Smuggling With Jesus by Hank Cooper

Hank Cooper

      

Not many people go from being raised as an orthodox Jew to becoming an international drug smuggler. Hank Cooper, a Canadian who grew up in Toronto, traveled that path. After becoming an adult (chronologically, at least), in the nineteen seventies and eighties, Hank lived anything but what his parents would have called a normal life during his 20s and early 30s. Maybe it had something to do with his orthodox Jewish upbringing, but then again it probably was a combination of a million other things, especially luck, which he discusses in his memoir, Smuggling with Jesus.

Based on a series of events that formed Hank Cooper’s life, Smuggling with Jesus resembles a work of fiction or a TV movie-of-the-week, but everything in this memoir is exactly as it happened with no need to exaggerate. Only Hank, with his eye for detail, sardonic approach to the world around him, and capacity for self-reflection, could tell the story of his wild ride with a drug smuggling character named Bernie, who may or may not have been the reincarnation of Jesus. Hank and Bernie’s wild ride included cocaine smuggling, Uzi-brandishing drug lords, sex, celebrities, rock and roll, corrupt law enforcement officials, and exotic places Hank couldn’t believe he was visiting. The wild ride ended when the birth of his son suddenly turned Hank into a grown-up.

Hank’s memoir differs from the numerous memoirs moving from bookstore shelves to the cash register and from the pages of Amazon to readers’ front door because it is told with humor and sensitivity, without preaching and without excusing his actions.