Mez Packer

Overall this was a good read, but left me with some niggling doubts. The main story starts in early 80s Coventry and revolves around the local drugs trade and the relationships between three young men: Andy, Pads and Jez. The chapters are written from the prespectives of Pads and Jez. Andy and Pads are drop out students, with anarchist leanings. Jez is a local Cov lad, who penchant for weed leads to him meeting the two dealers and joining the workforce. The book then recounts the ever more elaborate plans and backbiting that ensues as their business empire grows. This takes them to Spain and India, and then back to Spain.

What is odd, is the sudden deapture from this story, to a second involving family rivalries in Albania. This second story forms only about 10-15% of the book, and despite what the blurb on the back of the book says, this only resolves itself in the final pages of the book. Consequently, this makes the rest of the book disjointed. You become engrossed by the main plot, then suddenly the reader is whipped away from this to an althogether different scene in Albania. True, there are themes that bind the two contrasting stories together, but it does break up the plot of the novel.… (meer)