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A review by cgcang
The Border by Don Winslow
2.0
Winslow should have waited a few years before writing this book. Giving a Don Winslow book 3 stars feels absolutely awful.
The Power of the Dog and The Cartel are both masterpieces. I was under the impression that The Border would live up to them. I was also very worried that Winslow's political sensitivities would turn this book into a 800-page-sermon. Turns out, I was right. The Border is yet another example to prove that when political prose overshadows fiction writing, the end product is almost never good literature.
Winslow seemingly felt he had to write this book because he had to get ahead of whatever stupid shit the Trump administration was about to do. He had more than enough political motivation. He had very little literary motivation. And this shows in the book.
The plot is all over the place. The characters are all over the place. The book feels forced and dragged out at almost every turn. And the ending is absolutely terrible. Endings are very very important to me and this is hands down the worst ending in any Winslow book that I read.
Is it all bad? No. Up until the last 100 pages the plot was actually promising. It was a hard sell but the book had me interested throughout. Some character arcs and plot threads were good. Bobby Cirello was a very good character. Sinaloans and the cartel people were more or less interesting. Belinda was a good character. But that's about it and the ending didn't even do these characters justice.
Sean Callan was in the book but was totally unnecessary as a character. Nora Hayden was back, but in the end it felt like she was brought back only for a scene in which she confronts the president and threatens him with releasing information about his sexual kinks and perversions. Different cartel factions and characters had different story arcs that in the end either did not go anywhere at all or were wrapped up unsatisfactorily. Nico's and Jacqui's character arcs connected in the end but it was so rushed that it didn't really mean anything. And so on...
Winslow botched the ending. There's no other way of saying it. The story is laid out in 750 pages. And Winslow tried to wrap it all up in 30 pages. And failed. By the way, these 30 pages include the repetition of the whole prologue. The action in the end was weak. Many story threads were left incomplete. The ending was overall very unsatisfactory.
If my review feels messy, it's primarily because the book itself is.
Despite my disappointment, The Border is a big and mostly fun book. It would have easily deserved 5 stars with a good enough ending. But as it is, if you liked The Power of the Dog and The Cartel, you really don't need to read The Border. If you are curious about Winslow's take on the US-Mexico border or the war on drugs, just find any Youtube video in which he talks about The Border and he'll bring you up to speed. You won't find much else in the book anyway.
Edit: On second thought, The Border is a huge step down from The Cartel and it doesn't even deserve 3 stars.
The Power of the Dog and The Cartel are both masterpieces. I was under the impression that The Border would live up to them. I was also very worried that Winslow's political sensitivities would turn this book into a 800-page-sermon. Turns out, I was right. The Border is yet another example to prove that when political prose overshadows fiction writing, the end product is almost never good literature.
Winslow seemingly felt he had to write this book because he had to get ahead of whatever stupid shit the Trump administration was about to do. He had more than enough political motivation. He had very little literary motivation. And this shows in the book.
The plot is all over the place. The characters are all over the place. The book feels forced and dragged out at almost every turn. And the ending is absolutely terrible. Endings are very very important to me and this is hands down the worst ending in any Winslow book that I read.
Is it all bad? No. Up until the last 100 pages the plot was actually promising. It was a hard sell but the book had me interested throughout. Some character arcs and plot threads were good. Bobby Cirello was a very good character. Sinaloans and the cartel people were more or less interesting. Belinda was a good character. But that's about it and the ending didn't even do these characters justice.
Sean Callan was in the book but was totally unnecessary as a character. Nora Hayden was back, but in the end it felt like she was brought back only for a scene in which she confronts the president and threatens him with releasing information about his sexual kinks and perversions. Different cartel factions and characters had different story arcs that in the end either did not go anywhere at all or were wrapped up unsatisfactorily. Nico's and Jacqui's character arcs connected in the end but it was so rushed that it didn't really mean anything. And so on...
Winslow botched the ending. There's no other way of saying it. The story is laid out in 750 pages. And Winslow tried to wrap it all up in 30 pages. And failed. By the way, these 30 pages include the repetition of the whole prologue. The action in the end was weak. Many story threads were left incomplete. The ending was overall very unsatisfactory.
If my review feels messy, it's primarily because the book itself is.
Despite my disappointment, The Border is a big and mostly fun book. It would have easily deserved 5 stars with a good enough ending. But as it is, if you liked The Power of the Dog and The Cartel, you really don't need to read The Border. If you are curious about Winslow's take on the US-Mexico border or the war on drugs, just find any Youtube video in which he talks about The Border and he'll bring you up to speed. You won't find much else in the book anyway.
Edit: On second thought, The Border is a huge step down from The Cartel and it doesn't even deserve 3 stars.