Murder City

[rich]

the reviewer states: "This might be the case, but there's nothing in
Murder City that convincingly corroborates it. In the absence of
government records or intelligence reports or on--the--record
interviews with key players, Bowden turns inward, going on long,
impressionistic monologues of a sort, where he feels the decay of
Juarez and prophesies that the city represents the future for all of
us. (The subtitle, by the way, is a misnomer. There's little here that
convincingly ties the global economy to the political disaster
ravaging Mexico. Again, that's not to say there isn't a connection,
but just that this book doesn't make a solid one.)"
_______________-
government records? intelligence reports? in Mexico? he must be
joking. when the police, the army, the federales, and all levels of
gov't and institutions are implicated? not much to add to that

One of Bowden's main points is the veneer of order hiding the chaos
within, the lies (especially on the American side, in Mexico its more
of a survival instinct and thus alot more truthful) about the drug
war, the biggest story among many is a farce. and this can
extrapolated anywhere where military/corporate/underground interests
congregate

on the record interviews? I wonder what book he was reading. Bowden
isn't that kind've writer, he's not writing some academic thesis and
thank god for that. I just appreciate his honesty and going places
where folks don't go. He's clumsy and bit repetitive and disorganized
but his heart makes up for it.

rich


On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:39 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> The "Conversational Reading" blog also noted the two books together,
> but gave Murder City a negative review:
>
> http://conversationalreading.com/2666-and-murder-city
>
> On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>> I agree, Rich
>>
>> On May 21, 2010, at 10:36 AM, rich wrote:
>>
>>> for anyone who read 2666 you probably want to also read Charles Bowden's Murder City and the hell of Cuidad Juarez.
>