The Power of the Dog [Hardcover]

Don Winslow's latest book (after _California Fire and Life_), _The Power of the Dog_, is an epic look at the US war on drugs from its earliest beginnings to more recent times. The book is violent and thrilling and heart-breaking, as it follows a large cast of characters from the early 1970s through 2004, showing how the competing interests and agendas of various government agencies (the CIA, the DEA, etc.) get in the way of successfully combatting the problem, and often only served to make things much worse.

Art Keller, the book's protagonist, is a half-Hispanic DEA agent who grew up in the San Diego barrio and saw the effects of drugs on his friends and family firsthand. As a rookie agent, he makes the mistake of befriending Don Miguel Angel Barrera, one of the top Mexican policemen, in an effort to topple the reigning drug kingpin. Barrera proceeds to move into the subsequent power vacuum and sets up La Federaccion, a much more well-organized and deadly organization than previously existed, and run by his two nephews, the intelligent and sensitive Adan, and the flashy and violent Raul.

This sets in motion a 30-year vendetta on Keller's part, as he attempts to take down the Barreras and atone for his mistake, a vendetta that will lead to the deaths of numerous innocent parties along the way, and to Keller's estrangement from his own wife and children.

The book was a very fast-moving, though extremely violent novel. In a little over 500 pages, Winslow does an amazing job of encapsulating a lot of recent history, including the Camarena murder, the Iran-Contra scandal, and other related events, into a very readable and entertaining novel, one of the best I've read recently. If you're not too squeamish, I'd highly recommend the book.

I find two varieties of five-star reads. Page-turners both, there are those that hit you like the best action movies - a quick rush, great fun while they last, a lightning shot of adrenaline - and all but forgotten a month or so down the road. And then there are the very special books that deliver all the thrills, the action, all the suspense while at the same searing an unshakable image in your soul that you know will stay with you for a very long time. Don Winslow's remarkable "Power of the Dog" is firmly in the latter camp.

Contemporary history buffs my remember US DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena who, while assigned in Mexico in 1985, was abducted, tortured, and brutally murdered by Mexican drug lords. While Winslow changes the names, the events leading to and subsequent to Camarena's murder play a central role in this epic tale of the violence, corruption, love, betrayal, and vengeance surrounding three decades worth of the trafficking of cocaine and heroine by Mexican drug cartels. So grand in scope, so exhaustively researched, and so authoritative in its delivery of the facts, and comparisons or analogies are strained. But for a starter, consider a role up of "Traffic", "The Godfather", and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia". Winslow manages to demystify the shady politics and clandestine operations of Nicaragua and the Sandanistas and the Iran-Contra affair, the 1994 assassination of Mexican Presidential candidate Luis Colosio, NAFTA and others in enough detail to qualify as a docudrama, while the unspeakable brutality, depravity, and evil that travels alongside the drug trade is, well, plainly spoken. Winslow weaves tight story lines from Mexico's deserts and poppy fields to the Tijuana/San Diego borderland battlegrounds to New York City's Hell's Kitchen and Bensonhurst. His characters are much too real to be expected between the pages of pop fiction - all too believable in their flaws, weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and failures.

In the end, it would not be giving anything away to say that the vaunted war on drugs is ultimately a war of futility. Drugs pour into the US in ever-greater quantities while drug lords get richer and the American taxpayer pours increasingly more money to fund corrupt politicians and dubious strategies. Notwithstanding, "The Power of the Dog" is a powerful and unapologetic tale of bitter fatalism, of redemption that rings ultimately hollow. If you are squeamish, or intend to keep naive delusions of our "noble" fight against drugs intact, this is probably not the book for you. But for what is bound to become a classic, plumbing the depths of evil in this dark history we'd probably all prefer to ignore, you simply must read this novel.

Power of the dog grabs hold of you like a pit bull at your throat and will not let go .Well after you have read this book it lingers .News stories from the past decades fit like pieces of a puzzle. From the kidnapping and killing of a U.S DEA agent, to the shooting death of cardinal Ocampo in Mexico, to the shooting death of Mafia boss Paul Castellano.Not to mention the number of those whose lives seem go by unnoticed .The Power of the dog pulls you into a world you may rather not know of, one you will surely not forget .It is beautifully written compelling, full of insight, and it is relentless .I fear much contained within this book may not be truly fiction, but fictionalized.This book hits the spot for a page turner at 500 pages you will go through them very quickly .This book is violent, and You will feel the violence. This is not a stylized glamorous violance but true wicked and dirty. Winslow takes us someplace that will make us uncomfortable and we follow in quick step there is no let up and you are through the looking glass in no time.This is not glamour but grit and grit stays with you for a while it gets into all kinds of places .For the genre this may be the best book of its kind I have ever read.

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