Marching Powder – a ripsnorting read
March 20, 2008
Finally i’ve read a book that has nothing to do with terrorism or international politics. My very good friend Shanny lent me an extraordinary tale called “Marching Powder”, the true story of an Englishman inside a Bolivian prison.
Ooh yeah, a true story. We love it.
So Thomas McFadden became famous because he started giving tours, and became the unofficial tour guide of San Pedro prison, in La Paz; Lonely Planet had the prison listed as a must-see destination mainly because of this guy’s charming demeanour (and cocaine parties).
But it’s not only tourists who pay their way into the prison .. the prisoners themselves have to pay an entrance fee into San Pedro – after they are sentenced. They then have to buy their own cell through the internal real-estate system!
.. there are restaurants and shops set up so that people can survive;
.. prisoners’ families stay inside the prison because they can’t live in the ruined outside economy without their breadwinner.
.. And the best cocaine laboratories are hidden away inside the prison.
It’s plainly written, and very enjoyable, although painful and frightening in places. There’s a lot you find hard to believe, and corruption drips off the page. i’d give it a big 8 star rating.
Apparently Brad Pitt is producing the film, due this year.
(more info:
- interview with author and subject, at bNet;
- review in SMH, ’03;
- talk of a documentary at foreign correspondent;
- the author in Wikipedia.)
First Tuesday – mixed response
December 12, 2007
When the First Tuesday Book Club on abc.net.au reviewed “The Unknown Terrorist”, the book didn’t come off so well.
- Marieke said it was “Earnest” and would only convert the true believers (the people who don’t need converting).
- Jason Steeger enjoyed the book, and said it was more of a tragedy: “Not a thriller, it’s dressed up as a thriller .. it’s more of a contemporary horror story.”
- The other guy (?) said it was “Too stark, too stereotypical .. but a bit too raw,” although “the Flanagan brothers are very good news for Australia.” More like a film script in novel form.
But Germaine stole the show with her wild and angry commentary, calling the preface “infuriating, pretentious bilge” .. to begin the book with a weave around Jesus and Nietszche. Ms Greer found the narrator and The Doll to be “inextricably tangled”, and the plot to be nonsense: “couldn’t have got it past a harlequin editor”.
“Greatest load of old nonsense!” Germaine says she will cut her throat from ear to ear if this book wins the Booker (she toned this down when asked to compare Flanagan’s supposed exaggeration with her own). Oh Germaine, your vitriol is unsurpassed! What a delightful roller-coaster!
i’m glad i’m not the author of the book. i felt nervous enough just having enjoyed it. i’m also glad i can enjoy reading a book without having my internal critic give me angst all the way through. Must be awful being a critic.
Ooh, look, they’ve reviewed Chris Womersley’s new book, The Low Road. This won a premier’s award for unpublished manuscript, and my mum gave it to me for my birthday. I wonder if it’s the sort of book i can read in public places…?
all the best, and happy reading 
!
