The Power of the Dog *

I’ve read in interviews that Don Winslow took 6 years to research and write this and that when he first submitted the manuscript it was twice as long as its current 540 pages.

Well, the research really show in the book’s depiction of the USA’s war on drugs in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It’s an exhausting, depressing and savage portrait of a conflict that nobody can win and that leaves everyone involved – good or bad on both sides – stained in blood and moral compromise.

It’s also a blisteringly fast read. Cutting the manuscript in half has resulted in a story that rips along from incident to incident and character to character, giving you no time to catch your breath. Or even want to. It really is that ultimate cliché: the unputdownable page-turner.

One other thing that impresses – although it may be a reason to avoid for some – is the treatment of violence. Just the slightest acquaintance with that period of history tells us of the awful things people did to each other in Mexico and Central America, and the book doesn’t shy away from them. But though they’re described, they’re never lingered on. And it’s this concision that gives them such impact: you often find yourself re-reading a sentence or a paragraph just to be sure that what happened really did happen. It leaves you, as I think Don Winslow must have intended, reeling.

 

* Not to be confused in any way with Jane Campion's 2021 film of the same name.