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131st out of 145 books
—
20 voters
Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family
Lionel Bruno Jordan was murdered on January 20, 1995, in an El Paso parking lot, but he keeps coming back as the key to a multibillion-dollar drug industry, two corrupt governments -- one called the United States and the other Mexico -- and a self-styled War on Drugs that is a fraud. Beneath all the policy statements and bluster of politicians is a real world of lies, pain...more
Paperback, 464 pages
Published
December 30th 2003
by Simon & Schuster
(first published November 8th 2002)
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This is a hell of a book. As the author says to many others, I say to him - "Hats off". I can not imagine the physical and emotional toll required to write this book. The author devoted years of his life to compiling the information and writing this amazing true account of the drug wars and U.S. complicity in them.
Most of the book takes place in El Paso, Texas. Phil Jordan, a DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) agent knows that his brother Bruno was killed in an ersatz car jacking in retaliation for s...more
Most of the book takes place in El Paso, Texas. Phil Jordan, a DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) agent knows that his brother Bruno was killed in an ersatz car jacking in retaliation for s...more
Brutal, intense, dark. Bowden writes very passionately. I find the way he writes fascinating--this read more like literary fiction than non-fiction to me, especially in the sections about the family. When describing their experiences, he adopts a very close point of view, writing from their perspective, almost as if they were characters in a novel. I found this blending of non-fiction material with fictional techniques fascinating.
Focusing on a family and their reaction to a brutal murder is a v...more
Focusing on a family and their reaction to a brutal murder is a v...more
Families, obsession, and murder against the backdrop of a larger clandestine world of drugs, cartels, narcotraficantes, murdered, tortured people, disappeared people, lies, corruption and the elusiveness of truth, justice and sanity. Told artfully, I found the story compelling but the literary style of the author was difficult to follow. I had to re-read a lot, backtrack and struggle to keep all the pieces of the story flowing although, this was probably intentional, it's just that some shards d...more
The author, Charles Bowden spoke at my local library. He shared anecdotes from the multi-year undercover experience of putting this book together. So I bought the book. Wow.
A tragic reporting of the war on drugs, using one family's experience as the vehicle. While completely enthralling, I had difficulty reading more than one chapter at a time. The entire situation is just so depressing that I could only handle so much at a time.
If you want to truly understand drug trafficking across the Mexican...more
A tragic reporting of the war on drugs, using one family's experience as the vehicle. While completely enthralling, I had difficulty reading more than one chapter at a time. The entire situation is just so depressing that I could only handle so much at a time.
If you want to truly understand drug trafficking across the Mexican...more
This book is interesting in that it gives the history of the rise of Mexican drug cartels and how Mexican and American governments, banks and businesses continue to make business deals with drug dealers and murderers.
My favorite part was when the book talked about how United States worked to cover up all the problems Mexico was having during the early '90's under Salinas so that NAFTA could be pushed through.
The writing was really dry and stuffed with dates and names. Bowden is a journalist so...more
My favorite part was when the book talked about how United States worked to cover up all the problems Mexico was having during the early '90's under Salinas so that NAFTA could be pushed through.
The writing was really dry and stuffed with dates and names. Bowden is a journalist so...more
Was pleasantly surprised at this book, especially Bowden's writing style, that almost seems screenplay-ish. It kept you engrossed and wanted to know what would happen next in the smaller of the two subplots. I liked Bowden's use of the murder and investigations following against the larger plot and exploration of Mexican drugpins along the US and Mexico border.
Bowden develops the shooting death of a top DEA official's brother in El Paso into a narrative that illustrates how drugs permeate the political and economic cultures of Mexico and the United States. I found particularly interesting the strong factor that family relations play in the drug world, which is a lot broader than I realized.
The first several pages were borderline incomprehensible but the story took off quickly after that. The book is completely filled with vignettes of countless people interwoven in a gritty and dreamy style. I've never read a writing style like this before and I absolutely loved it although I could see where it would turn others off. The news of violence from Juarez is as relevant today as it was at the time the events of this story took place.
I am still reading this book. It is incredible. I think it was published in about 2002, and the problems in Mexico and in Juarez have only gotten worse. I will be looking for more books by Charles Bowden. It is non-fiction and you wish it wasn't true.
Read and inform yourself about our War on Drugs.
Read and inform yourself about our War on Drugs.
well written, brilliantly reported anecdotes of Mexican border drug trafficking and the ramifications, violence, cover ups that seem to go hand in hand with the politics of greed that are unraveled for all to see.
I noticed you guys had put a couple books on the border situation on your to-read list. Here's one from Tucson author Charles Bowden. I read it a few years back - luckily stumbled on to it (mis-shelved) on the new fiction shelf at the Mission Branch library. If you check out the reviews on Amazon you will see a few people really didn't care for the writing style which in parts is confusing. Overall it got 4.5 stars though. It's on my all time top ten list (or would be if I had one). I'd call it...more
Written by a true reporter. Nothing but superb in every way.
Really thorough, but scarey when you live in Mexico.
A frightening look at the reality of the war on drugs.
This book brought to light the real extent of drugs and the violence behind it. I never really knew the whole extent and just how big drugs were in Mexico and how the US is "handling" it. It's a very sobering book to read.
There were times that I became a little overwhelmed by the atuhor's tidbits on various drug lords, drug pushers, various people associated in some way with drugs - it seemed a little too much information, though I understand why Bowden wrote it, just to show how much drugs hav...more
There were times that I became a little overwhelmed by the atuhor's tidbits on various drug lords, drug pushers, various people associated in some way with drugs - it seemed a little too much information, though I understand why Bowden wrote it, just to show how much drugs hav...more
Great read about my home town. Really recommend.
this book rearranged my DNA.
Related to 2666.
This is an incredible book on an issue that is still as relevant as the time period (80s and 90s) that the author wrote about (a recent New York Times article on Matamoros could have been an additional chapter.) The story is given humanity and tension by rooting it in the story of how the violence at the border affected an El Paso family: the author skillfully makes use of this story to give the so-called "drug wars" a national and global perspective.
Man, what an eye-opener. It's amazing to me that this author could actually back up all the info. It reads like fiction. The notes at the end of the book were nearly as interesting as the book itself. I liked the writing style, actually. There were so many people, but Bowden did a great job of "reminding" the reader repeatedly who they were.
view all 3 comments
A good book, with very deep historical roots in the drug cartels, specifically on the Mexico/US border. The story jumped around a LOT and I found myself backtracking on numerous occasions to remind myself whose story I was reading at the moment, but all in all it was a good book.
a selection from a now defunct book gang, the twister city text mob. i was finally able to follow through and buy the book, read it, and be ready to discuss it...and the gang fell apart! LAME!!! but the book was good. anyone wanna talk about it, i'm ready!?
this book details the drug trade in Mexico and the hypocrisy of the US war on drugs. also it talks about the political landscape of Mexico, something that i feel we don't hear alot about in this country. hint: it's fucked up.
Someone wrote Bowen writes like he has done to much acid and should quit ranting.. and calling it a book!! I could not disagree more.. This author is brilliant.. I am going to read more of him....
Not much to add to the other reviews. My first introduction to Bowden's writing. Where has this dude been all my life? Cormac McCarthy come to life, making it all the more frightening.
totally brings home the "war on drugs"... and exposes all the corruption on both sides of the border.. but in a page-turning way through a story of one family's search for the truth.
Poignant, sad (true) story about a DEA agent's family torn apart by drug violence in Mexico and the inability of the agent to do anything about it.
Charles Bowden looks deeply into deep, dark holes and comes back to tell us what he found. This book amazed me. I read it twice.
You must read this book if you have even a passing interest in U.S.-Mexico border politics and/or narco culture.
Jan 05, 2010
Peter
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
21st-century,
american-writers,
contemporary-society,
journalism,
el-paso-juarez,
crime,
2000s,
drug-wars,
1979-2008
Good, a little long and "literary." At least it gets the idea that the drug war is irremediably fucked.
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CHARLES BOWDEN’s journalism appears regularly in Harper’s GQ, and other national publications. He is the author of several previous books of nonfiction, including Down by the River.
In more than a dozen groundbreaking books and many articles, Charles Bowden has blazed a trail of fire from the deserts of the Southwest to the centers of power where abstract ideas of human nature hold sway — and to t...more
More about Charles Bowden...
In more than a dozen groundbreaking books and many articles, Charles Bowden has blazed a trail of fire from the deserts of the Southwest to the centers of power where abstract ideas of human nature hold sway — and to t...more
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“I can't even produce a metaphor for the drug world anymore. I don't even like the phrase the drug world since the phrase implies a different world.”
—
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