5/5 ( )

A few days later, I pointed to a chocolate bar in the rack next to the checkout at the supermarket. "I really want that," I said sagely, "and that must be how Daddy feels when he wants drugs." But of course this was not how Daddy felt.

To get an idea of what Daddy felt, I would have needed to smuggle that grocery-store chocolate into my first-grade classroom, stash it in my desk, sell it on the sly, and use the proceeds to consume a big bag of Doritos every day on the calendar. Eventually I would need to promise myself that I will stop such behavior, and then do it all again with two boxes of chocolate bars, two bags of Doritos.

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An interesting biography, it was well written and compelling. The author dipped into meloncholy a little now and then, and I found the story jumped back and forth through time a little too much for my taste. ( )

This is a good, but not great book. The part that stuck with me was the flip side of the con. The movies, TV and media would have you believe in the glam and glitz of the smuggler. However the people at the heart of the business are not the happy go lucky Robin Hood types who are righteous in their aims to sell a harmless plant and advance the consciousness of the world. The reality of the situation is much different. This book is mostly a memoir about a boy and his father and the boy's search for an understanding about why his father caused such destruction in his life. The book holds your attention and is well written. ( )

This memoir of “a father, his son, and the golden age of marijuana” promised to be interesting, and it was to an extent. I was completely unaware of Tony Dokoupil, the big-time dope dealer, until I heard of this book. Apparently, lots of stoners were eventually recipients of their share of the tons of weed this dealer was responsible for getting to the country.

To me, the family dynamics of the book was the most interesting part. Multiple generations of abusive fathers raising sons who in turn became abusive, until the author made a conscious decision to break the chain.

Many of the dealers lived by a romanticized “pirate code,” and some ultimately broke that code. The dealer who felt above the fray because he dealt in pot rather than the harder drugs could not resist those harder drugs. He set himself up perfectly for self-destruction. Did he ultimately self-destruct? I'm not telling, but the book will.

The author did tend to over-romanticize much of the story. Sure, parts of it were gritty, but the whole noble undertaking slant got a little old. Some of the writing dragged a bit, and there were a few too many similes, but some of the writing made me smile.

“It helped that he was good-looking, too, with a wide, eager face like a Labrador. In the months to come, she'd realize he also had a Lab's tendency to run off and return sparkly eyes and dirty, radiating love-me-anyway charm.”

About a family member, he writes,

“Once you point a gun at your family, you can lower the barrel, wrap the weapon in blankets, and throw it in the swamp, but you can never get rid of it. The gun is pointed forever.”

The story is interesting, the book is good but not great, and I am glad that I read it, just wish it had managed to be a little less wordy in its telling.

I was given an advance copy for review. The quotes may have changed in the published edition. ( )