Mr Nasty

Mr Nasty
Cameron White
(HarperCollins)

"Let me tell you what a good deal is. You enter into an arrangement whereby you fuck over everybody concerned and screw the last dollar out of the situation." These words could well have been Cameron White's mission statement over the tenure of his drug dealing days. Actually, they were the words of a colleague at the talent agency he worked for in Los Angeles. Somehow White managed to maintain a veneer of respectability throughout his primary career.

Born into poverty in East London, White resolved at a young age to do what it took to get out. These ambitions led to ten years using and dealing whatever recreational drugs were available. His trail of narcotic (and personal) devastation took him from London to New York, LA, Bangkok, Berlin, and finally Sydney.

Often White's motivation for moving on was that he would likely be the victim of ‘ultra violence’ if he stuck around. The reference to A Clockwork Orange is not coincidental, as White and his cronies are a close fit with the brutal Droogs of Anthony Burgess' fictional book. But of course, Mr Nasty documents social realities of the late 1980s and 1990s.

Part biography, part first person account of the international drug trade, Mr Nasty takes the reader on a wired journey through London clubland, the streets of Alphabet City, Hollywood mansions, and drug flooded Sydney. There are insights into the histories of such drugs as ecstasy and cocaine, casual descriptions of gangland justice, and ridiculous hedonism.

White's London wise guy matter-of-factness is the most compelling trait of this book. The authenticity of his experience is aided by frequent admissions of his own fallibility. The rhythm of the book is marked, like a drug user’s life, by highs and lows. As a dealer, White views himself as a kingpin at one juncture, and as a pathetic loser at the bottom of the chain the next. He discovers time and again that no matter how high he climbs, there's always smarter – and nastier -people above him. And chronic sampling of the product doesn't terribly help his cause.

For all that, Mr Nasty also acts as a thesis into how hard drugs have been so casually assimilated into a broad cross section of society. And if there are more with White's rat cunning out there, you can bet they're screwing the last dollar out of the situation.

Gavin Bertram.