Murder City

February 1, 2010
Bowden (Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing
) grapples with the almost incomprehensible levels of violence in Juárez, Mexico. Over 1,600 people were murdered in Juárez in 2008; almost as many were murdered in the first half of 2009 and countless more have been kidnapped. Bowden tries to explain the escalation in violence, but explanation—even investigation—is impossible: witnesses don't come forward out of fear of the police; the police in turn are terrified of the military and the cartels. The military are apathetic and often complicit in the killing, as is the federal government. Journalists report the scantiest facts; many are paid off, and the rest fear the consequences of telling the truth. In the absence of hard facts, Bowden can offer only an impressionistic account of his own frustration at the collusion of police, media, federal government, and global economic forces in making inexorable violence the defining feature of daily life in the border town. This is a nonfiction book without facts, without a thesis, and without an argument; Bowden's sentences are gorgeous things, euphonious and deeply sincere—but the book offers no understanding or call to action, only resigned acceptance.

April 1, 2010
In 2008, more than 1600 people were murdered in Juarez, Mexico, killings most often attributed to the drug cartels and the drug war. According to Bowden ("Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing"), that approach is too simplistic. He argues that Juarez is a dying citydying under the weight of a broken system in which almost half of the economy is fueled by the drug trade, the police either work for the cartels or rarely leave the relative safety of their station houses, the army preys on the guilty and the innocent, and no one seems to be in charge. Bowden even admits that he, and thus his narrative, is overburdened by the sheer enormity of the problems in Juarez. The result is a deeply troubling glimpse at human misery. VERDICT For readers looking for traditional coverage of the issues in Juarez, this is not your book. But Bowden's prose (and at times poetry) has a way of stabbing at the soul, making this the book for anyone who wants to get underneath the truth and into the heart of the matter.Mike Miller, Austin P.L., TX

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2010
Just across the Rio Grande from El Paso sits Jurez, Mexico, a city so overtaken with the violence of drug trafficking that its leading citizenspolice, politicians, even the drug lordsfind it safer to live in El Paso. Bowden, critically acclaimed author of Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing (2009), details the forces that have led to Mexicos place in the multinational drug business. Hundreds of millions of dollars flow into Jurez each week, and the violence and corruption that follow yield 200 to 300 murders each year. Bowden laments the silence on both sides of the border that permits the slaughter that goes mostly unnoted and unreported. Behind the numbers, he details the lives lost or destroyed: a reporter fleeing for his life with his young son, a beautiful woman gang-raped, a killer for the cartels who is now being hunted. He chronicles a town that has been the site of numerous mass graves of victims and of monuments to fallen police that bear hit lists from the cartels. A stark, haunting look at the impact of drug trafficking on a town and its people.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)