Joseph Mattson

Yes! Okay, so this is the meth book that I was looking for. THIS is Breaking Bad. Okay, well, no, not really. But the energy, humor, and OTT plotlines (AKA parts I found most interesting in Breaking Bad) are here, and not the usual pervasive mopeyness and scoldings I have found in other books about drugs, like drug memoirs and drug journalism. BORING! The stories were all pretty good to excellent, too, except for one story, by that... uh... that actor guy who does pretentious "art" stunts for the lulz? except no one thinks they are really funny; the art seems more like in-jokes between him and his best friend, himself. OMG, John Franco. JAMES Franco. It was terrible. It was literally the worst short story in a collection I have ever read. It was about Twilight. Like, he watched the movie and then wrote exactly what he saw in the screen. And that is somehow like speed or meth or something. You know what, he was probably on speed or meth or something when he did that; it sounds like something he would do. ugh. I'm tired of that kind of gimmickry; like, instead of actually taking risks and putting themselves "out there" all I see is a wall of clever protecting the author/artist from criticism. Not just the "good/bad" kind, the "deep reading" kind too. Ugh.

He's cute though.

Tao Lin's story was a little bit of that, too. Boring story about young hip New Yorkers when taking adderall and other drugs = young hip New Yorkers when taking adderall and other drugs are boring. Wow! Real groundbreaking (sarcasm font).

The best story was Sherman Alexie's. He wrote about the rez (duh) and family/community (duh) and drugs (duh) and created just about the only piece in this collection that escaped the emotional/narrative confines of writing a story about drugs. Do not fear cliches and tropes, writers! Use them well and you can communicate better (which is the point, you guys). I also liked the story about Dr. Feelgood. Other stories were doing the uh... William Burroughs or Bret Easton Ellis thing, which was pretty decent most of the time if a bit like... okay, that again (i guess that is what you do when do write drug stories).

And now I want to watch Breaking Bad again.… (más)