Order THE POWER OF THE DOG here
(also reviewed)
Order SAVAGES here
Order THE KINGS OF COOL here
* a suggestion by Nik Korpon *
"In America, everything is about systems,' Barrera said. ''In Mexico, everything is about personal relationships."
There's a common mistake most novelist do at least once in their career: writing a lifeless antagonist. An embodiment of evil, ready to rape and murder for the immediate satisfaction of his each and every desire, whatever they might be. It's boring and it can drain the conflict out of the most promising premise. Over the last decade, the Mexican drug cartels have been the stand-in cardboard antagonist in countless crime novel and why not, right? They execute innocent people on principle only they live by, they are arrogant, faceless and seemingly omnipotent. They are the perfect antagonists for authors who don't want to bother creating one.
Don Winslow is, to my knowledge, the first crime fiction author who though it was interesting that people south of the border beheaded their enemies on YouTube and slaughtered their entire families on fucking principle. He saw well beyond the banality of evil in that monstrous picture. The result was a novel titled THE POWER OF THE DOG, which is already legendary only ten years after its release. The most complicated and systematic problems are the most interesting to fearless writers and in terms of fearlessness, Don Winslow has convinced of his hardcore vision the same way a certain Mr. Ellroy once had. Simply put, THE POWER OF THE DOG is a fantastic, visceral journey to experience once in a lifetime.
The structure of Winslow's novel is traditional, but complex. There are three stories starting in different geographic points and ultimately converging at the heart of Mexico. Art Keller is an obsessive DEA agent with a grudge against a drug lord who used him to eliminate his competition and usher Mexico's drug trade into the 20th century. Sean Callan is a destitute Irish youth living in Hell's Kitchen, back when the neighborhood was caught in organized crime's stranglehold and finally, Nora Hayden is a neurotic California teenager learning to control men with their sex drive. I'm sure you guessed it by now, their respective destinies will drift into the heart of Mexico as their existence is swallowed by the growing power of the drug cartels.
The antagonist in THE POWER OF THE DOG are the Barrera family. Of course, the cartels have complex hierarchies and the power struggles are numerous, but they remain the crucial players over the two decades covered by the novel. They're great because they're not bloodthirsty and soulless executioners, but they're also great because they're smart and personable businessmen who wouldn't hesitate and take drastic, life-altering measures in order to get what they want. The Barreras' best quality reflects one of the darkest impulse present in every human being: the desire for personal gain, so it's difficult to take the moral high ground against them. They are despicable, yet they seem to take the better course of action given their situation, that wouldn't result in their violent deaths.
Don Winslow is, to my knowledge, the first crime fiction author who though it was interesting that people south of the border beheaded their enemies on YouTube and slaughtered their entire families on fucking principle. He saw well beyond the banality of evil in that monstrous picture. The result was a novel titled THE POWER OF THE DOG, which is already legendary only ten years after its release. The most complicated and systematic problems are the most interesting to fearless writers and in terms of fearlessness, Don Winslow has convinced of his hardcore vision the same way a certain Mr. Ellroy once had. Simply put, THE POWER OF THE DOG is a fantastic, visceral journey to experience once in a lifetime.
The structure of Winslow's novel is traditional, but complex. There are three stories starting in different geographic points and ultimately converging at the heart of Mexico. Art Keller is an obsessive DEA agent with a grudge against a drug lord who used him to eliminate his competition and usher Mexico's drug trade into the 20th century. Sean Callan is a destitute Irish youth living in Hell's Kitchen, back when the neighborhood was caught in organized crime's stranglehold and finally, Nora Hayden is a neurotic California teenager learning to control men with their sex drive. I'm sure you guessed it by now, their respective destinies will drift into the heart of Mexico as their existence is swallowed by the growing power of the drug cartels.
The antagonist in THE POWER OF THE DOG are the Barrera family. Of course, the cartels have complex hierarchies and the power struggles are numerous, but they remain the crucial players over the two decades covered by the novel. They're great because they're not bloodthirsty and soulless executioners, but they're also great because they're smart and personable businessmen who wouldn't hesitate and take drastic, life-altering measures in order to get what they want. The Barreras' best quality reflects one of the darkest impulse present in every human being: the desire for personal gain, so it's difficult to take the moral high ground against them. They are despicable, yet they seem to take the better course of action given their situation, that wouldn't result in their violent deaths.
"It was an accident," Adan says. "It was out of my control."
"You can lie to yourself and to me," Parada says. "You cannot lie to God.""
Why not?" Adan thinks. He lies to us.
Don't get me wrong, there are soulless executioners in THE POWER OF THE DOG too, and the atrocities they commit are as gory, visual and completely unforgettable. Don Winslow doesn't avoid the issue of Mexican drug cartels using extreme violence to control adversaries and local populations, but he understands it for what it is: a means to an end. A lesser author would've avoided and drawn around such unspeakable evil because he would fear being associated with it, which is a common mistake. Deliberately avoiding to understand the nature of evil doesn't make make you virtuous by proxy, it makes you boring and cowardly. Granted that THE POWER OF THE DOG tackles a difficult and immediate subject still in 2015, Don Winslow uses fiction to his advantage and explored every angle of the Mexican drug cartels issue.
I've read Don Winslow before, but SAVAGES and THE KINGS OF COOL are so idiosyncratic, it made it difficult to get a proper feel for the author. THE POWER OF THE DOG is as classically told as it gets and as I've stated above, it puts Winslow almost to James Ellroy's level in terms of talent and it's about the most intense compliment I can give to a crime writer. Different writers love to discuss different crimes, but Winslow is just about better than anybody on the market today as discussing the drug trade in his books. He is courageous, clever, patient and fiercely skilled. I can tell you all that from reading THE POWER OF THE DOG. It was an exciting and enlightening journey and maybe the best thing about it is that I'm only halfway through it.
BADASS
I've read Don Winslow before, but SAVAGES and THE KINGS OF COOL are so idiosyncratic, it made it difficult to get a proper feel for the author. THE POWER OF THE DOG is as classically told as it gets and as I've stated above, it puts Winslow almost to James Ellroy's level in terms of talent and it's about the most intense compliment I can give to a crime writer. Different writers love to discuss different crimes, but Winslow is just about better than anybody on the market today as discussing the drug trade in his books. He is courageous, clever, patient and fiercely skilled. I can tell you all that from reading THE POWER OF THE DOG. It was an exciting and enlightening journey and maybe the best thing about it is that I'm only halfway through it.
BADASS
