolutionaries, all fascinating to them until they realize they're NOT viewers, but participants. Players in a strange and dangerous, evolving drama. His story is a true odyssey of triumph over adversity and a pocket version of all that singular period in our history entailed. It's much more than a story of imprisoned men. It's a microcosm of the moments in which we lived and survived. They were difficult if not more innocent times in some ways. We still believed that going to another country was, well, 'going to another country'. Globalization wasn't a word yet. We didn't know our government could freely wield their powers over others. The long arm of Richard Nixon stretched out, not to touch, but to grasp the necks of two young United States citizens in Mexico. What happened to them with gun-happy DEA agents roaming that nation at will and indulging their darker side as they would never dare do at home isn't much different than what's going on today in Guantanamo, Poland, and God knows where else. What makes this story more than just another adventure tale, and believe me, it IS that from the daily fighting off of drug-addicted lunatics, the nightly battles for a place to rest, (if not to EVER fully sleep), the certainty of imminent execution is the matter-of-fact way Steve Wilson deals with each problem as it arises. From his first encounter with brutal creatures who's sole purpose seem to be to do him harm, to the climactic ending, (I won't reveal it), he never loses touch with who he is. He remains a courageous individual, clinging bravely to his humanity, able to face the day-to-day facts of his new and terrible existence and say, 'C'mon world, show me your worst!' You can't help but admire this man. Who wouldn't like to think, or at least hope, that there's a little bit of Steve Wilson in all of us?

                                    -Anonymous

 

This story is the classic struggle of one against many, the innocent against the corrupted, the individual citizen against a immoral society, and good against evil. The writer's voice engages the reader as a fellow participant in surrealistic slices of survival in a outback world of nightmares and personified evil. Nogales could be a novel of fiction but it is a novel of fact---this is the most frightening aspect of the story. The people, the places, the governments, the events and their history are all real...this simple fact haunts the reader to the very last page of Nogales... and beyond the novel's epilogue.

                                    -Anonymous

 

A word for Nogales is reality. A true story. Well told. In that sense, the story told is a personal documentary, a real history of actual happenings, told by the experiencer in all its pain and joy in real time in a real place that is now a border crossing point in these current times when immigration is much in the news. And, the story teller is right here with us, alive and well and probably -in some ways- more mature and personally stronger because of the profound nature of the happenings. But, in the story of Nogales, the concern was not with personal development: it is a matter of staying alive under a wide variety of suffered events in the hands of those who knew not 'justice' and not of 'cruel and unusual punishment'. And so, this gripping tale provides a scenario of how it is - or was - in a neighboring land and gives a comparison to our own. And, it is a hero's story of how he strived so determined -and successfully- in his escape: what a hold-you-to-every-page ending to this tale of personal experience.

                                    -Anonymous

 

A wonderful book you won't see on the critics' best seller list because it was self published. What a great read! It is hard to believe that this story is non-fiction. It is a real-life tribute to man's determination to survive inhuman treatment by other men and overcome the abandonment of ones own country. I read it twice and it was better the second time.

                                    -Anonymous