Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade [Paperback]

Robert Sabbag (Author), Howard Marks (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

Called "a triumphant piece of reporting" (The New Yorker), Snowblind is an all-out, nonstop, and now classic look at the cocaine trade through the eyes of smuggler Zachary Swan. In a brief Roman-candle career, Swan served an elegant clientele, traveling between Bogota and the nightclubs of New York, inventing intricate scams to outmaneuver the feds. Creating diversions that were characteristically baroque, surviving on ingenuity and idiot's luck, he discovered in the process a hip, dangerous, high-velocity world that Robert Sabbag evokes with extraordinary power and humor. "One of the best books about drugs ever written." -- Robert Stone "A flat-out ballbuster. It moves like a threshing machine with a fuel tank full of ether...." -- Hunter S. Thompson "One of the first books about the cocaine trade and it is still among the best." -- Norman Mailer

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"A flat-out ballbuster. It moves like a threshing machine with a fuel tank full of ether. . . . Sabbag is a whip-song writer."-Hunter S. Thompson

Snowblind is an all-out, nonstop, and now-classic look at the cocaine trade through the eyes of smuggler Zachary Swan. In a brief, Roman-candle career, Swan served an elegant clientele, traveling between Bogota and the nightclubs of New York, inventing intricate scams to outmaneuver the feds. Creating diversions that were characteristically baroque, surviving on ingenuity and idiot's luck, he discovered in the process a hip, dangerous, high-velocity world that Robert Sabbag evokes with extraordinary power and humor.

"One of the best books about drugs ever written."-Robert Stone

"One of the first books about the cocaine trade and it is still among the best."-Norman Mailer

"An extremely rare cut of dry wit, poetry, rock-hard fact and relentless insight."-Rolling Stone

"A triumphant piece of reporting."-The New Yorker

"A witty, intelligent, fiercely stylish, drug-induced exemplary tale."-Los Angeles Times

"The ultimate slide down the precipice of hip."-Susan Brownmiller

"One of the most dazzling and spectacular pieces of reporting I have ever read."-Nora Ephron

"A classic."-The National Review

Robert Sabbag is a regular contributor to Rolling Stones and writes for numerous national magazines. His book Too Tough to Die brought the U.S. Marshals to their current prominence in the popular media. His New York Times Magazine cover story on the Witness Protection Program is being adapted by HBO.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802135897
• ISBN-13: 978-0802135896
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #527,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read. A brilliant look into the drug trade., September 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade (Paperback)

Snowblind begins with the Zackary Swan, the protaganist, telling his lawyer that even though cops found an ounce of coke, "they didn't find my stash." From this point on the book is a non-stop roller coaster ride into the life of Zack, the "every-man"cocaine smuggler/dealer. Sabbag's prose washes over the reader like a wave of intensity. Zackary's explosive story is the perfect mate to ride that wave into the reader's mind and psyche, making Snowblind linger in the one's memory long after he or she puts the book down. What I truly loved is the fact that Zack is not your stereotypical drug dealer- he is a smart, interesting character with a memory for details that will astound the reader. Sabbag successfully puts to rest the prejudice that all drug dealers are moronic scums. This should be a must read for both DEA agents and drug kingpins. Snowblind reads as a how-to book on drug smuggling. Zack's smuggling methods are as brilliant as they are simple. Sabbag's reverent wit in the telling of these methods makes this one of the best and most insightful books ever written on the narcotics trade. Snowblind is a brilliant book that I recommend for everyone.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best., July 18, 2002

By 

"interzone72" (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade (Paperback)

If we consider Thomas de Quincey's "The COnfessions of an English Opioum Eater", Baudelaires "The Artificial Paradises" and Ludlows "The Hasheesh Eater" the three classical pillars of the drug books, "Snowblind" sets a new way of approaching the theme.

Sabbag manages to write a funny, entertaining and well defined book about what the beginning of the cocaine smuggling was. He has inherited the best ways of HUnter S. Thompson without loosing and inch of his own style. This book is the "bible" for all smugglers. In the last edition of Cannongate there is an introduction by Howard Marks, author of the bestseller "Mr Nice". Well, if you liked "Mr Nice" this book goes way beyond in the form and in the content. The characters shown are interesting and relevant to the story, the information delivered will not bore you. Sabbag tells what he has to (a lot) and misses what would bore you.

Normally drug books will fall into topics like rude language and obscure characters most of the time very badly developped, now, Zachary Swan is a dandy, the language is only rude when there are direct implications for it to be so (not often) and when you finish the book you have the feeling you have gone through the adventure with the Silver Fox (name given to Swan by Canadian Jack).

Thanks Sabbag!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The age of innocence, August 2, 2001

By 

Carlos I. Camacho González (MIAMI, FLORIDA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade (Paperback)

This book is about "back in the day". Before crack was invented, before the cartels got involved, before the contras got involved, before the CIA got involved (or so Gary Webb says). Very little violence, all in all a starry-eyed, very amusing vision of the drug trade that sometimes reminds one of Hunter S. Thompson. Hard to believe it was ever like that. Very little like "Traffic", "Killing Pablo" or "Dark Alliance", is that's what you are looking for.