A one of a kind book. A wild romp through life, this tale is a riotous blend of fact and fiction, told by a sarcastic narrator that describes each adventure with a tongue-in-cheek sneer. This isn't just another book on drugs...it shows the lives of those willing to risk all to score, and often delves into the insane and the comical.During the Seventies, Toronto became the Wild West, and we were drugstore cowboys. Afraid of nothing, searching for something, we experimented with everything, ignoring the lessons of the past because we were the vanguard of a new age, expanding the wisdom of the past with the science of the future. Opening all, we learned about life; what's good, bad, and downright horrid. Every chapter is a rousing story, culminating in an act so outrageous, many just shook their heads...a real eye opener.
The novel that inspired the major motion picture directed by Gus Van Sant Bob Hughes, the offbeat, edgy, and slightly skewed leader of a crew of traveling junkies, describes himself as “one of the cleverest and ringiest and most notorious dope fiend drugstore cowboys on the entire West Coast, including Alaska.” Bob, his wife, Diane, Rick, and Nadine have a penchant for robbing drugstores and grabbing pills and capsules to support their habit and relieve their boredom. It’s an all-too-real examination of the addict’s domain: the euphoria, the paranoia, the busts, the overdoses, the haunting reality of trying to survive your own world. But James Fogle—who based this extraordinary novel on his own experiences, and who spent thirty-five years of his life in prison—has turned their lives into something darkly comic. Set in Portland, Oregon, in the early 1970s, Drugstore Cowboy is a resonating evocation of life at the bottom, and yet, by portraying his characters without judgment or glamor, Fogle has illuminated them. His debut novel is a singular work of contemporary fiction.
In Drugstore Cowboy, Backside Of The Mirror, it's 15 years later in the life of Bob Hughes. Things are very different for Bob. He's sober, off drugs. He goes to his steady job, goes to counseling, plays golf with Det. Gentry, his former nemesis, and lives with his mom. And mom of course is still very much mom, keeping a close watch over him to see that his bed is properly made and socks neatly put away in his dresser. Then his two ex's--woman and partner, Diane and Rick--show up, on the run from the police, she shot in the thigh. Their lives are thrown into a vortex of turmoil that Bob never could have imagined and has little control over.
Although “The Drugstore Cowboy” (published in 1927 and unrelateld to the movie of the same name) has some crime elements, including a stolen car and a high-speed police chase, it is primarily a Jazz Age tale. Filmed, it would have made a terrific screwball comedy in the right director’s hands—imagine young actors Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in the starring roles as you read. If you are a fan of Woolrich's mysteries, this is a worthy addition to his oeuvre, showcases elements he would later bring to the fore as a mystery writer.
A witty, candid, sharply written memoir by the cofounder of Steely Dan In his entertaining debut as an author, Donald Fagen—musician, songwriter, and cofounder of Steely Dan—reveals the cultural figures and currents that shaped his artistic sensibility, as well as offering a look at his college days and a hilarious account of life on the road. Fagen presents the “eminent hipsters” who spoke to him as he was growing up in a bland New Jersey suburb in the early 1960s; his colorful, mind-expanding years at Bard College, where he first met his musical partner Walter Becker; and the agonies and ecstasies of a recent cross-country tour with Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs. Acclaimed for his literate lyrics and complex arrangements as a musician, Fagen here proves himself a sophisticated writer with his own distinctive voice.
Childhood to maturity is a leap often missed, and often relived, again and again. Cut to a reader's timeline, this new version has Zach plodding through disruptive days, and equally disorderly nights, leaving sirens wailing, and narcotic cabinets empty. This tale follows the antics of a successful drugstore cowboy, showing the influences that have an intense effect on anyone, and follows his journey to maturity. Full of action and abnormality, there is humor, despair, insanity, and love; a definite timeline that rises and falls, depending on the circumstances. Ultimately a quest from childhood to a normal-hood, we see a typical suburban upbringing, spontaneously interrupted and jerked violently up and down, his upbringing rattles a lot of acorns off the trees, filling the book quite the cast of nuts. A cast of Falstaffian proportions: from Judges, pyschologists, and police, we meet many characters, all with their own version of crazy-one man's normalacy is another man's insanity. The story challenges what defines reality, and asks who is egotistical enough to claim total understanding, or omnicient enough to impose their opinions on the world. These were the best of times, they were the worst of times; the age of wisdom, the age of sorrow; a time of lightness, a time of darkness. Reality. With adventure and realism, you'll love this book...educational and entertaining, there's always something happening. We were invincible. Untouchable. Outside the law, there was nothing we would not do. Afraid of nothing, searching for something, we experimented with everything and ignored the lessons of the past, for we were the vanguard of a new age, expanding understanding with the science of the future. We sought new frontiers of the mind, smashing boundaries with drugs, new ideas, and artificial bravado. We were legends in our own minds, and a bit delusional - must've been the drugs. Full of life, this satirizes sanity, and each page spoofs the sublime. This narrative covers both sides of the street, and discovers many similarities. Real truth is padded with lies...making it palatable for the average consumer, showing everything is under control (insert loud guffaw).
Valis is the first book in Philip K. Dick's incomparable final trio of novels (the others being are The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer). This disorienting and bleakly funny work is about a schizophrenic hero named Horselover Fat; the hidden mysteries of Gnostic Christianity; and reality as revealed through a pink laser. Valis is a theological detective story, in which God is both a missing person and the perpetrator of the ultimate crime. "The fact that what Dick is entertaining us about is reality and madness, time and death, sin and salvation--this has escaped most critics. Nobody notices that we have our own homegrown Borges, and have had him for thirty years."--Ursula K. Le Guin, New Republic From the Trade Paperback edition.
