Sunday, February 14, 2016

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari


Chasing the Scream is a complicated book written by a complicated author. Johann Hari was caught up in a plagiarism scandal some years ago that derailed his career. Chasing the Scream could be seen as an act of atonement on his part. In trying to understand the Drug War, Hari embarked on a multiyear journey that provided him with as many questions as answers. What Hari excels at is going beyond the statistics and providing a human face to everyone wrapped up in the Drug War. While any reader may be skeptical of the conclusions Hari draws, they will be hard-pressed to not question the reasons why the Drug War is fought and the tactics carried out in its name .

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Murder City by Charles Bowden, Midnight in Mexico by Alfredo Corchato, Narcoland by Anabel Hernandez and El Narco by Ioan Grillo]

[ official Chasing the Scream web site ] | [ Wikipedia page for Johann Hari ]

Recommended by Corey G.
Gere Branch Library

Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

No comments: