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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
So this turned out to be a completely guilty pleasure. The writing was rather insipid and reminded me of some of the pedestrian Maxim articles I've read in my lifetime. The testosterone and machismo was dripping off of each page, but that was the conceit that must be made in order to enjoy the book. That said, the story was very compelling and addictive enough that writing eventually faded into the background. An extremely fun story that would have been a crime to leave in book form. It seems to be the quintessential cross country flight type book.
I read this because Sarah Weinman, whose opinion I respect, raved about it.
Turns out, it's not my cup of tea. Maybe I'm just a prude; this book comprises about 300 short chapters, all of which are about sex, drugs, violence, or some combination of the above.
Winslow is the anti-Elmore Leonard. The plot is similar to a typical Leonard (bad guys with good hearts vs. bad guys with bad hearts all chasing a big bag of money), but instead of rich characters and tack-sharp prose Winslow uses distractingly flowery prose to describe flat characters.
Truly awful.
Turns out, it's not my cup of tea. Maybe I'm just a prude; this book comprises about 300 short chapters, all of which are about sex, drugs, violence, or some combination of the above.
Winslow is the anti-Elmore Leonard. The plot is similar to a typical Leonard (bad guys with good hearts vs. bad guys with bad hearts all chasing a big bag of money), but instead of rich characters and tack-sharp prose Winslow uses distractingly flowery prose to describe flat characters.
Truly awful.
fast paced. This book was surprisingly funny in places and a blast to read. The characters were unlikely ones you found yourself rooting for.
Both of my parents implored me to read this instead of Moby Dick, so I took a break from the classic lit and read this in a day.
I'm conflicted with giving this book a star-rating. Was it good enough that I started it just after brunch, and finished just after dinner? Yes. Is it high literature? No. Is it fun? Absolutely. Did the writing style, in some parts, get kind of annoying? Yes.
But, as I said before, a fun and exciting quick read. My heart was racing for the last 1/3 of the story.
I'm conflicted with giving this book a star-rating. Was it good enough that I started it just after brunch, and finished just after dinner? Yes. Is it high literature? No. Is it fun? Absolutely. Did the writing style, in some parts, get kind of annoying? Yes.
But, as I said before, a fun and exciting quick read. My heart was racing for the last 1/3 of the story.
Classic Don Winslow. I don't get all the references but still a decent book. Not as good as the power of the dog
Spiritual descendant of Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers, perhaps cross-bred with Newton Thornburg's Cutter and Bone and updated for modern times (there's a use of '404' for lost, for example).
I enjoyed this book 80% of the way through, it had some really eccentric writing style, but after the first chapter it flowed, and made sense, in an Illiterate-to-English sort of way, but such is the way of the world.
Definitely gritty, it's definitely a crime novel, not so much because of the main characters being cannabis cultivators (they grow weed, really good weed) but because the Mexican drug cartels muscle in on them.
I think where it lost me was the last, say quarter of the book. The author starts throwing characters at you in the last part, filling in back stories for characters that you'll never hear from again, which is odd.
"Here's a guy, here's what he does, here's his favorite color and what he likes to eat, where he lost his virginity and oh yeah, I just spent more time talking about him, than his actual impact on the story line." type stuff. It throws you, or me anyway, because there at the end it feels like it was cut short, or edited out.
I enjoyed it, the main characters were alive, which I can definitely credit the author for, the story-line itself is interesting, at parts enthralling, but then it just starts to shake and wobble and breaks down. Leaving you kind of stranded.
So think of it as an Italian sports car you can't afford to fix, it's fun to joy ride in, but you'll probably end up disappointed when it breaks down on you on the side of the road there at the end.
Definitely gritty, it's definitely a crime novel, not so much because of the main characters being cannabis cultivators (they grow weed, really good weed) but because the Mexican drug cartels muscle in on them.
I think where it lost me was the last, say quarter of the book. The author starts throwing characters at you in the last part, filling in back stories for characters that you'll never hear from again, which is odd.
"Here's a guy, here's what he does, here's his favorite color and what he likes to eat, where he lost his virginity and oh yeah, I just spent more time talking about him, than his actual impact on the story line." type stuff. It throws you, or me anyway, because there at the end it feels like it was cut short, or edited out.
I enjoyed it, the main characters were alive, which I can definitely credit the author for, the story-line itself is interesting, at parts enthralling, but then it just starts to shake and wobble and breaks down. Leaving you kind of stranded.
So think of it as an Italian sports car you can't afford to fix, it's fun to joy ride in, but you'll probably end up disappointed when it breaks down on you on the side of the road there at the end.
Well that was a delight! Satire with heart. As always with Winslow this is well-written, funny, wise, wry, very violent, very racy/kinda filthy, and at least as much about the people as about the capers. And who knew it would turn out to be a love story?! (By no means is that meant to indicate there is a happily-ever-after. It might be an HEA, but it is fair to say that is a completely subjective assessment.)
I keep going to describe the story itself, and it feels like everything is a spoiler. I was happy coming into this blind, so I will give you the same option. If you do read it, my favorite line is "It's all fun and games until someone loses an I." From the mouths of half-assed Buddhists...
Had I read this in 2010 it might have been a 5-star. Elements are dated, but mostly it is not an issue. My biggest problem was with the way the women were drawn. This is satire, so there are going to be all sorts of tropes in the mix, and women in noir have certain hallmarks. Making one woman a hot California blond who cares little for anything but orgasms and shopping (both of which she cares about deeply) and who eats like a lumberjack and never gains an ounce, another a California seeker looking for meaning it whatever someone puts in front of her (plastic surgery, Jesus, life coaching, etc.), and the third a true femme fatale makes sense, but they needed something to animate the stock character. The men got to embody tropes while still being very much individuals. That did not, in my estimation, happen for the women. It turned out to be a fairly minor quibble, but it did have an impact on my enjoyment of the book, and I think on the overall storytelling.
I keep going to describe the story itself, and it feels like everything is a spoiler. I was happy coming into this blind, so I will give you the same option. If you do read it, my favorite line is "It's all fun and games until someone loses an I." From the mouths of half-assed Buddhists...
Had I read this in 2010 it might have been a 5-star. Elements are dated, but mostly it is not an issue. My biggest problem was with the way the women were drawn. This is satire, so there are going to be all sorts of tropes in the mix, and women in noir have certain hallmarks. Making one woman a hot California blond who cares little for anything but orgasms and shopping (both of which she cares about deeply) and who eats like a lumberjack and never gains an ounce, another a California seeker looking for meaning it whatever someone puts in front of her (plastic surgery, Jesus, life coaching, etc.), and the third a true femme fatale makes sense, but they needed something to animate the stock character. The men got to embody tropes while still being very much individuals. That did not, in my estimation, happen for the women. It turned out to be a fairly minor quibble, but it did have an impact on my enjoyment of the book, and I think on the overall storytelling.