The Cartel

This is a very important novel. As I read it I was impressed by its simultaneous complexity and accessibility. It is journalistic in its immediacy and it reads like literal history subtly shaped and enhanced by a novelist’s narrative devices. It is so clear and so straightforward that one can easily overlook the literary models from which Don Winslow is drawing and the themes which he is exploring in a profound but unobtrusive way.If we take the classic division of literature into epic/lyric/dramatic, the novel is usually placed under the first category. While all novels are not ‘epic’ or epics, this one most certainly is. Epics often concern the establishment of a society, but this novel (like its predecessor, The Power of the Dog) depicts a society’s destruction and near dissolution. That is, in fact, one of The Cartel’s overarching themes: how complete is the destruction wrought by drugs, particularly drugs that are increasingly more powerful and less expensive? Is there any discernible room for hope? Art Keller, the protagonist of each of the novels, has a Mexican girlfriend. She says, in a pivotal line, that the difference between Mexicans and North Americans is that the latter believe that problems can actually be solved.Since the victories in this war are temporary and the core evils of addiction and greed are never fully conquered, Winslow is also tapping into the ethos and plot structures of the chivalric romance. This romance, however, does not occur in a single forest of wizards and necromancers; it covers the globe.Finally, the novel’s focus on a set of memorable individuals personalizes the many-sided story and takes us into the world of what James Ellroy calls ‘tragic realism’, a world in which redemption may be possible but one in which that redemption is very heavily compromised.So Don Winslow’s aspirations here are high. The canvas is huge, taking us from Guatemala to Barcelona, but the principal focus is Mexico (all of Mexico, from Juárez to Chiapas, from Sinaloa to the Gulf, from the remote safe houses to the fashionable condos of the city and coast). Art Keller, the DEA agent who has been fighting the cartels and its patrón, Adán Barrera, for thirty years, are joined by scores of other characters from a host of cartels (and their splinter sects) to a handful of good people, exhibiting courage in the face of overwhelming odds and uncommon cruelty. Some of these characters are menacing and violent to an unprecedented degree; none of them are dull. As the wars (cartel vs. cartel; the governments [and a few brave individuals] vs. the cartels) continue over the course of 600+ pages, several realizations set in.First (as in No Country for Old Men), the money involved is so great that it effects a breakdown in both human behavior and civil society. It is simply irresistible and it is pursued at vast costs, no matter what the consequences might entail. When you can buy a kilo of cocaine for $5,000 and sell it on the European market for $55,000, the temptations make those of Satan or Mephistopheles look like a waiter offering a spoonful of fruit loops to a diabetic.Second, as the violence and desperation escalate, our government ‘agent’ comes to realize that he has now become nothing more than a hunter. On the larger scale, the interactions, actions and reactions, of the governments, the drug traffickers and the agencies of law enforcement create a web of dependency that dissolves the sharp distinctions between good and evil. Ultimately (with governments choosing the lesser of evils among the cartels and with the exportation of drugs as the central element of Mexico’s economy), ‘the cartel’ is everyone, not just a single group of traffickers. Thus, the title, which seems somewhat innocuous, is in fact profound. It describes our very world itself.The novel has been ‘anxiously contemplated’, as Conrad would say. The architecture of the plot is dazzling. We cover ten years of time, hundreds of thousands of square miles of landscape, dozens and dozens of named, important characters and we do so clearly and straightforwardly because of Don Winslow’s guiding hand.I would offer particular praise for the novel’s texture, which is primarily achieved through the use of Spanish expressions, idioms and maxims, and yet the reader can follow this without having any knowledge of Spanish beyond the expressions which commonly occur in crime fiction. Winslow has clearly immersed himself in the language, culture, and history of contemporary Mexico and offered us a hard-earned result that is delivered with a very light touch.The Cartel is now the reigning novel treating modern drug trafficking, Winslow’s finest work (in tandem with The Power of the Dog) and a novel/epic/romance/realistic tragedy that no reader of crime fiction should miss.

613 pages, a long book. A very long book. What's it about ? drugs, war on drugs, US consumption of drugs, drug cartels, drug plazas (i.e. which cities your cartel controls (someone late in the book says that is what IT is all about, not drugs but control - this is someone with a corporate view of things) and then there are the drug killings, pick your favorite method: chainsaw, burning, hanging, decapitation, skinning, gunshot, grenade launcher, or some combination of all. With details. And most of the killings are in groups, eg, birthday parties, restaurants. Entire villages and towns are wiped out, to make a point.There are many, many ultraviolent killings, it just goes on and on and on.So I have two views of this book. One is that it is overdone. The story could have been told in 400 pages, perhaps fewer. After a while you say to yourself, "OK, I get it. Enough already. Things are out of control down there, lots of corruption, everyone is taking a bribe or is killed." The second view is that Winslow knew exactly what he was doing, and wanted to put the reader through the torture of all the killings, because it really does go on and on and on. Repetitious? Depressing? Too bad. We are witnessing another "cleansing". Right under our (USA) very nose and the "war on drugs" has achieved nothing.I lean more toward the second view, but not totally. This book took a long time to get through, a slow read for me. And that is mainly why it is 4 stars.Interestingly, Winslow took out a full page ad in the Washington Post only days after the release of "The Cartel", and in the ad he identified what he believes the only solution is. Eliminate the demand by legalizing all drugs in the USA.Well, that doesn't work for me, nor does the ending of the book - though it would make a great movie scene Maybe I should give it 3.5 stars. Books over 500 pages must be 5 stars, and this isn't, so I'm a bit annoyed.

Really puts you in the reality of what Mexico is beyond the vacation spots. Winslow has unique writing style, succinct.

I was born in the US. but almost all my family live in Mexico. So I wanted to learn what they go thru in their daily life. There is a lot of cartel all around them everyday but they don't want to talk about it. I learned a lot thanks to this book

I like this author

At over 700 pages, The Cartel is an epic undertaking for the reader. The second book in Winslow's trilogy about drug cartels, it is almost the length of a trilogy in itself. The story is brutal - endless set pieces of the most gruesome violence as drug cartels fight it out for control of the market that floods the USA with drugs. At the heart of it all - the ongoing feud between drug lord Barrera and DEA man Keller, which unfolded in the first book in the series. Despite the intensity and shocking nature of the violence in the book, it is driven by the depth of the characters. Keller is a Harry Bosch-like character: older, but certainly not wiser as he aims single-mindedly to bring down Barrera and his empire, doing whatever it takes.Winslow has crafted a truly epic story here. There is tension throughout, making the book an uncomfortable read at times as you fear that characters fighting for good will come to a very messy end. The scale of the story - covering almost a decade in the drugs war, is huge, but at the same time Winslow has a style very much like that of Cormac McCarthy - there is a savage beauty to the way he writes that sticks in the mind. Certainly not a book for the faint-hearted, The Cartel is fantastically well-done, sustaining interest, pace and tension over the course of its 700 page length. Memorable - and there is still the final volume to read. As James Ellroy says in his review on the cover - it's the War and Peace of dope-books. Spot on.

Should be made into prescriptive reading for all Central American citizens. Useless for North Americans who are oblivious of the destruction their needs create among some of the poorest and loveliest people South of the Rio Grand.Legalise all drugs and let those who use suffer accordingly.JUDGE AIW

A fascinating book. It will crush your soul but you will not put it down. The characters and environment setting is well sketched out. Did not like the ending a lot. However a great read, the story and sorrow of the drug war and Mexico will stay with you for a long time. I have google.alerts set up to.follow news of all the cartels etc and because of this book, I have better understanding

So many twists and turns in a story that shocks and fascinates. The way Don Winslow can create a character who you know is just evil, but the inner goodness seems just around the bend, defies taking sides, instead you find yourself putting yourself in the antihero's shoes. The short, sharp writing style provokes and stimulates the imagination so that the streets of Jurarez and the faces of Forty, Ochoa, Keller and Marisol, to name only a few, seem to jump out of the pages. Quite brutal at times, so not for the squeamish. Since the story is based on many true events,the drug problem with the USA and Mexico turns into a palpable and frightening universe, ruled by extremely complicated rules of honour and family ties. ,. Following the travels of Art Keller, Pablo Mora and Adan Barrera on an online map,makes the story really come to life. Highly reccomended.