Customer Reviews

The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellín Cartel

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This book makes you grip to the edge of your seat. It is somewhat biased by the story teller, Pablos brother. Nonetheless there are stories that I found hard not to believe. Trust me, I got people ;)

This book essentially offers more insight into the world of Pablo Escobar and how he came to be one of the most infamous drug lords of our time. The books point of view is told from Pablo's' very own brother Roberto Escobar. Being the story is told by a close family member who would have known Pablo better than anyone the accounts in the story should than because of this be as good as if it were written by Pablo himself. Unfortunately what you get instead with "The Accountants Story" is a very unsatisfying novel for many reasons. There is no remorse from Roberto throughout the story, he doesn't seem to grasp the extent of how much damage Pablo brought to so many lives or he just doesn't really care, he claims to be completely innocent of no other crime other than being the brother of Pablo Escobar, so he clearly must have forgotten he was the accountant who hid and organized the funds that fueled an evil dictator who had thousands of people murdered. He claims to know the kind hearted side of Pablo who gave back to the people of Columbia with his millions but when it comes to the evil Pablo, he doesn't seem to know this man very well, he will tell of the evil story with sentences like "I was not there so I cannot say for sure" or "I cannot say if this is true and I doubt it is". He seems to represent Pablo as a product of his environment and that the violence was in Columbia before Pablo, not realizing that adding to it didn't help his country much. It just seems like he is brushing off the bad and exploiting the good, when it comes to his brother. The worst thing about the book for me was there are so many contradictions and mistakes.

The book is alright for getting a deeper look at Pablo's' life. There are interesting parts like the stories of the escapes into the jungle, but most of the stories comes off as sympathetic to a man who was responsible for so many deaths, it can be believed like Roberto says that it is not all on Pablo's hands but a hell of a lot of it was and he doesn't own up to being a part of those responsible. He is just along for the ride, enjoys the money, actually organizes it too, helps Pablo escape the police and government many times but he's not guilty of any crime and the crimes Pablo committed were bad yes, but hey it's not that bad because they built some soccer fields and houses for some poor people...this after they built a zoo and about a 100 mansions all over the country for themselves first of course. You start to wonder in the end if maybe the guy isn't all there in the head, I mean before someone sent him a bomb in the mail while he was imprisoned.