Why do good intentions go awry? With brutally honest humor, Daniel recounts his trip towards the edge, and a desperate drug-fuelled quest for the truth. A Rough Guide To The Dark Side is a real-life trip through Balkan organized crime. More irreverent than McMafia, it has the vicarious kicks of Mr Nice and Shantaram, plus the travelogue style of a Bill Bryson or Tony Hawks, but with added bile and an overdose of drugs.
A Rough Guide To The Dark Side
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"Amazing ... uses humor as Shakespeare did - to lighten the load of a heavy, dark, and important story" (John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman)
"The archetypal innocent abroad, Daniel Simpson thought he could help the locals ... But his project became a study in modern corruption, with a learning curve so steep it was more like a suicide's screaming spiral." (Michela Wrong, author of It's Our Turn To Eat)
"A funny, angry and insightful indictment of modern media practice ... Simpson's writing demonstrates that we not only deserve better journalism, but that it's still out there: observing, investigating and informing with humanity and passion." (A.L. Kennedy, writer and comedian)
"A courageous quest in pursuit of truth ... A Rough Guide To The Dark Side is a telling memoir, which shows that while music has the power to change the world, it is the heart of the individual that truly makes a difference." (Michael Lang, co-producer of Woodstock)
Book Description
Ever dreamed of changing the world? Daniel Simpson shows how not to do it.His memoir charts a gonzo career at The New York Times. Ambitious and idealistic, he was hired to report on the Balkans but quit within months, freaked out by his editor's zeal for starting wars. Disillusioned, Daniel went native in Belgrade. Together with the charismatic G, who'd appeared one night in lavish puffs of dope smoke, he decided to organize Serbia's version of Woodstock: a festival on an island in the Danube.Music could revolutionize the country. It was run by a wartime mafia, and most young people dreamed of leaving. But what if they made it Ibiza crossed with Glastonbury? To fund this transition, they hustled Daniel's contacts, but shady local businessmen had other ideas. Mr Big muscled in, and embroiled them with his henchmen.Why do good intentions go awry? With brutally honest humor, Daniel recounts his journey to the edge, and a desperate drug-fuelled quest for the truth. A Rough Guide To The Dark Side is a real-life trip through Balkan organized crime. More irreverent than McMafia, it has the vicarious kicks of Mr Nice and Shantaram, in the travelogue style of Bill Bryson or Tony Hawks, but with added bile and an overdose of hubris.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By marc gasic
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book in its first fifty pages tells you everything you didn't want to believe about how the giants of western news media follow the powers that be, behaving not like feverish news hounds but like slavish lap dogs, following the trail set for them by their political masters without questioning the course they're on. The author concentrates on his previous employer, the New York Times, which views itself not as a searchlight on power, but as the public expression of the US power. PR for the powerful, you might say. Nice.
The author's own searchlight could equally be applied to many other western media miscreants, but he then turns it on himself, and is equally forthright. He openly admits his own societal sins, most specifically his search for drugs and consumption of them, their effects and his experiences in general, against the backdrop of a search to become the man he wants to be by taking on a new life path.
In taking this road, he is helped by the prospect dangled before him by a much-travelled new acquaintance (from Canada to London's Shepherd's Bush Green) that they create a cathartic rock festival in Serbia. This leads him to the third 'dark side' of his book, the hidden cronyism, money-making and manipulation of Serbia's post-Milosevic oligarchs, institutions and men of influence behind the scenes in the noughties. Much of what he describes could apply to many countries in Eastern Europe. He sees and feels things at first hand, but the insight into these galling experiences comes mainly through the eyes of his new Serbian business partner (who views such happenings in Serbia as the natural result and expression in European micro-scale of all that the western Powers have done in and outside Serbia.... Read more ›
The author's own searchlight could equally be applied to many other western media miscreants, but he then turns it on himself, and is equally forthright. He openly admits his own societal sins, most specifically his search for drugs and consumption of them, their effects and his experiences in general, against the backdrop of a search to become the man he wants to be by taking on a new life path.
In taking this road, he is helped by the prospect dangled before him by a much-travelled new acquaintance (from Canada to London's Shepherd's Bush Green) that they create a cathartic rock festival in Serbia. This leads him to the third 'dark side' of his book, the hidden cronyism, money-making and manipulation of Serbia's post-Milosevic oligarchs, institutions and men of influence behind the scenes in the noughties. Much of what he describes could apply to many countries in Eastern Europe. He sees and feels things at first hand, but the insight into these galling experiences comes mainly through the eyes of his new Serbian business partner (who views such happenings in Serbia as the natural result and expression in European micro-scale of all that the western Powers have done in and outside Serbia.... Read more ›
By D Crossland
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
A Rough Guide to The Dark Side is a perfect title for Daniel Simpson's account of his adventures in Serbia shortly after the end of the Balkan wars -- after all, it was a hell of trip. He did what few people in his position would do. He quit his job at one of the world's top newspapers, abandoning the promise of an illustrious career because he no longer had faith in his employer. He chose freedom. What followed was a quest for a new identity, by organizing a rock festival. Did he find it? Yes he did. Not as a festival manager, that's evidently not his forte. But as a consummate writer buzzing with restless talent. A heady hash haze lingers over parts of this book but his prose punches through it on every page, describing with sparse, intense clarity his increasingly desperate struggle to arrange a gigantic music event in a country governed by a cabale of corrupt politicians and shady militiamen. It's an entertaining, thought-provoking read not just for music and dope fans but for the silent majority of us who yearn to ditch the day job and follow our instincts, for better or worse. Simpson took a risk and has come out on top with this work, which is worth more than a lifetime of slavish bylines -- however grand the masthead. I'm looking forward to his next one.
By SG
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Didn't know what to expect from this book! It's an account of trying to organise a music festival In Belgrade, and a lot of the players interactions ring true! I've worked in the Balkans, and kept thinking as I was reading the book 'Oh, it didn't just happen to me then!' when the narrator was fobbed off with explanations and justifications that didn't ring true! The narrator's Balkan sidekick kept explaining to him why they acted like they do, so wish I'd read it before I'd gone out there!
By avidreader
Format:Kindle Edition
This is a very intelligent, highly-engaging first book. Reads like fiction. Story is significant on numerous layers at once - from author's personal development to the state of journalism to the initiatory aspect of drug use to the politics of Eastern Europe. Simpson's quick, sardonic humour jumps off every page.
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fed up with recycling press releases for the New York Times, Daniel Simpson had a bash at solving the Eastern Question by staging a music festival on a Serbian island. My own experience of such things is limited, but even in the best of circumstances it can't be easy. In Serbia in the early 2000s, besides the usual problems of money, drugs, bureaucracy, rampant egos and organisational snafu, there was the minor complication of the country being largely run by the mafia. Oh, and the weather didn't help either. Though his style and a few of his substances remind one of Hunter S Thompson, Simpson comes across more bemused than enraged; the frenzied epilogue to his book, which reads like a succession of Raoul Duke's Monday morning diary notes, is a marked break in the style and (on first reading, anyway) much less appealing than the rest. Most of the time, Simpson lets the weirdness of events speak for themselves (the adviser who corpses during interview is a particular delight), with much engaging commentary from G, his partner in the enterprise, and various enlightening asides on everything from the zombie horrors of professional journalism through the art of Balkan swearing to the craft of stashing drugs in one's personal tubing. If you do happen to be touring the dark side, you could do much worse for a guide.
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