Zero Zero Zero
Ratings5
Average rating3.6
A truly harrowing and groundbreaking synthesis of intimate literary narrative and geopolitical analysis of one of the most powerful dark forces in our economy. Saviano tracks the shift in the cocaine trade's axis of power, from Colombia to Mexico, and relates how the Latin American cartels and gangs have forged alliances, first with the Italian crime syndicates, then with the Russians, Africans, and others. On the one hand, he charts a remarkable increase in sophistication as these criminal entities diversify into many other products and markets. On the other he reveals the astonishing increase in the severity of violence as they have fought to protect and extend their power.
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I gotta say, boring and depressing are not a good combo. A lot of this book read like a Wikipedia article to me. Just long, winded descriptions of trafficker after trafficker and laundry lists of all the terrible things they did or witnessed. This is one of those books that tries to convince you that the world is a scary, awful place and we should all be cynical and wake up. Ugh. Not my kind of thing.
I will say it thankfully picked up a little toward the end with shorter, more focused chapters. I wanted to continue crawling to the end of this book because I thought I might learn something. I would say mission accomplished, I did learn a little, but I don't know if it was worth all 380-ish pages. There was one particularly violent sequence that I was I could unread too (had to do with pregnant women which is definitely a weakpoint for me).
The weirdest part of this book to me was that it was a fiction-nonfiction hybrid but BARELY. The fiction made up such a tiny part of the book that it felt out of place and unnecessary. Whenever it would switch over to first person I was just like “Who's speaking again??” Bizarre. Whelp. Onto the next one.
