Smokescreen: A True Adventure

by Robert Sabbag

Book Overview

With his drug-smuggling documentary short on financing, moving marijuana seemed the obvious way for cinematographer Allen Long to raise the necessary cash. Millions of dollars later the film had not... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1841953792
• ISBN13: 9781841953793
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Smokescreen: A True Adventure

This was by far the best book I have ever read. Every time I picked it up I read at least three chapters. I felt like I was really there and that I had actually met the characters. The author gives great detail but in a way that does not at all bore you. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it!!!

Quintessential reading if you like this genre...

The author Robert Sabbag has this scene nailed down. I thought I had read, or maybe even lived it all. No sir. This book "jacks it up" to new levels of adreneline pumping. These characters had balls. Big ones. And it is really fun to read about people like that. The opening, where a DC-3 is barely making it to the Columbian border at sunrise after a few days of flight is second to none. One of the best and tightest openings to any book I have ever read. Where is the movie??? Thank you, Mr. Sabbag

Loaded

I guess they changed the title of this book at some point -- the copy I got from the library was called "Loaded, A Misadventure In the Marijuana Trade". At any rate, forget any tepid reviews by "professional" reviewers who somehow feel this story wasn't quite up to their literary standards. The book is just a flat out great read and had me laughing out loud many times. A hilarious but cautionary tale with a serious ending, the adventures of pot smuggler Allen Long are so far out there that you know they must be true. Any baby boomer who did time in the counter culture of the 60s and 70s, or who is familiar with the drug culture of that era will get a big kick out of this book, and I'd think many younger readers would enjoy it as well. Allen Long was a man of immense ability, ambition and personal charm, as well as a natural leader... who also loved to smoke the best pot he could find. He probably would have been successful in any field but some people need to take the road less travelled. Long was the man responsible for Columbian marijuana coming to the US (millions of tons of it). I got the impression that he was as much a crusader for marijuana as he was in it for the money, at least in the beginning. The first part of the book is almost like a Cheech & Chong screenplay, with multi-million dollar deals and hair-raising scenarios being improvised by people who stay as stoned-out as possible at all times; but by the end the gangsters have moved in, the trade has turned to cocaine, and the intial hippie-capitalist spirit has vanished, to be replaced with cutthroat competition, greed and violence. Long never has the heart to become a gangster and is eventually squeezed out of the business by the more ruthless and hungry Latin Americans. It's a look at a particular part of era that hasn't often been told, and certainly never told in such a thoroughly entertaining manner. Thumbs up all the way.

TOP NOTCH READING

I know Allen Long and think that he must be one of the most adventurous men I've ever met. This book is his tale of his younger years, running the gambit on the Mary Jane trail; taking the risks and living the life that goes with it. What makes this book so awesome, is that Allen actually did live this book! This isn't a story to be told to wow anyone; Allen is a wealthy man today and doesn't need to impress anyone. This is just a good book about something that we all would have probably loved to try back in our younger years if we just had the balls...Allen has those balls you wished you had. A must read if you want to re-live some fantasy's and live vicariously through Allen Long!

Breaking into the pot business the hard way

If you liked Sabbag's previous work "Snowblind", you'll enjoy this one every bit as much. Tracking the career of an erstwhile smuggler, Sabbag gives us a fascinating and humorous look into the would-be criminal's misadventures. The author has a delightful way of describing the characters the smuggler meets along the way, making this book a real page-turner. Highly recommended.