Review: BLOW: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel And Lost It All

BLOW: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel And Lost It All by Bruce Porter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read a lot of true crime just for it being in that genre. This one, specifically, I thought to read while doing a re-watch of the Depp movie. Of course, more goes on in the book and more than could have been in the movie. The extremity of Jung's drug use and the kinkiness of sex life could have been more underscored, both for drama and humor. Interestingly, Barile of the Tonsorial Parlor does not come across as colorful as the Reubens portrayal so I wonder how much there was to that, maybe just script and/or improv. (Reubens did need to show what he could do as an actor at that time.)

This is fast-paced and a good read, really amazing to what heights Jung went to as the American rep for the Medellín Cartel generally and Pablo Escobar specifically.

The excess and success of Carlos Lehder is as intertwined with the rise and downfall of Jung here as in the movie and it would seem a movie or book length treatment of that mad criminal's own arc is worth doing.

View all my reviews