Budding Prospects [Paperback]

T Coraghessan Boyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 1998

Felix is a quitter, with a poor track record behind him. Until the day the opportunity presents itself to make half a million dollars tax-free - by nurturing 390 acres of cannabis in the lonely hills of northern California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Granta Books (February 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1862071527
• ISBN-13: 978-1862071520
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,767,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

T. C. Boyle is the author of eleven novels, including World's End (winner of the PEN/FaulknerAward), Drop City (a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the National Book Award), and The Inner Circle. His most recent story collections are Tooth and Claw and The Human Fly and Other Stories.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boyle at his budding best, March 12, 2005

By 

Steven B. (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Budding Prospects: A Pastoral (Contemporary American Fiction) (Paperback)

"Budding Prospects" is T. Coraghessan Boyle's first novel, published in 1984. It tells the story of Felix, a 31-year-old directionless self-proclaimed quitter who joins up with a handful of ne'er-do-wells to grow marajuana in a "Little Appalachia" in California's Mendicino County. The get-rich-quick scheme soon goes awry. Felix finds himself at odds with a sadistic rural sherrif. The man who bankrolled the operation, a shady smooth-talking Marin County huckster, is not the man Felix thought he was. His hillbilly neighbors all seem to know what he's really up to on the isolated farm. Felix and his farmhand friends live in a permanent state of paranoia and fear.

I came to this book after reading Boyle's "Drop City," a comic masterpiece. I wanted to read more Boyle so I took up "Budding Prospects." I greatly enjoyed it. I was surprised to discover that "Prospects," although it is Boyle's first novel, mines the same themes as his later novels: the vast indifference and occasional ruthlessness of nature, the pleasures and occasional terror of altered states of consciousness, the insolence of office and the proud man's contumely. In common with his other novels, there is a strong beautiful woman in this one -- Petra, who comes to the rescue of the hapless Felix.

I lived in Northern California and the Bay Area for many years, and I can attest to how spot-on the characters and landscape descriptions are. The dingy cafe in Willits where some of the action takes place is sickeningly realistic. I hope that Boyle will revisit Vogelsang in another novel or a short story. ("Vogelsang lived in splendid isolation in the hills above Bolinas, making money nefariously, practicing various perversions, collecting powertools, wood carvings, barbers' poles and cases of dry wine from esoteric little vineyards like Goat's Crouch and Sangre de Cristo.") The rich Marin County huckster was just perfect. And, a little grayer, I'm sure he's still living near Bolinas, waiting for Boyle to revive him.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can Get You High, June 28, 2000

By 

Slava Shayman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Budding Prospects: A Pastoral (Contemporary American Fiction) (Paperback)

Neither a waste of money nor time, Boyle's "Budding Prospects" is entertaining, funny from cover to cover and to a certain extent touching. At the core of the novel one finds a story of three bums growing marijuana in Northern California for $ a 500,000 profit. The problems and obstacles which the trio faces during their nine-month stay in Willits, CA are hillarious and realistic. Boyle's creativity and feel for the simple man's thoughts are to be praised.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The funniest book I ever read, August 30, 2005

By 

Ari L. Vainio "arivainio" (Newton, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Budding Prospects: A Pastoral (Contemporary American Fiction) (Paperback)

From the first sentence I was hooked. It was the first time in a long long time that I almost pissed myself laughing simply by reading a book. As soon as I finished, I went to the bookstore to buy up all his other books, and man, I was not disappointed. In my opinion, TC Boyle is the finest living writer, and one of the best ever. Most of the reviews I've read on his work focuses on the story and the characters, the loony, the obcessed, the psychotic - but they're missing the point. The writing is simply the finest construction of genius that you'll ever have the good fortune to witness. How does he do it? I don't know and frankly I don't care. I'm just happy to absorb.