Rating: 
Summary: As my fellow colleague so eloquently put it, "Pizzazz!"
Review: "Blow," a fast and furious romp through the heydays of coke, is likely to give you nose-bleed. But don't go running for your straw just yet. With the 20/20 insight that hindsight provides, I would like to suggest that the author and Mr. Jung's collective noses have grown a bit since penning this non-fiction? Notwithstanding, it is still an interesting, if not warn, story. If you still want to read a story that hindsight has illuminated, not eroded, then read "CIA: Cocaine In America," or "Dark Allinace," especially the former, it will "blow" your socks off!
Rating: 
Summary: Vicarious But Safe Living Through George Jung
Review: A well written account of, frankly, a self-serving jerk. The story was fascinating, especially to one as naïve as me about the drug trade. George Jung was amazingly adept at the cocaine business, was a shrewd businessman, and was not so much of a megalomaniac as to bring about quite the downfall that befell Carlos Lehder (his onetime mentor, then partner, then deserter). However, Jung abandoned his family, spiraled into paranoia and drug addiction, and ended up [allegedly] broke. The book does not have a preachy tone, if you can look past Jung's quotes, and I think Porter did an excellent job of writing a candid, interesting, and objective account. Additionally, the book serves as a good primer into the drug trade in general, beyond Jung's experience.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishes the ignorant....
Review: Being a small-town gal from Mid-Mo, I had no IDEA about anything about the drug trade. This book will open your eyes and get you inside the head of the most successful cocaine smuggler in US history.
Here is my review of the book as it appeared in my high school newspaper:
If people were ever interested in smuggling cocaine into the United States in the 1970's and 80's, they only had to come to one person - a man named George Jung.
The novel "Blow" recounts Jung's rise and desperate fall in the Medellin cocaine cartel, an association of high price manufacturers of the illegal product, where he played a key role alongside the infamous Pablo Escobar.
Writing in chronological order of Jung's adventures and the exotic locales he visits, author Bruce Porter uses his exclusive eyewitness sources to tell the fascinating life story of a successful drug smuggler.
The book's success lies in the exceptional amount of detail present. The intricately woven web of facts mesmerizes the reader as the story unfolds. Porter leaves nothing of this amazing story untold, which makes the story complete; the reader does not feel cheated out of information.
"Blow" is also successful regarding the intimate interviews given by Jung; his wife, Mirtha; and his may associates in his million dollar drug operation. Porter chooses the right times to let the people involved tell the story. Tucked in with the rest of the story are quotes and anecdotes from Jung's closest friends and businessman. Kudos to Porter for getting the interviewees to reveal so much about their lives.
The only downside present is that with so many characters involved, the reader might forget who some people are and what thier part in the novel is.
Although changed and dramatized for effect, the movie is an accurate representation of the novel.
"Blow" is an enjoyable and intriguing true crime classic.
Rating:
Summary: This book will Blow you away!
Review: Blow's double meaning works well to describe the blown life of its protagonist and the object of his destruction. Although fairly blaséé and uninspired throughout the first third of the story, the frenetic pace of the remaining two thirds more than makes up for it. I also felt like I couldn't see the coca plantation for the coca plant. It continually begged the question that "If one man could traffic hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coke, then how much coke truly flows into this country on an annual basis?" If you're looking for a book that maintains its frenetic pace throughout and that addresses the much larger questions posed by "Blow," then I STRONGLY recommend you order "Operation Pseudo Miranda" by Kenneth Bucchi. Pseudo Miranda, according to its jacket, is also being made into a movie by Universal Studios. I can't wait!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Blow
Review: Ever wonder what would be your life if they made it a movie?
Awesome book! Well-written for a pop bio. I fell asleep reading it, dreamt about about the Medellin cartel, picked it up again before getting out of bed. This, the real story, was messier than the movie. The essence was the same, but the order was different. Details were moved around. George had a sister. His girlfriend didn't die of cancer. He didn't quit after breaking with Carlos. That was interesting to me, but I found this story just amazing. . . and well put-together. Good work Porter.
Rating:
Summary: Blow
Review: Ever wonder what would be your life if they made it a movie?
Awesome book! Well-written for a pop bio. I fell asleep reading it, dreamt about about the Medellin cartel, picked it up again before getting out of bed. This, the real story, was messier than the movie. The essence was the same, but the order was different. Details were moved around. George had a sister. His girlfriend didn't die of cancer. He didn't quit after breaking with Carlos. That was interesting to me, but I found this story just amazing. . . and well put-together. Good work Porter.
Rating:
Summary: Got to know when to calm down
Review: For anyone expecting this book to be a kind of light, or detailing of the events in the film it's not. The George Jung we read about in Bruce Porter's book is a quite different one from the one played by Johnny Depp. He's a lot smarter (while not exactly being a genius), a lot more greedy, and a lot tougher. Plus, anyone enamored of the movie will be starstruck by the level of embellishment Ted Demme indulged in while making it. Jung never stopped dealing, even after he basically got a "get out of jail free" card for testifying against Carlos Lehder (Diego in the movie), a sinister megalomaniac who along with Jung basically introduced coke to the US. There was no "one last run" for his daughter, who we only hear about a few times in the book in vague reveries of regret Jung has for all she had to witness in his "glory days". Mirtha was not quite the ruthless bitch Penelope Cruz played, and seemed to have stuck by Jung through quite a bit. The book is essentially a repetitive documentation of drug smuggle after drug smuggle, until Jung gets way too comfortable and dipping into his own stash all the time. He just doesn't know when to calm down. Soon, he's so fried that he starts bragging to undercover cops and taking them under his wing as fellow smugglers, and so of course getting busted.
For all this, Jung is no ruthless monster like many of the people we see him associate with. He's actually kind of a middle class goofball who had a business mind and weird determination to never be poor, which may have stemmed from his childhood (who cares? that's no excuse.) He seems to have had quite a bit of intellect and could have been successful at something other than his purely destructive occupation. He simply chose his own path and paid for it. He gets out of jail after he should have gone away forever, starts dealing weed again, and then goes away for good. There's no heartbreaking twist to any of this, just one man's greed getting the best of him. This is a sad story not for Jung but for his daughter, his wife, and his father, who also seems to have seen some good in him the whole way through. (We actually get to read the real tape Jung made for his father, one of the highlights of the book). An alternately exciting, depressing tale.
Rating:
Summary: A real page turner
Review: George Jung is widely acknowedged as the man who introduced cocaine for mass consumption to people in the United States, and this book tells us how he did it. Sort of a lesson in how to smuggle. From his begginings as a high school football player, through his early days selling marijuana in Florida, right through to his career as the number one cocaine supplier in the US and ending up with him languishing in prison, every aspect of his life is covered here in all it's glory. With a life as rich in detail as Jung's, the book could easily have become bogged down in detail, but it's to the writers credit that he never lets the pace flag. Highly reccommended.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting and educational
Review: Having been a "good boy" all of my life it was fun to put myself in the shoes of George Jung. I never realized how interesting the cocaine world was. This book led me to buy other books on the cocaine trade of the 80's
Rating:
Summary: Author was too deep in the trenches to see the big picture.
Review: Having read much finer books on the subject, i.e., "Deep Cover," "C.I.A.: Cocaine In America," Dark Alliance, etc., it was difficult keeping my eyes open while Mr. Porter kept pulling the wool over them. If you want to read about the real war on drugs you must first start with operations Watch Tower and Pseudo Miranda, everything else is just Blowing smoke.
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