> Ce court récit, signé par un pionnier de la critique rock, auteur d'un livre très remarqué sur Jerry Lee Lewis (Hellfire, 1982), laisse le lecteur perplexe. élange d'étrangeté et d'hyperréalisme. « Je suis né pour fumer de l'opium. » Avec fermeté et récurrence, la « céleste drogue » l'emporte sur les « joies terrestres et grossières de l'alcool ». On perçoit une nostalgie obsessionnelle, qui déplore le déclin de cette « panacée sacrée » depuis presque 2 000 ans, alors que le « secret de la Grande Fumée » était déjà connu à l'âge du bronze. Traduit de l'anglais par Jean-Marc Mandosio, éd. Allia, 78 p., 40 F [6,09 ].)
—(Nathalie Belkacem, Le Monde)

> « Lorsque Dieu approcha Sa bouche des narines d'Adam, il y avait probablement de l'opium dans Son souffle. » Quand ils parlent de leur drogue favorite, les écrivains ne connaissent pas de retenue. Qu'il s'agisse de Thomas De Quincey, de Jean Cocteau ou, ici, de Nick Tosches...
 « Lorsque Dieu approcha Sa bouche des narines d'Adam, il y avait probablement de l'opium dans Son souffle. » Quand ils parlent de leur drogue favorite, les écrivains ne connaissent pas de retenue. Qu'il s'agisse de Thomas De Quincey, de Jean Cocteau ou, ici, de Nick Tosches, qui précise: « Je suis contre les drogues, elles tuent. Et pourtant je suis né pour fumer de l'opium. » Avec pas mal d'humour, le critique rock et romancier italo-américain nous invite à partager son parcours du combattant aux quatre coins de la planète pour tenter de renouer avec les rites et les délices quasi disparus de la «plante de joie». Un road-movie surprenant, aux frontières des paradis artificiels, doublé d'un bon reportage sur l'usage de l'opium à travers les siècles.
—(Olivier Le Naire, L'Express)

I've read several of Nick Tosches' longish pieces in various magazine. He is a very good writer. There are passages in this book that are incredibly lyrical. His descriptions of his opiated high are often fabulous.

And yet, the book is just too short. We barely scratch the surface of what is actually a very deep subject. Tosches skirted around the edges of his subject, but didn't really take the time to engage with it.

I would've much preferred it if he had interspersed his personal vignettes with a more in depth cultural history of opium.

This book is what some would call a non-book, i.e., it is an article in book form.

I will keep reading Nick Tosches pieces--because he really is quite a good writer--but won't be recommending this one to friends.

( )

I loved this book! This short little essay was phenomenal! Nick Tosches wondered what happened to the opium trade and opium debts so he went off to Asia in search for any remaining traces of it. There was literally none, none to be found in the United States so Nick decided to try his luck elsewhere. His life goal was to try opium, and not just to try it, but smoke it, in an opium den with brocade hangings and buxom women. He soon discovers that he may have dreamed a little too big because opium is mainly used for heroin, and the smokers of old are slowly dying off.

This 74 page book is amazingly informative, funny, and intriguing. I definitely plan on reading more books from Mr. Tosches. ( )

A decision to search for what one longs to find. Experience an oddity, this book, which stands by itself as unique. Long distant travels reveal a world unknown to most of us.
This educated author spares no words of seldom usages and intrigues us with his wondering wanderings. Make this search and you’ll be glad you also found The Last Opium Den. Franque ( )

This is one of four newish books I recently read mostly so I could finally get them off my queue list, all of which were actually pretty good but are mere wisps of manuscripts, none of them over 150 pages or so in length. And indeed, Nick Tosches' The Last Opium Den was first published as a simple magazine article in Vanity Fair -- it was the edgy and controversial author's attempt at the turn of the millennium to see if there were any honest-to-God opium dens left on this planet, done up right with the seedy beds and the dressed-up Asian women holding giant long pipes and the whole bit, maybe out in the middle of the jungle in Cambodia or wherever. Of course, this being Tosches, the slim story is actually about a lot more than that as well; it's about the cannibalization of global culture, the proliferation of squeaky-clean Euro/Americans into every corner of the world, and incidentally why heroin was created in the first place, as basically a portable form of self-administered opium that precisely didn't need an entire seedy den full of soiled mattresses and dressed-up Asian girls holding giant long pipes. It's only an hour or two of reading, but it's a dense and enjoyable read, something to borrow from a friend or pick up at the library. ( )