Customer Reviews

The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellín Cartel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Accountant's Story is the story of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel, as told by Pablo's older brother, Roberto. It starts with their meager beginnings, and how growing up in poverty gave Pablo the drive and ambition needed to rule. Unlike published reports and accounts of Pablo, however, Roberto paints a starkly different picture of his brother. In his eyes, Pablo was smart and compassionate, always helping those in poverty. He took care of his friends and family, and many many people who worked for Pablo made more than enough to support their own families. Roberto even talks about how his life turned out as a consequence of being associated with Pablo.

I was fascinated to read about how much money cocaine brought in-for the pilots, guards, customs agents, and drivers that worked for Escobar. The staggering amount of money, and finding places to hide it all was really interesting. As Pablo's accountant, Roberto had to figure out ways to hide the money, partially by investing in real estate, and partially by hiding stacks of bills in between walls. The fact that drugs routinely got seized and hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost each month was inconsequential. They wrote off a lot of money each month just because of water damage it sustained hiding in walls, or because they couldn't remember where they hid some of the money. Remember, since all this was illegal, they couldn't just deposit the money in bank accounts. The amounts were truly staggering.

Roberto also goes into great detail about the fall of the Medellin cartel: the days spent in hiding, plans for escaping, negotiations regarding the extradition laws, and also Pablo's death. While I don't hold Pablo in any high regard or think he is a hero, this book is a fascinating account of Pablo, from the eyes of people in Colombia and all those that he helped. I understand that back then, cocaine didn't have the stigma it has in recent years, but the fact that Roberto seemed so cavalier about the consequences of drug use irritated me. In addition, a few times in the book he talks about things that happened to him solely because he was Pablo's brother. I think he is a bit delusional, since, as accountant, he knew intimately about many of Pablo's activities. Overall, though, this story was fascinating and a riveting read.

The book does give the reader a great amount of information on the life of pablo etc.
While i was reading the book i came across far to many spelling mistakes and inconsistencies . its a shame because the content is good, however untrue it might be (considering its his brother who wrote the book).
I would recommend it, just dont take everything it says as a 100% fact!

I bought this book because it seemed interesting and I liked the movie "American Gangster". The story is interesting, but the book was disappointing. It is rambling and not that well-written. The story romanticizes Pablo Escobar emphasizing what he did for Colombia's poor and downplays the fact that he was a ruthless drug trafficker whom people feared. But then again, it is written by his brother.

Pablo Escobar - famous in the West mainly for giving Columbian and US authorities the slip on many occasions. His name evokes the larrikin archetype of the crafty rebel, up there along with Ned Kelly, and the Scarlet Pimpernel, though whether his name evokes the same feelings in Spanish speakers is questionable (his name translates as "Paul Brush").

This book is a major contribution to the mythmaking process, as well as being an apologia for Pablo and his brother Robert. Why, says Robert, they never used drugs, they loved their mother, they only did what they had to do to support their families, and with more money than they knew what to do with they became sources of charity, welfare, employment and soccer stadiums for the poor of Medellin. It is quite likely that some people got killed, in fact almost certain, but that wasn't really Pablo's fault, Robert never saw him actually kill anyone, and anyway the other side started it.

If this book had gone on for a few more chapters I think Robert would have got to the point that Pablo and he were actually the victims in all this, and they really deserve sainthood for carrying on their industry through all the travails imposed on them by their rival gangs, their Government and the CIA.

The best way to read it is as a rollicking adventure story - it can be quite enjoyable if you are prepared to suspend disbelief a little even through the most outrageously improbable bits.

This is clearly the most dishonest memoir I've read. It makes James Frey look like James Carter. Whoever was the US writer that worked with him on it was seriously taken on a ride of exaggerations, lies, fables and mistakes. The book has about 250 pages and about 100 mistakes that even the most basic fact checking would have not failed to discover. Roberto has a very selective memory. Personally, I don't think was managing Pablo's money as he claims. Gustavo Gaviria was. If Escobar was Michael Corleone, Roberto would have been Freddo. And if he truly was so important as to tell Pablo and Gustavo Gaviria what to do, I am surprised he can get way with claiming he did not know anything about any of the crimes. Every 2 o 3 pages there is a mistake that could been avoid by a fact checker. Any trained fact checker would notice almost every mistake. From small ones such as mistaking rhinos for hippos to serious mistakes / lies. It even has spelling mistakes. I am really surprised to find out that's a really remarkably mediocre a book.

Good book I finish the whole thing in two day, I think he did a good job making the book interesting and he explain the details very well...

You will learn a lot about the truth about the Medellin cartel. I really think he could have use his power for good use and could have taken on the world.

The book was pretty good. Gave a good bit of the story from the other side of Killing Pablo and some others. I dont believe he glorifies what Escobar did but I think he was hesitant to say anything bad as any good brother would. It could be a bit dry at time, but it was well worth the read if you are interested in this sort of topic.

Review in one sentence: 70% of the content is awesome, 30% is mediocre at best; of the awesome content, 40% is highly debatable (whether or not Roberto is lying/exaggerating / or whatever).


The book has extremely interesting material, like how the Medellin would soak jeans or timber with coke to transport them past US security. But anyone looking for a pure tale about the Cartel of Pablo Escobar is going to be deeply frustrated with this book. It is filled with little tid bits of Roberto's life that have not a thing to do with the cartel and he does not follow a timeline. Moreover, he will begin talking about a particular event, and then just randomly start talking about how great he or his brother is.

The most defining thing about this book is that it is written by a latin man. Moroever, this latin man is discussing his brother's life. So it is deeply emotional and calling it bias would be an understatement.

Lastly, I dont know why, but I just found the ending to be God awful (he does not end with Pablo's death, he goes on about other things). Personally, I was four pages away from the end and I had to FORCE myself to read each page.


Worth a read. Not the best book in the world.

Great book and pretty amazing story. If you want a true inside look into the Medellin Cartel. Then this is the book for you.