Customer Reviews

Dealing, or, The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is one of those rare ones that I've reread many times over the years, for its madcap descriptions that capture a period and place that I was on the edge of -- but close enough to smell the authenticity of the writing. Of course, the plot isn't quite real, but just enough to keep you on the edge. Another thing I like about this is that it's so different from Michael Crichton's later work, very fresh and genuine, yet still wise and slightly self-mocking.

Dealing is a very rare book. Michael Crichton wrote it with his brother Douglas. It is a far cry from any other Crichton novel, seeming to take a sarcastic look at the way things work out. It is a rare and interesting addition to a Crichton fan's collection.

Not only is this a rare find for a Crichton collector but the copy of the book is great! It is a first edition that somehow ended up being a library book at a high school. Crazy!

Back in the 70's, my mother gave me this book for my 16th birthday present. I was pretty sure she had lost her mind. It turned out to be my 2nd favorite book (the first is "The Thirteen Clocks"). Somewhere in the middle of growing up I lost the book. I was afraid I had lost it forever.

My son (now 16 himself) hasn't read this book yet... However, he does know why you need to make sure the end of a poop is tapered. Hmmm, guess you would've had to have read the book to understand that. Gonna buy another copy today.

Love this book. It is NOT Chrichton's usual, that's for sure. It tells more truth about drug culture in the 60's than most scholarly tomes.

What a fun read. So much less pompous than the rest of Michael Crichton stuff with a real feel for the 1960's drug scene.
I find myself quoting a line from the book repeatedly. There is a scene where the main character goes to his friends room and the girlfriend wearing only a robe, crosses her legs giving him a long slow shot. "Nothing offered," the character says, "just letting you know it's all there."

From the cover:

"Take the 'High' road with Peter Harkness as he travels the Berkeley-to-Boston trade route for marijuana. Peter takes the money and comes back with tidy packages of little bricks of dope soakd in Coke (to diguise the smell). There's plenty of action and then plenty of hassle when Peter's lady gets busted for holding forty bricks (or eighty pounds) of marijuana. Suddenly, everything becomes very heavy for a formerly straight college student named Peter Harkness."

Wow! I didn't know Crichton was such a druggie. I wonder what his mother thinks of this. I got ya forty bricks right here, baby. Ya motha was a brick layer in the great city of Boston and then she went out to the west siiiiide to lose her bags o' bricks.

But seriously, it is a good book, and I recommend it to anyone who is lucky enough to find a copy.

"Crichton (Douglas) excels at brick making. This book should come with hot buttered bricks."

New York Times Book Review

I give this seller 5 stars for super fast service, excellent pricing & great shipping.

Michael's first (with his brother) venture into satire. How is your scat dropping? A bit diff than E.R. I'd say. Or Sphere, or 5 patients, or ??