Bowden is not a social scientist but a journalist who takes his calling very seriously. Based on direct observation, the cultivatition of sources, press reports, hard work, reflection, and much courage he enters a world that few understand and fewer still care to think about--in spite of the climbing death toll. Mexico has a new export: silence, and it is quite intoxicating and apparently contagious. Across the river, in El Paso, there is a univeristy. No one there (or in any other college on the border) dares confront Mexican reality, however. It is as if "higher" education really isn't, but just a cosmetic marketing game played to strictly vocational music, lest uncomfortable truths surface to challenge conventional wisdom: lest professors actually "dirty" themselves by actual social interaction in the world that surrounds them. Mexican social scientists have been mute on this issue for decades, of course, but there, I suppose, this is understandable as one is not free to critically study the state.
Bowden is as blunt as he is precise: (page 202): "The war in Mexico is for drugs and the enormous money to be made by supplying American habits, a torrent of cash that the army, the police, and the cartels all lust for...The Mexican army is a government-financed criminal organization, a fact most Mexicans learn as children." What this actually means on the streets of Juarez is carefully documented. Many years ago I did fieldwork in another border city where, interested in the nightlife and the demimonde, I encountered a number of colorful characters similar to those described by Bowden, but there was little violence. A positive economic wave had engulfed the region (1969-72), the plazas were charming, commerce was vital and thriving, the bullring was packed on the weekends, tourists were everywhere, and most Mexicans I met were unbelievably friendly and hardworking. By the summer of 1974 the economy imploded on both sides of the river, there was a great deal of violence, and the Mexican army was in the streets. It was the precursor of things to come. Those who knew me were worried about my safety. Many others were afraid of talking to strangers. Tourism virtually died. Businesses shut down.
I had known a number of less colorful characters as well, but heartbreak, struggle, broken dreams, crime, poverty, early death and the drug scene can be found in most cities. It is a matter of degree, visibility, and intensity. That Bowden's writing style is sometimes hallucinogenic can be initially confusing--until the full weight of what he is describing sets in. It is a kind of cumulative nausea which, under any circumstances, is unplesant. That it is quite real (and escalating) is very troubling. That his subject matter is largely ignored, dismissed, distorted, and misunderstood by Americans is catastrophic.
American criminology is largely product of American society whcih, over time, is basically upbeat: we re-invent ourselves with each genertion and most don't have to worry about what it means to have no future at all:for fatlaism to become normal. Our wars eventually end, and our Hollywood criminals are rather likeable, in part, because they are fictional. Our children can play video games where violence is simply an abstract ingredient to break the boredom and routine of conventional life. Jaurez, however, is a strange game that is a real city, with no "off" button, and the casualties are everywhere--and mounting.
Read this book and you will discover why. All those in social science should do so, and all those interested in the future of Mexico (and our misguided policies) should take careful notes. Sometinmes it takes a journalistic eye to see what most academics don't, can't, are afraid to, won't be funded for, or would rather not pursue because it takes a long time, is risky, and the smooth logic of simple explanation oftentimes fails, and it can habve some very rough (and sharp) edges in the world that people actually life in.
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An amazing, mind opening experience.
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2016
Eye opening. Disturbing. Scary as hell. Truly tragic. An exploration of some of the true life horrors taking place, and the tragic reality that no one seems to care it is happening. Media lies, government cover-ups. This is a book that does not sugar coat the real truth. It does not promote the untruth that is forced down person’s throats, this book lays it out, blunt, descriptive, horrifying, and in your face. Bowden is unapologetic. He is to the point. He is not scared to speak the truth, write the reality that is happening. This is a book that everyone should read so that truth can be experienced and not the cover-ups, lies that are so rampant.Murder City is a book that is brutally honest. Most of the chapters are laid out in a fashion like your reading someone’s thoughts, or a journal entry of the day, and news that has happened. The book really has no structure which makes it all the more unique and interesting, but most of all brutal because of it’s lack of sanity, because what is written, and talked about, and explored is true insanity, yet that insanity is all reality. A perfection in reporting. Very intense. Dark. Twisted, and yet it flows like an average report of a day in the life of a victim, or at least those left behind to experience the victim.“I’ve never done any kind of drug deal in my life. But I’ve loaned out scales to friends who felt differently. So drop the notions you carry about who is clean and not clean. Who is honest or dishonest will get you closer to reality.” Page 80
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2016
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Anonymous
Fascinating subject matter..awful book...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2019
