Coups and Cocaine

COUPS AND COCAINE is Anthony Daniels very first collection of essays. It's a travelogue of two trips he made to South America in the 80s. What he experienced is best characterized as a blend of Gilbert & Sullivan operetta and Stephen King horror. Unreal. The writing is sublime. It's much better than his mature essays. And the wonderful prose inserts you into the scene wherever he is writing about. Daniels interview of the Canadian prisoners in Bolivia, and his tour of their prison is, alone, worth the price of admission. Especially his remarks about the greasy broth with mystery meat they relish and must pay a premium for; and their comments about the prison dog everyone 'loves.' If you have money the prison will get you a woman.

There have been those who have complained (Booklist) that this first Anthony Daniels travel journal is "unpleasant." To borrow a phrase from Raymond Chandler, the idea seems to be that if Anthony Daniels was writing about a whorehouse, he would depict only the pail of slops at the back door. But this is just liberal nonsense. In the first place, Anthony Daniels circa 1988 is a long way from Theodore Dalrymple circa, like, now. The youthful A.D. comes across as a hyper-rarefied good time Charlie compared with the sober reflections of Theodore Dalrymple's ripened misanthropy. If I had a criticism to make of this first A.D. book it would be that the writing is far too philanthropic and permissive. Reviewers who think that Daniels' writing is too negativistic have either not spent time in the third world, or are the type of incurable liberals that cannot see the filth and degradation that is staring them in the face. They cannot see it because of their own degradation.