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Baked: A Novel [Paperback]

Mark Haskell Smith
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 3, 2010
Miro Basinas is an experimental botanist who sells his rarefied product to a discerning clientele. Only Miro’s not growing heirloom tomatoes or making organic wine—he’s growing weed. And when Miro hits the big time by winning Amsterdam’s famed Cannabis Cup, cannasseurs and ganjaficionados aren’t the only people who want a piece of him and his mind-blowing pot that tastes like mangoes.

A wickedly funny crime novel, Baked opens with a bang as Miro is cut down by a bullet. A mild-mannered hipster who doesn’t know the first thing about revenge—or even who shot him—Miro is soon on a quest to recover his prize invention and to secure his place as the Floyd Zaiger (creator of the pluot) of weed. It’s a journey packed with a delicious cast of characters, including a string-theory obsessed cop, a kinky paramedic, a Mormon missionary struggling to keep his “sap” under control in a city that is the personification of sex, a half-Irish-half-Salvadoran drug dealer and his dim-witted associates, a cougar starlet, and an entrepreneur who wants to turn his medical marijuana Compassion Centers into the Starbucks of pot. Baked is a hilarious, rip-roaring romp from a talented, utterly original novelist.

Frequently Bought Together

Baked: A Novel + Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup
Price for both: $23.10

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Smith (Moist) misfires with this attempt at a darkly humorous crime novel, which opens with the shooting of botanist Miro Basinas in Los Angeles. A month earlier, Basinas traveled to Amsterdam to enter the Cannabis Cup, a major international cannabis competition, which his strain, Elephant Crush, ends up winning. His valuable commodity attracts predators, and while recovering in the hospital from his bullet wound, he learns someone has stolen the seed supply of his brand. Various improbable characters enter the action, notably Shamus Noriega, a half-Salvadoran, half-Irish gangster, who provides weed to medical marijuana centers, and Mormon elder Daniel Lamb, who struggles with his sexual urges and winds up abandoning his church to work at a taco truck ("people didn't need dogma, religion, or special underwear; people needed a good burrito"). Potheads will have fun, but others may find Basinas's quest for revenge less than compelling.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

L.A. botanist Miro Basinas prides himself on the quality of his latest batch of homegrown marijuana, Elephant Crush, a wickedly strong pot that tastes like mangoes. When he wins the prized Cannabis Cup competition in Amsterdam, he feels like he has finally hit the big time and is on his way to breaking into the top echelon of cannabis breeders, able to sell his seeds to growers everywhere. His cerebral approach to farming in no way prepares him for the warfare heading his way when the greedy owner of a chain of medical marijuana dispensaries decides to steal Miro's plants and take him out. The cast of outré characters in Smith's latest outrageous blend of gross-out comedy and grotesque violence includes a paramedic with a taste for kinky sex, a young Mormon missionary struggling with his impure thoughts and his sacred underpants, and a vicious gangbanger and his moronic “helpers.” Although the plots of Smith's novels (including Moist, 2007) often read like the work of someone who is entirely baked, connoisseurs of absurdist humor will find him working at the top of his game here. --Joanne Wilkinson

Product Details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat; First Edition edition (August 3, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0802170765
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802170767
  • Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,041,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Haskell Smith is the author of four novels, Moist, Delicious, Salty, and Baked, and the non-fiction book Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup.

His books have been published in France, Italy, England, Canada, Norway, and Russia.

A contributor to the Los Angeles Times and a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Review of Books, Smith is an assistant professor in the MFA program for Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Riverside, Palm Desert Graduate Center.

He lives in Los Angeles. He likes Mexican Food.

Visit me at www.markhaskellsmith.com or www.heartofdankness.tumblr.com

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
(14)
4.9 out of 5 stars
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1 star
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Great characters,fast moving he really captures L.A. interesting subplots. Richard Barrieau  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Smith's style is fabulous. Christopher Meeks  |  3 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A fun comedy with so many layers September 10, 2010
Format:Paperback
There were so many times I laughed out loud reading this at a cafe, people came up to me to find out what I was reading.

When I heard the book had to do with the Cannabus Cup in Amsterdam, medical pot growers in Los Angeles and Mormons, I couldn't wait to see if Haskell Smith could pull it off....and he pulls it off with perfection.

I don't want to give too much away because there are so many gems in the characters, and actually the similarity of spirituality between religion and growing pot.

I've read every book by Haskell Smith, all of them funny, but he definitely has topped himself with this one. It's one of those novels where I have to write notes in the margins and underline standout sentences. It also reads with a swiftness that feels like a great six hour film.

It's a refreshing fun read in a literary world that sometimes takes itself too seriously.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Baked" has got to be Mark's best work yet. It is completely wild and funny and at the same time the writing is very tight and clean. He has incredible characters in unimaginable circumstances and he pulls it all off like it is completely natural. A lesser writer might try to use Mark's type of material to flash and awe the reader, distract them from the actual writing. Mark doesn't do that, though. The insane aspects are fully integrated with all the necessary components of a good story. They contribute to the whole rather than distract or prop up. Mark really roars on all cylinders in this book. Anyone who doesn't read it is seriously missing out.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars ECHOES OF CARL HIASSEN August 2, 2010
By Mikey D
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you love Carl Hiassen, then you will love this book. It is hilarious, well written, and impossible to put down. Smith uses humor and the ridiculous to make statements and deliver societal messages. This book is highly entertaining, but not slapstick stupid because of the author's prose and his ability to tell a story. The characters are also vivid people from all walks of life who are most interesting. Highly enjoyable, you will not be disappointed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars HaHa! Great!
Laugh out loud funny, especially because it deals with marijuana! This author has awesome stories with even better characters and his sense of humor shines throughout!
Published 3 months ago by MTB Ninja
5.0 out of 5 stars its hard to be humorius but not for Smith
lots of things could be said about this book.Great characters,fast moving he really captures L.A. interesting subplots. I read it in 2 days.Smith really made me a fan!
Published 17 months ago by Richard Barrieau
5.0 out of 5 stars I definitely inhaled
Miro - a mild mannered botanist type - has invented a new strain of cannabis which he has named Elephant Crush. Read more
Published on March 18, 2011 by D. Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Smith Home Run
He is my favorite writer for this genre. Any book that has me laughing out loud is a fine piece of literature in my view... and "Baked" certainly does do that! Read more
Published on January 30, 2011 by perlee123
5.0 out of 5 stars A Deft Marriage of Mystery, Romance, and Marijuana
I'm new to Kindle, so when I got it just over a week ago, I was ready to buy buy buy. When I saw the "get a sample" button, I decided to get many samples instead. Read more
Published on October 18, 2010 by Christopher Meeks
4.0 out of 5 stars Elephant Crush
Not quite in the same masterpiece league of Haskell Smith's first novel Moist, but it's still a fun read. Read more
Published on October 18, 2010 by James N Simpson
5.0 out of 5 stars Read 'em all...Love this one !
All Mark Haskell Smith's books are entertaining, but this one tops them all.
It's so socially relevant......and I loved Miro, the gardener.
Published on September 11, 2010 by sailor B
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
This book is fantastic. Mark Haskell Smith just keeps getting better and better with each book he writes.
Published on September 2, 2010 by Jrock
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story Well Told
This novel is a blend of Carl Hiasson and vintage Tom Robbins. The protagonist is appealing and the author balances a vivid cast of characters with real skill. Read more
Published on August 30, 2010 by Robert C. Berring
5.0 out of 5 stars Expect to read it in one sitting
I loved this book. The only disappointment was coming to the end, and maybe losing sleep when I couldn't put it down. Read more
Published on August 19, 2010 by Tiffany Hawk
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