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A review by jakewritesbooks
The Border by Don Winslow
4.0
Someone I follow on Instagram did a “What are you reading this weekend?” post. I responded with this book. The person replied: “I’ve never read Don Winslow but I’ve heard good things.”
Hmm.
On the one hand, Winslow is one of my favorite, reliable writers. He churns out some incredible crime fiction, including epic historical crime fiction that integrates real events into the narrative. I’m reading what he’s writing.
On the other hand, Winslow’s art is hard to separate from the artist, especially when he intentionally clashes the two as he does in this book.
Mind you, Don Winslow’s not a bad guy as far as I know. This isn’t art-from-the-artist criticism of a guy who is an abuser or racist. To my knowledge, Winslow is neither.
What Winslow is, indeed what he thrives on being, is one of the many persons who either found or grew in popularity (Winslow is the latter) by being an obnoxious anti-Trump pest on social media.
Now, I’m anti-Trump as far as things go and if Don Winslow and I were going to chat about politics, we’d probably agree on 80-90% of things.
What I could never abide by in the four miserable years of the Trump presidency (and the two years since) is this cottage industry of people constantly tweeting, posting, memeing the same stuff over-and-over again with no depth, no understanding, nothing beyond getting the likes and RTs and clicks, clicks, clicks.
It was weird when I’d see Winslow’s stuff suddenly pop up in the feeds of those who I knew weren’t crime fiction fans. He had found his niche among the Resistance Twitter movement that was so popular and so incredibly proud of itself. It’s absolutely not my thing, it’s a massive turnoff, and I worry about its impact in politics in the long term.
So 300 words since I began, what exactly does this have to do with The Border?
Well somehow, Art Keller, perhaps one of the dirtiest soldiers in the War on Drugs, becomes head of the DEA under Barack Obama for reasons that aren’t very clear. There’s no way in hell someone turns an assassin into a bureaucrat in DC. But ok, for the sake of the story, I let it go.
And what a story it is! The familiar maneuverings of drug lords and the American government that tries to stop them (or do they?). It’s Winslow at his finest! It’s why I love his work so much.
But then, inevitably, we get to Keller’s confrontation with Obama’s successor, a man named John Dennison who is Trump in everything but name, down to the hair, the New Yorkness and the Tweets. His son in law, whose last name is “Lerner,” is transparently Jared Kushner.
Like many Americans who woke up on 11/9/16, I was horrified at what my country had done and felt like a stranger in a foreign land. And there are very legit criticisms for me, a cishet white guy of high education and relative middle class comfort feeling that way.
What I cannot buy, and what indeed soured me on the rest of the book, was Art Keller feeling this way.
Art Keller?
Art Keller???
The same guy who did covert ops in Vietnam? Who joined the DEA under Nixon? Who took part in this universe’s version of Iran-Contra? Who did a bunch of stuff in the first two books that was certainly illegal, blatantly imperialistic, and occasionally evil?
That Art Keller was surprised??? And hurt? And shamed to be an American?
Yeah, so I, as the young people say, could not.
At any rate, the rest of it devolves semi-predictably with a conclusion that I can’t decide if it’s cathartic or (Benoit Blanc voice) just dumb. And thus, it makes it impossible to separate the art from the artist here: A Hashtag-The-Resistance binge tweeter turning the most compelling character he’s ever created into the same thing.
It’s a great series, one I go back fifteen years on. And this needs to be read if you want to complete it. It will still probably go down as one of my favorite books of 2023, cuz Winslow is a great writer despite himself.
But man, oh man, I wish I didn’t know the artist.
Hmm.
On the one hand, Winslow is one of my favorite, reliable writers. He churns out some incredible crime fiction, including epic historical crime fiction that integrates real events into the narrative. I’m reading what he’s writing.
On the other hand, Winslow’s art is hard to separate from the artist, especially when he intentionally clashes the two as he does in this book.
Mind you, Don Winslow’s not a bad guy as far as I know. This isn’t art-from-the-artist criticism of a guy who is an abuser or racist. To my knowledge, Winslow is neither.
What Winslow is, indeed what he thrives on being, is one of the many persons who either found or grew in popularity (Winslow is the latter) by being an obnoxious anti-Trump pest on social media.
Now, I’m anti-Trump as far as things go and if Don Winslow and I were going to chat about politics, we’d probably agree on 80-90% of things.
What I could never abide by in the four miserable years of the Trump presidency (and the two years since) is this cottage industry of people constantly tweeting, posting, memeing the same stuff over-and-over again with no depth, no understanding, nothing beyond getting the likes and RTs and clicks, clicks, clicks.
It was weird when I’d see Winslow’s stuff suddenly pop up in the feeds of those who I knew weren’t crime fiction fans. He had found his niche among the Resistance Twitter movement that was so popular and so incredibly proud of itself. It’s absolutely not my thing, it’s a massive turnoff, and I worry about its impact in politics in the long term.
So 300 words since I began, what exactly does this have to do with The Border?
Well somehow, Art Keller, perhaps one of the dirtiest soldiers in the War on Drugs, becomes head of the DEA under Barack Obama for reasons that aren’t very clear. There’s no way in hell someone turns an assassin into a bureaucrat in DC. But ok, for the sake of the story, I let it go.
And what a story it is! The familiar maneuverings of drug lords and the American government that tries to stop them (or do they?). It’s Winslow at his finest! It’s why I love his work so much.
But then, inevitably, we get to Keller’s confrontation with Obama’s successor, a man named John Dennison who is Trump in everything but name, down to the hair, the New Yorkness and the Tweets. His son in law, whose last name is “Lerner,” is transparently Jared Kushner.
Like many Americans who woke up on 11/9/16, I was horrified at what my country had done and felt like a stranger in a foreign land. And there are very legit criticisms for me, a cishet white guy of high education and relative middle class comfort feeling that way.
What I cannot buy, and what indeed soured me on the rest of the book, was Art Keller feeling this way.
Art Keller?
Art Keller???
The same guy who did covert ops in Vietnam? Who joined the DEA under Nixon? Who took part in this universe’s version of Iran-Contra? Who did a bunch of stuff in the first two books that was certainly illegal, blatantly imperialistic, and occasionally evil?
That Art Keller was surprised??? And hurt? And shamed to be an American?
Yeah, so I, as the young people say, could not.
At any rate, the rest of it devolves semi-predictably with a conclusion that I can’t decide if it’s cathartic or (Benoit Blanc voice) just dumb. And thus, it makes it impossible to separate the art from the artist here: A Hashtag-The-Resistance binge tweeter turning the most compelling character he’s ever created into the same thing.
It’s a great series, one I go back fifteen years on. And this needs to be read if you want to complete it. It will still probably go down as one of my favorite books of 2023, cuz Winslow is a great writer despite himself.
But man, oh man, I wish I didn’t know the artist.