An investigative reporter goes beyond the propaganda and the rhetoric to reveal the real story of tobacco and Americans' addiction to nicotine, discussing the physical, financial, and emotional costs and benefits of America's love affair with tobacco.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Singing to the choir in one note,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cigarette confidential: the unfiltered truth about the ultim (Paperback)
John Fahs is angry. More than anything else that's what this book is about. On the back cover is John's own praise for his work. He describes it as "A probing, Fiercely Objective book". As you'll see from the rest of this review, it's anything but Fiercely Objective.John Fahs book "Cigarette Confidential is only for the die-hard anti-tobacconist, anyone with a more reasoning mind will read it with their mouth hanging open is disbelief that this was even published. I guess the market for anti tobacco books must be really hot right now. The book's introduction begins "By the time the Waxman Commission hearings had reached full steam on Capital Hill in June 1994, it seemed as though many of my paranoid little fantasies about the cigarette industry were proving correct". From here he goes on to validate his "paranoid little fantasies" through 300 pages of disorganized lecture. The introduction alone includes 7 misrepresentations! of fact or outright lies. I'm guessing John doesn't actually know much about the subject. John also seems to have written this book during a time he was quitting smoking. He found himself getting quite crazy during this period and being quite outspoken and angry. This is a normal reaction to quitting smoking but John seems to feel that this must be the normal state of human emotion for anyone not smoking. Because of this he assumes that cigarettes must suppress emotions. He doesn't actually write that this is his theory, he simply states that it is the fact. This is true through all the book, there is no difference of opinion, not personal differences, just his feelings written as facts. John's point seems to be that even from the discovery of tobacco by Mayans that dastardly deeds were being done. A quote: In explaining the history of tobacco and the early Phillip Morris spokesman Johnny Roventini he says "Johnny went from procuring girls to visit guests roo! ms at the New Yorker and then tipping off the house dick fo! r the ensuing shakedown scam one day to..." I have never read this in any account of the "Call for Phillip Morris" story. If this is true, which is doubtful then he could of at least noted his source by way of a footnote, but alas there are no footnotes. Each page of this book seems to be coming from some dream John is having. Several portions of the book he even says are his dreams. He also includes two pointless chapters of ramblings from people he met that either smoke or were quitting smoking. A say pointless because the ramblings make no point and do not tie into the rest of the book in any way. I'm assuming he just needed to fill the space after running out of bile to spew on the pages he wrote. I hope he changed the names of the people interviewed since his "Introductions" were quite defamatory: (e.g. "Andre is a drunk and a deadbeat", "Tony is a car thief", "Rico is a third rate sculptor", "William is t! oo friendly", "Joe is a born loser - he appears to be lying", "Vernon is a big butterball", "Wilma comes off like a spoiled brat" and finally "As you spend time with Ted, you can't help but hope this b*****d smokes again". I've read books where there are interviews with smokers or x-smokers and it was interesting to see their points of view. But this bunch of losers don't even talk about smoking half the time so what was John trying to say here? That all smokers are scum because he interviewed som scum and they were smokers? Also, his characterizations of people seem to be directly related to whether they agree or disagree with him so you figure out that these chapters are about, perhaps retribution for angering him? This is one very pissed off guy, about what I have no idea. There is also some question as to how he is the "Investigative Reporter" he claims to be on the cover. The reporting work he seems to have do! ne was an assignment for Boating World, not exactly the New! York Times, where he stole a boat and rammed it into dockload of people injuring seven. He did this purposefully to help a buddy win a bet on the number of casualties that would result from a boat race. he has since been blacklisted by that magazine. Not the kind of moral compass I'm willing to let lecture to me. In summary John Fahs book Cigarette Confidential comes across like a McCarthy hearing on acid and any valid points he was trying to make are lost in the haze of hate-mongering directed at anything connected to tobacco. I suspect he's also a little leery of the letter "T" being the first letter of the word. In his mind the inventor of the English language is also suspect for providing the letters to name this abomination named tobacco.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Starts promising, ends disastrously.,
This review is from: Cigarette confidential: the unfiltered truth about the ultim (Paperback)
This book actually feels like 3 booklets crammed beneath one cover- I'll review them separately.The first booklet is a fairly well researched look into the shadier side of the tobacco/cigarette business. It has an obvious anti-tobacco air about it, but is still an interesting read. Unfortunately, much of the business described took place in the late 1800s/early 1900s- it has little bearing on today's market. Still, the evidence shown from modern times is damning, and is a fine indictment against the tobacco industry. I just wish that this part of the book had delved more into the recent past rather than the roots of the tobacco industry. The second booklet consists of unrealistic-sounding miniature interviews with various people. They are separated into three chapters- one for current smokers (most who apparently have attempted to quit), one for people who worked in some way for the tobacco industry, and one for people who have quit smoking. If it weren't for the inclusion of a bit from Kelley Deal (of the Breeders!) in the first section, I'd have thought these vignettes were fake. They all sound like they've come from the same mind and pen- but this may just point to some over-judicious rewriting and editing on Mr. Fahs' part. These interviews are unnecessary for the book. Most of the interviewees go on tangents that have nothing to do with the subject. When they do talk about smoking, often their experiences come across as bizarre or alien. The interviews feel completely out of place and entirely too subjective for a book billed as the "unfiltered truth". Mr. Fahs' relationships with his interviewees, too, is jarring and disturbing. His complete lack of objectivity- indeed, his extreme hatred of some of these people- casts a shadow on what is already a very weak section of the book. His mean and spiteful descriptions of people are unnecessary, and do not help in attempting to interpret what the person interviewed is trying to say. The last booklet is like a bad parody of Hunter S. Thompson's works- "gonzo journalism". This section is even titled "Fear and Loathing in Marlboro Country", in case the very gonzo-ness of his writing doesn't beat it into your head. Where the interview section felt unnecessary, this section literally screams to be removed from the book. By the time this part is finished, any kind of journalistic credibility (and personal integrity) Mr. Fahs had when the book was started is dashed apart. Mr. Fahs comes across as an egocentric psychopath who blames nicotine withdrawal for his raging idiocy... One of the main overall problems I had with this book is that John Fahs has taken his own personal experiences with nicotine addiction and withdrawal, and extrapolated from them a belief that these effects are universal. Visual and auditory hallucinations, nausea, black-outs, rage, anger and more are the rule here, not the exception. The interviews earlier in the book seem tilted towards this listing of horrific ailments, too. This is all despite medical studies that show nicotine withdrawl is not quite so dangerous. Mr. Fahs' symptoms are an extreme not shared by the majority of people undergoing withdrawal, and his blanket assertions that his symptoms are universal does a grave disservice to people who are already afraid of quitting. (And, as an aside, after reading Mr. Fahs' little character assassinations in the interview section and his overall piggishness in the gonzo section, I'd be more likely to chalk up his symptoms to pre-existing problems, rather than blame withdrawal.)
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Find another book on the subject,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cigarette confidential: the unfiltered truth about the ultim (Paperback)
I would like to begin this review by saying that I am not a fan of the tobacco industry. What I am a fan of, however, are well researched subjects.
Mr. Fahs does not offer a bibliography or footnotes in his book. I can not take such a book seriously.
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