Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
This comes adorned with so many over-the-top raves and blurbs that you'd be forgiven for thinking that the novel is unlikely to live up to the hype. And you'd be unsurprised to discover that you're right.
This is a speedy read, and it is pretty much gripping once it gets going, and it does have funny bits, but something is lost: we never feel a lick of genuine interest in these characters, and they never feel like more than types being pushed around in something made for the movies. It's just awfully thin, is all. The telegraphic, faux-blank-verse-y style of the writing, with lots of lines
that break in the middle,
I suppose to mimic how the prose
hits, and
hits, and
hits the reader—
makes for blazingly fast reading (like a movie script, yes, and there are pages in script form mixed in with the prose here as well, though to what end its hard to say). Though once you slow down, there are lots of easy-to-punch holes in the plot. And ultimately the style is also kind of annoying, and achieves any effects by skipping past those other things that a fuller style achieves: developed character and fully realized scene and so on and so on.
A passable read for a long plane ride, but that's about all. I immediately threw it in the resale box on getting home. Wouldn't recommend it.
This is a speedy read, and it is pretty much gripping once it gets going, and it does have funny bits, but something is lost: we never feel a lick of genuine interest in these characters, and they never feel like more than types being pushed around in something made for the movies. It's just awfully thin, is all. The telegraphic, faux-blank-verse-y style of the writing, with lots of lines
that break in the middle,
I suppose to mimic how the prose
hits, and
hits, and
hits the reader—
makes for blazingly fast reading (like a movie script, yes, and there are pages in script form mixed in with the prose here as well, though to what end its hard to say). Though once you slow down, there are lots of easy-to-punch holes in the plot. And ultimately the style is also kind of annoying, and achieves any effects by skipping past those other things that a fuller style achieves: developed character and fully realized scene and so on and so on.
A passable read for a long plane ride, but that's about all. I immediately threw it in the resale box on getting home. Wouldn't recommend it.
There's something about these hip crime capers that have always said "summer read" to me. This one drips plenty of cool right along the line between Elmore Leonard and Tarantino. But a little too much. Winslow attacks the reader with a overwhelmingly-stylized omniscient narrator that borders on pompous. Add to that three unlikeable protagonists and it is quite an accomplishment that he came away with a book that was so readable (or listenable). It's fun, the way these books are supposed to be. The end is rushed and the final scene felt forced, but it's a good, fast story and I look forward to seeing what Oliver Stone does with the movie.
This book was heading for 2 stars initially. 3 annoying main characters. Especially O. What a fucking annoying douche. Ben and Chon not far behind her honestly. But luckily the real heroes of the book (Lado and Elena) start getting some time and the story gets pretty good (once we don't have to hear about how fucking cool O, Ben and Chon are and how much O really really loves sex. And shopping. And sex. And Ben and Chon. Every. Single. Paragraph). I stuck with it though and it payed off. I ended up really liking this story and the writing style. Next Don Winslow book: Power of the Dog, then The Cartel.
As a side note I saw the movie a couple of years ago. The only good thing about it was Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta.It could have been so much better but it was just lacking something. Also I didn't think much of O, Ben or Chon in the movie either....but the book was well worth the read.
As a side note I saw the movie a couple of years ago. The only good thing about it was Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta.It could have been so much better but it was just lacking something. Also I didn't think much of O, Ben or Chon in the movie either....but the book was well worth the read.
Actually, I think this less of an accomplishment than his other non-series work. Are we to take the ending as some kind of justifying moral code? I thought Winslow, who has been for me a respected author, resorted too much to using less than complete sentences as a technique to convey atmosphere? jazzed up consciousness? In other places, was the old Winslow, fully in control, writing without bringing attention to the fact that here was someone who was very good at what he was doing.
"There is nothing so small that it does not save its life if it has the courage to defend itself against those who would lay hand on it." - Brasidas of Sparta, quoted by Plutarch.
Perhaps, one star for the story, one star for Don Winslow (I really, really liked [b:The Cartel|23602561|The Cartel|Don Winslow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1429552939s/23602561.jpg|44367493], [b:The Power of the Dog|206236|The Power of the Dog|Don Winslow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388381640s/206236.jpg|158974], and [b:The Winter of Frankie Machine|164760|The Winter of Frankie Machine|Don Winslow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442888492s/164760.jpg|235777]), one star for its boldness, etc., but I'd almost like to remove a star for the awful sex writing. I'll leave it at 3-stars because almost no one can write about sex well, but if you are going to wade into threesomes with two guys and a gal, well, you better have your pound-prose (nasty-narrative, shag-slang, bone-brogue?).
Granted, we can't all be Joyce, Chopin, or Lawrence, but ugh.
Anyway, this might just be a book that is made better by Oliver Stone. Dear GOD, did I just write that? I don't know. It feels like there is a place near the border where even Cormac McCarthy shouldn't write about drugs and sex (see [b:The Counselor: A Screenplay|18400189|The Counselor A Screenplay|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1377921498s/18400189.jpg|23909797]).
Anyway, if you haven't read any Don Winslow, I would go read his better books first.
Perhaps, one star for the story, one star for Don Winslow (I really, really liked [b:The Cartel|23602561|The Cartel|Don Winslow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1429552939s/23602561.jpg|44367493], [b:The Power of the Dog|206236|The Power of the Dog|Don Winslow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388381640s/206236.jpg|158974], and [b:The Winter of Frankie Machine|164760|The Winter of Frankie Machine|Don Winslow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442888492s/164760.jpg|235777]), one star for its boldness, etc., but I'd almost like to remove a star for the awful sex writing. I'll leave it at 3-stars because almost no one can write about sex well, but if you are going to wade into threesomes with two guys and a gal, well, you better have your pound-prose (nasty-narrative, shag-slang, bone-brogue?).
Granted, we can't all be Joyce, Chopin, or Lawrence, but ugh.
Anyway, this might just be a book that is made better by Oliver Stone. Dear GOD, did I just write that? I don't know. It feels like there is a place near the border where even Cormac McCarthy shouldn't write about drugs and sex (see [b:The Counselor: A Screenplay|18400189|The Counselor A Screenplay|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1377921498s/18400189.jpg|23909797]).
Anyway, if you haven't read any Don Winslow, I would go read his better books first.
Not a book I would normally read, or even pick up, but I got it in a gift-exchange, and surprisingly, liked it quite a bit.
I am still trying to figure out what I thought of this book. I am not sure if I would have finished this if it had not been such a quick read. There were 290 chapters in 302 pages and lots of white space - so very quick.
I have never read Don Winslow before so I don't know if this book is typical of his writing. I wish I knew more about his style because World Cat labels this book humorous fiction and I found nothing humorous in a book where there is so much blood shed. Some of the social commentary might be considered humorous, but I spent so much time being appalled that my sense of humor deserted me.
This story is about a hostile takeover of a drug company. The drug company makes the best dope in California. Even the "good guys" are bad guys in this story. For me there were no sympathetic characters.
I suspect that if you liked the movie Pulp Fiction (which I never saw) you might really like this book - black humor with lots of death. Since I like staying abreast of what our patrons read, this was not a total waste. But it will never make my favorites list.
Since I am reading this for The Morning News Tournament of Books, I am now prepared to root for The Finkler Question during the opening round. Although I have not read The Finkler Question yet, it has a couple of things in its favor - it won the Booker and it is scheduled to go up against Savages. I want Savages out of the running as soon as possible.
I have never read Don Winslow before so I don't know if this book is typical of his writing. I wish I knew more about his style because World Cat labels this book humorous fiction and I found nothing humorous in a book where there is so much blood shed. Some of the social commentary might be considered humorous, but I spent so much time being appalled that my sense of humor deserted me.
This story is about a hostile takeover of a drug company. The drug company makes the best dope in California. Even the "good guys" are bad guys in this story. For me there were no sympathetic characters.
I suspect that if you liked the movie Pulp Fiction (which I never saw) you might really like this book - black humor with lots of death. Since I like staying abreast of what our patrons read, this was not a total waste. But it will never make my favorites list.
Since I am reading this for The Morning News Tournament of Books, I am now prepared to root for The Finkler Question during the opening round. Although I have not read The Finkler Question yet, it has a couple of things in its favor - it won the Booker and it is scheduled to go up against Savages. I want Savages out of the running as soon as possible.
I was a little worried, at first, about the obnoxious California acronyms but it turned out to be a pretty good little read. Fast paced and engaging. Actually found it very amusing on a few occasions as well. Which is always good. I could have done without all the instances a phrase or word was repeated two or three times in a row but hey, no book is perfect. I look forward to seeing the movie a lot more than before I read this, I know that.
I admit that I’m a latecomer to Don Winslow’s fiction, with 2015’s The Cartel being the first of Winslow’s books I read - and Savages, from 2010, being just the second. I’ve been told that Savages, although it was Winslow’s thirteenth crime novel, is considered his breakthrough novel, the one that moved him to a whole new level of success than could be claimed for any of his previous books. Savages is so good that I find this easy to believe even without having read any of the dozen books that precede it.
Savages is about three twenty-something friends who are living the good life in Southern California. Chon, Ben, and O have the money and the leisure time to do the things they want to do, and to avoid those things they don’t want to do. And they owe it all to the high quality marijuana product that Ben developed from the seed that Chon brought back from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. O, on the other hand, lives at home with her mother and what has turned into a long, steady stream of stepfathers – all of whom have been wealthy enough to allow O and her mother never to have to worry about how their abused credit cards are ever going to be paid off.
The product sold by Chon and Ben is so good that it almost sells itself to what has become a cult following that calls itself “The Church of the Lighter Day Saints.” Now the money steadily rolls in, Chon only occasionally has to apply strong-arm tactics, and Ben has time to travel the world spending his money in those places it will do the most good. But the good times can’t last forever, and when the Mexican Baja Cartel comes calling, those days may be over for good.
Competition among the Mexican cartels has grown so bloody and out of control that the head of the Baja Cartel has decided to cushion her losses in Mexico by moving her operation north across the California border. When she demands that Ben and Chon give up their marketing operation and sell their product directly to her instead, negotiations do not go at all well. Ben and Chon refuse to play by the cartel’s new rules set, but when the Mexicans kidnap O and threaten to behead her if the boys don’t agree to the deal, all bets are off. The Mexican drug war has officially come to Southern California – and Chon and Ben are in the middle of it.
Stylistically, Savages is a hard book to describe. It is dark, violent, and sexy just the way one would expect a crime fiction novel featuring the Mexican drug cartels to be. But it is also a hilarious and touching love story (albeit one involving two men and one woman) that makes it easy to forget just how much trouble the novel’s main characters are really in. Ben, Chon, and O, for lots of reasons (some good, some not so good) are going to stick in readers’ minds for a long time. And the good news is that in 2012 Winslow published a prequel to Savages called The Kings of Cool, so readers of Savages will be able to spend even more time with them.
Savages is about three twenty-something friends who are living the good life in Southern California. Chon, Ben, and O have the money and the leisure time to do the things they want to do, and to avoid those things they don’t want to do. And they owe it all to the high quality marijuana product that Ben developed from the seed that Chon brought back from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. O, on the other hand, lives at home with her mother and what has turned into a long, steady stream of stepfathers – all of whom have been wealthy enough to allow O and her mother never to have to worry about how their abused credit cards are ever going to be paid off.
The product sold by Chon and Ben is so good that it almost sells itself to what has become a cult following that calls itself “The Church of the Lighter Day Saints.” Now the money steadily rolls in, Chon only occasionally has to apply strong-arm tactics, and Ben has time to travel the world spending his money in those places it will do the most good. But the good times can’t last forever, and when the Mexican Baja Cartel comes calling, those days may be over for good.
Competition among the Mexican cartels has grown so bloody and out of control that the head of the Baja Cartel has decided to cushion her losses in Mexico by moving her operation north across the California border. When she demands that Ben and Chon give up their marketing operation and sell their product directly to her instead, negotiations do not go at all well. Ben and Chon refuse to play by the cartel’s new rules set, but when the Mexicans kidnap O and threaten to behead her if the boys don’t agree to the deal, all bets are off. The Mexican drug war has officially come to Southern California – and Chon and Ben are in the middle of it.
Stylistically, Savages is a hard book to describe. It is dark, violent, and sexy just the way one would expect a crime fiction novel featuring the Mexican drug cartels to be. But it is also a hilarious and touching love story (albeit one involving two men and one woman) that makes it easy to forget just how much trouble the novel’s main characters are really in. Ben, Chon, and O, for lots of reasons (some good, some not so good) are going to stick in readers’ minds for a long time. And the good news is that in 2012 Winslow published a prequel to Savages called The Kings of Cool, so readers of Savages will be able to spend even more time with them.
I quite enjoyed reading this book. The writing style was fun and interesting and echoed the fast pace of the plot.