Nicely does it. (Mr Nice - Howard Marks)

Name: psr21

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Product:	Mr Nice - Howard Marks
Date:	07/05/01 (429 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to read., Funny, but real., Engaging.

Disadvantages: Depends on your views on "soft-drugs"

Not being a big biography reader I saw somewhat sceptical when I was given this book by a friend. I'd heard the press stories about Howard Marks, read some of the spate of articles that were around when he came back to the UK and I'd even played his smuggling game on his website (it's very addictive by the way).

But I really wasn't sure that an auto-biography was going to be in my reading list. The bedside usually holds William Gibson (of Neuromancer fame) or Terry Pratchett (and if you don't know who he is, then you are already a lost cause), so I didn't know just how well Howard Marks was going to fit in with these sci-fi, comic, fantasy worlds. That was until I read the book and realised just how much of the comic and the fantastic was in this book.

Howards Marks grew in Kenfig Hill, Wales, and went to the local school and was bright enough to win a part scholarship to Oxford. During these student years Marks developed a taste for the cannabis life as did many others, and he continued to develop his interest into a larger past time.

Becoming a post-graduate student still at Oxford Howard Marks began his dealings. Built upon the friendships made at home in Wales and at University he had a wide network of friends and family which he involved in his happy dealings.

This book gives a broad history of Howard Marks' life from his point of view. To him the dealing of cannabis (and it was only cannabis no matter what some governments would try to pin on him) should not have been illegal and was not intended to harm anyone.

Perhaps because I grew up in a different time it was difficult to associate such a friendly involvment in the drugs world. But through reading this book you can really feel how much the friendships made and lost mattered far more than the drugs.

It seems to Marks almost a time of wonderment and happiness when the dealings are working and no-body is getting hurt or punish
ed. This view is verging on childlike and is very heartening to read.

However Mr Nice (one of his many aliases) does have to grow up very quickly indeed. A number of failed busts later and the realisation that his family are being directly affected makes him realise that he shouldn't be doing this anymore and he concentrates on his legitmate businesses.

It's only a matter of time though, before he makes another few deals, brought to him by friends, and eventaully he is caught.

His passage through the process of Spanish extradition to the US and his treatment by the US government has been well documented by the press. And whilst the US have portrayed him as the world's worst and biggest drug-dealer he was never anything of the sort. As a result of the US branding of him, Howard Marks has a terrible time, beyond that of most other convicted criminals in the states. This combined with whisperings of connections to the British Secret Service mean that Marks os put in the hardest of US jails.

This book is not bitter, although after what he's been through it would be justified. It's not an anti-drugs statement, but it does not condone the use or supply of hard drugs.

What it is, is a mans journey through a world that not many have ever been to. Howard Marks is clearly a gifted writer, perhaps more so because it is a story which can really connect with the readers through the friendships and relationships of the story.

As auto-biographies go I would have to recomend this one whole-heartedly. It will amuse, amaze, astonish you, and most of all you won't put it down till it's all over.

But above all of this you just cannot dislike Mr. Nice.

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