Book Review: The Cartel by Don Winslow

The Cartel, written in 2015, is an important book but a flawed one. The importance  The importance lies in its reportage and description of the damage that drugs and, especially the war on drugs, has done to Mexico and on the relations between America’s appetite for drugs and their supply of guns and the criminal cartels that are so powerful in Mexico.  The flaws lie in its fictional structure.

As fiction, one obvious comparison is to Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.  This is an updated version of that book, set mostly in Mexico and dealing with various drug cartels instead of Mafia families.  The problem is that, while The Godfather had a single protagonist (Don Corleone), The Cartel does not.  It’s told from too many points of view, with too many characters introduced who aren’t particularly strong. And the violence is so indiscriminate and continuous that it is more confusing than illuminating.

I think this book would have been stronger as reportage than as fiction. 

 Don Winslow is the author of 20 books.