Books: August 2023

The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade — Benjamin T. Smith

⭐⭐⭐⭐ An unusual book by a historian in that there are no cited sources or any “show your work” language in the text, which I found frustrating, though there are works referenced in the back.

Hard to find a new angle on the story of the drug trade but the standouts are the early opium trade in Mexico led by Chinese migrants, the emphasis on the protection racket as the source of violence (not the drug trade per se), and the argument that cartels don’t really exist in the way we imagine.

Not sure how well the third argument lands. And there is a conspiratorial flavor in some chapters that would benefit from more sourcing given the magnitude of the claims. Some material I might pull for class.

Confessions of a Mask — Yukio Mishima

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not at all what I expected. Some of the ideas I associate with Mishima are there (the glory of death in battle, the reactionary Nietzschean streak) but the narrator is so self-deceiving and neurotic that the ideas seem empty – an interesting choice if those are actually Mishima’s views. The descriptions of inner torment and neurotic double- and triple-thinking are captivating, and there is something subtle and insightful in how he captures the ability of people to lie to one another and themselves in a way that is visible yet never acknowledged. Also fascinating to get an account of life during the war in Tokyo, which the author barely seems to register. Hiroshima is mentioned in a sentence, not much more. Impressed with this.