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Savages by Don Winslow
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Savages (edition 2010)

by Don Winslow

Series: Savages (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
9676521,481 (3.66)10
Running a lucrative marijuana operation in Laguna Beach, sometime environmentalist Ben and mercenary Chon confront a dangerous adversary in the Mexican Baja cartel, which kidnaps their playmate and confidante Ophelia, compelling the duo to plot ingenious negotiations.
Member:danielx
Title:Savages
Authors:Don Winslow
Info:New York : Simon & Schuster, 2010.
Collections:Read, Your library
Rating:****1/2
Tags:fiction

Work Information

Savages by Don Winslow

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English (57)  Spanish (3)  German (2)  French (1)  Danish (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (65)
Showing 1-5 of 57 (next | show all)
This could be Don Winslow's greatest book. And trust me, THAT'S saying something. From page 1, this book never took it's foot off the gas pedal. It's like riding Space Mountain on coke. ( )
  BenM2023 | Nov 22, 2023 |
Gave it a shot, but it's just not my thing. ( )
  blueskygreentrees | Jul 30, 2023 |
This was my 3rd Winslow book and least favorite by far - the Southern Cal trio featured were not as interesting to me as the other books - I believe because the focus was too much on their lifestyle and sexual preferences/lives.... ( )
  rjdycus | Dec 19, 2022 |
A very unique book, if nothing else. At 289 chapters, you might think it would be long, but it was fairly short; some chapters were only one or two words, but they often are incomplete sentences, continued in the next chapter, so they aren't very good places to stop reading. I think they're just arbitrary breaks added on impulses. Or maybe it's just a style, which is almost a stream of consciousness style.

The story is both brutal and humorous. Lots of unexplained references and terms that some people might not know, although I knew most of them. If you're politically correct, you probably will find lots of places to cringe, but it was probably necessary for the story and style.

To me, a big lesson in the story is that if you live outside the law, you need to be more than just honest - you need to realize that when things go wrong, you never know what it might take to make them right, if possible. When the laws aren't written down, anything can happen. And in this book, they do. Or maybe the lesson is simply if you break the law, don't do it in a way that will attract too much attention. ( )
  MartyFried | Oct 9, 2022 |
We got it, Don Winslow. Loud and clear, actually. In the drug trade, there are no good guys - no matter where you moral compass may point. And Oliver Stone? What did you see in this? Potential? We'll have to see how you vamped up the film later. I'm not going to spend more money on Savages, not yet anyway. Let's just hope Netflix picks up when its released for home viewing. Besides, my money is for The Dark Knight Rises. Sorry.

Savages follows the fall of Ben and Chonny - a potent strain of marijuana that blends indica and sativa in perfect harmony (it's stoner science, I suppose). The growers and distributors of the strain are Ben - a pacifist and humanitarian who majored in business and botany - and Chon - formerly John, a SEAL who uses his skills to "negotiate" with people who get in their business. Coupled with the living-in-the-material-world girl, O, the threesome is a sexually charged epitome of what wrong with the world. In a word, they are savages.

Enter the Baja Cartel. After a viral video of a beheading is sent to Chon, he knows the days of running the game solo have come to an end. But will they go down without a fight?

Don Winslow presents to us - poorly, but still - a tragic tale of emotionally (not just sexually, by the way) charged characters. But isn't that the definition of a savage? One who follows emotion rather than logic and ration?

The story itself is great. Winslow's execution of it leaves a sour taste. His character development is unfavorable - there are just things that didn't need to exist (so what if Lado is having an affair?). ( )
  ennuiprayer | Jan 14, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 57 (next | show all)
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Epigraph
Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
« Je rentre en Californie,
Y a tant de trucs chouettes dans ce pays.
Et plus question de la quitter,
Semble que le soleil s'y couche jamais. »

John Mayall, « California »
Dedication
Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
À Thom Walla.
Sur la glace ou sur la terre ferme.
First words
Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Fuck you.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Running a lucrative marijuana operation in Laguna Beach, sometime environmentalist Ben and mercenary Chon confront a dangerous adversary in the Mexican Baja cartel, which kidnaps their playmate and confidante Ophelia, compelling the duo to plot ingenious negotiations.

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Book description
Part-time environmentalist Ben and his buddy Chon run a successful marijuana operation in Laguna Beach, and things are going smoothly until the Mexican Baja Cartel wants in, sending them the message that a "no" is unacceptable. Don Winslow's stylish new novel pits young kingpins against a major drug gang, offering a sharply funny thrill ride through the dark side of the war on drugs and beyond.
Haiku summary
Drag your mind through mud /
Find no moral.  Vice-virtue.
 / Clever.  Good girl porn.
(RabbitHoller)

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Don Winslow is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.

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Average: (3.66)
0.5 1
1 9
1.5
2 24
2.5 6
3 70
3.5 21
4 99
4.5 13
5 59

Tantor Media

2 editions of this book were published by Tantor Media.

Editions: 1400117666, 1452607796

 

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