A review by rbharath
Mrs Escobar: My life with Pablo by Victoria Eugenia Henao

informative

3.0

I had watched Narcos on Netflix and picked this book up for a first-hand account of Pablo Escobar’s life from his wife. While there are many personal anecdotes & experiences, there is an undercurrent of self-exoneration which runs through the book. 

 

In the initial sections of the book, Victoria poses the question which people (especially victims of Pablo Escobar) ask her – “How she could stay with a monster like him”. She says her simple answer is - she loved him. That is maybe part of the truth since as you go through the book, she clearly knew what kind of a man he was, including his infidelities and his drug trade (as head of the Medellin Cartel). She met him at the age of 12 (when he was 23) and they were married a few years hence. There are detailed descriptions of how she negotiated with the rival Cali Cartel to spare her and her children’s lives (especially her son Juan Pablo). This part is better than the rest of the book and I found myself empathizing with her condition at that time. The timeline is not linear, and the book delves into the immediate aftermath of Pablo’s death first before moving to their early life and then returning to the times near and after his death. She describes enduring a lot – affairs, possessiveness (Pablo briefly had people spy on her movements), lies and threats. They felt matters could get resolved when Pablo attempted to negotiate a surrender, but that was not to be There is also a strange fleeting reference to her astrological powers, and that she knew what was to come. 

 

As far as incidents go, this book covers a lot. There are also many personal experiences she relates. There is, however, very obvious scrubbing of the narrative to make her appear completely faultless. I do think that more than love, she probably felt she had no choice and reconciled to her state, preferring to ignore what was going on. A lot of Pablo Escobar’s crimes are narrated in a dry tone, with little consideration of the human impact. The family has nevertheless been resilient in rebuilding their lives and that does come through strongly in the book. 

 

Some interesting personal remembrances, but an average read overall.