Savages [Paperback]

A young philanthropist called Ben who got his fortune from growing and selling a rare type of marijuana with his less philanthropic, more aggressive partner called Chon, decides to leave the drug game behind and pursue a life of peace and goodwill. Unfortunately getting out is not going to be straightforward. And when their friend/mutual girlfriend Ophelia is kidnapped by a Mexican Cartel, they have to come up with $20 million to free their friend. Luckily the Cartel has a lot of cash - let the guerrilla raids on the Cartel's money begin!

The fast moving story shoots from one character to the next in rapid focus. Chapters blur past as the action accelerates from the first page until the last. The tone is stylish, urbane, clever, and totally compelling. Any book that opens : "Chapter 1: F**k You. Chapter 2: ..." has my immediate attention. Luckily Winslow doesn't let "baditude" dictate the story and instead builds it masterfully until it's grisly conclusion.

Part of it's strong readability is perhaps (and I'm speculating here) because this novel started life as a script for either TV or film. It's 300 pages long which is the usual page count for Winslow but it's a short 300, as every page is double spaced with extra breaks for chapters which occur nearly every paragraph. There are also moments in the book where the presentation literally goes from novel to screenplay with stage directions and dialogue. Oliver Stone is thanked in the acknowledgments and it's no surprise to see Stone has bought the film rights to "Savages" and is in the process of turning it into a movie. Good on him!

A supremely fast paced, well written, interesting and funny novel from a devilishly talented writer with a strong sense of storytelling, "Savages" is a great read and great fun. Drug deals, gun fights, Skype-d executions, assassinations, threesomes, and a shootout in the desert - who could ask for more in a novel these days? Give it a go, I guarantee a fun time.

"Something they don't teach you at Harvard Business School.
`Savages, How to Deal With.'
Savagely."

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly an infamous trio the three amigos and the three stooges funny trios. When it comes to threesome there are many one trio you will soon be taking note of are the likes of Ben, Chon and the wonderful O or her real name Ophelia, in this Drug cartel solid thriller from Don Winslow.
The story is about lucrative money making with a specially brewed drug herb that the trio or really Ben and Chon deal and solely profit from. Others want a cut of this market and Ben and Chon are just not having it. They have more than enough money and want to get out of the drug world and retire on sunnier sands. As always with a woman involved matters can get personal and you are taken to the knife-edge of showdowns. The boys need to have their killing skills at full capacity to keep what they love. The other big boy in the drug cartel is really one big girl Elena the last line of a drug mafia family who is just as brutal as any man. She also has something precious in the swing of matters a daughter Paqu.

Just discovered that this highly charged full throttle drama is to be released as a movie in 2012 directed by Oliver Stone and has a full cast of good actors with Pulp fiction team Travolta and Thurman acting the part of Dennis and Paqu. It will make one hell of a movie, I heard Oliver stone was writing the screenplay before the book was published. Another of Winslow's books that I hope to read soon that is to be adapted is Satori and will have Di Caprio starring in it.

The novel is written with the right pace and flows well, easy to read not a mind storm to get through, I cant fault it at all. There is, for those who would like to know, plenty of dark humour and explicit situations. You do get to learn a lot about cannabis in this novel. What that really makes it so good are the characters Don has created and the trio that will forever be a bond to remember. You will take away a lesson on savagery and savages from this story and oh yes how to make, Mucho Dinero.

"O knows that Chon is seriously twisted-no, she knows Chon is seriously twisted-but not like day-old-spaghetti-in-a-bowl twisted, like getting off on guys getting their heads lopped off, like that tv show about the British king, every cute chick he f**** ends up getting her head cut off."

"Ben is a self-described Baddhist, i.e., a `bad Buddhist,' because he sometimes eats meat, gets angry, rarely meditates, and definitely does consciousness-altering substances. But the basics of Buddhism, Ben is down with-
Do no harm.
Which Ben articulates as
Don't f*** with people.
And he doesn't think the Dalai Lama would argue with that."

"They became almost cult like figures.
There developed such a devoted following with such a religious loyalty that they even gave themselves a name.
The Church of the Lighter Day Saints."

"Elena knows that love makes you strong
And love makes you weak.
Love makes you vulnerable.
So if you have enemies
Take what they love."

"Winslow's stripped down prose is a revelation", says Stephen King on the dust jacket blurb of this book. True. The revelation is that Winslow shouldn't have bothered. God save us from crime writers who have visions of writing some sort of literature. James Ellroy take note. In the same way that I thought I'd never read another noir thriller that came close to Ellroy's "Black Dahlia", I finished Winslow's "The Power of the Dog" thinking I'd never have to read another novel about the Mexican drug cartels because nothing would surpass it. Too true, unfortunately, in both cases.
Still, I've returned to Winslow in the hope that he can find his muse, like I did with this novel. It's not a bad attempt, and the pace of the story just manages to override the annoyance with the "stripped-down prose", but only just. I found the broken sentences, the staccato prose, the one word dialogue breaks and the two line chapters not much more than an affectation I had to try and ignore. Get on with the story Don, and stop trying to impress us with your new direction. It's not even that I didn't like it, it all just seemed so unnecessary. Why bother the literary tricks, when you've got a good plot line, some (almost) believable characters and an undertone of veracity that lends the book a kind of credibility? You don't see Elmore Leonard attempting to write some sort of prose poetry, do you?
In the end, the good outweighed the clunky and I quite enjoyed this novel. But I don't come to Winslow expecting to "quite enjoy" his work. I expect it to deliver the goods, in spades, and this missed the mark. Maybe if he'd written it in a more mainstream way I'd have been more satisfied. It's not put me off him as an author - unlike James Ellroy, who I can hardly read any more - but I hope he returns to the more black and white world of Californian crime writing in terms of style. Keep it simple. As one of. His characters. Might. Say.