Tom Feiling

Tom Feiling's "Candy Machine: How Cocaine Took Over the World" is a masterful exploration of the global cocaine trade, delving into its complex web of power, politics, and economics. The book is divided into three sections, each examining a different aspect of the trade: its origins, globalization, and the war on drugs.
Feiling's writing is lyrical and evocative, bringing to life the stories of those caught up in the trade, from coca farmers in the Andes to dealers and users in New York and show more London. He provides a nuanced analysis of the trade's shaping by power and politics, including the US government's role in fueling the same.
The book's exploration of globalization is a key insight, arguing that the cocaine trade is a product of the same forces driving globalization, including international trade and the growth of global cities. Feiling also examines the trade's shaping by the growth of the global economy, including new markets and forms of consumption.
While the book focuses on the global level, overlooking the local contexts, it is a thought-provoking and insightful work that sparks important conversations about the cocaine trade's nature and impact. I highly recommend "Candy Machine" to anyone interested in the intersection of power, politics, and economics. show less

This book is not sure what it wants to be. It's not quite interesting enough to be a travel memoir, but also not well-researched enough to be a social or political history. It's competently written, but didn't scratch my itch for either.

He could also have made himself sound a bit more charming. He admits to having contempt for his fellow tourists, and there's a lot of weird bickering and tension in this.

This is not a book about Colombia and the cocaine cartels!
This was Excellent book detailing the beginning of the New Colombia. This book is over 6 years old, but it did an excellent job explaining who/what FARC is, not to mention the half a dozen other insurgent/ paramilitaries/ terrorist organizations, the diminished but still powerful cocaine cartels, the land owners and their private armies, not to mention a good history of the ever inept and corrupt succession of presidents keeping the show more wealth concentrated in the hands of the same less than one percent of the population.
It is a country that could be so great. It has so much going for it, between oil, gold, emeralds, amazingly productive soil for farming and a population by and large dying- sadly, literally- just trying to get ahead.
The number of people in the last 30 years who were "disappeared" a term all too familiar to Colombians is staggering. Far, far more than in Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Argentina or really anywhere else in the world.
This is a country where kidnappings were nearly a national pastime. This book also points out the Cocaine is NOT what made Colombia so violent, corrupt, and off limits to outsiders. It was just the newest and most publicized train wreck affecting the country.
Best of all this book will make most people want to visit this beautiful country. show less

This is not a book about Colombia and the cocaine cartels!
This was Excellent book detailing the beginning of the New Colombia. This book is over 6 years old, but it did an excellent job explaining who/what FARC is, not to mention the half a dozen other insurgent/ paramilitaries/ terrorist organizations, the diminished but still powerful cocaine cartels, the land owners and their private armies, not to mention a good history of the ever inept and corrupt succession of presidents keeping the show more wealth concentrated in the hands of the same less than one percent of the population.
It is a country that could be so great. It has so much going for it, between oil, gold, emeralds, amazingly productive soil for farming and a population by and large dying- sadly, literally- just trying to get ahead.
The number of people in the last 30 years who were "disappeared" a term all too familiar to Colombians is staggering. Far, far more than in Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Argentina or really anywhere else in the world.
This is a country where kidnappings were nearly a national pastime. This book also points out the Cocaine is NOT what made Colombia so violent, corrupt, and off limits to outsiders. It was just the newest and most publicized train wreck affecting the country.
Best of all this book will make most people want to visit this beautiful country. show less