Customer Reviews

Dope

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I liked this book more than I had anticipated. Sara Gran is an author I had not heard of but one that I can appreciate. Josephine is a strong leading character in that her addiction, her desire for more junk after two years of "clean living," as well as the toxic relationships with acquaintances from the underground of the dope world ring true and are believable. However, the descriptions of her shoplifting sprees and her relationship with her model sister seem undeveloped. These are key to Josephine's character and to the plot; and I believe that Gran could have "connected the dots" to create an intertwining of the chords of the characters and the impact of the events of their lives that are essential to their growth and as well as to their demise. We are, after all, either shaped by our experiences or our left to our own misshapen selves always moving toward the center of darkness or in light. The novel is realistic in reflecting such an idea.

I found the plot to be entertaining and her characters, especially the Hell's Kitchen crowd, were strong. However, the ending was a disappointment and the foundation for the wrap up was in no way sufficient enough to support the strengths of other parts of the book.

I would read the book again and I would recommend it to a friend because of its images of the palatable pain that the characters exude in their addiction and the ensuing fractured existence.

It is engaging and, especially for a new author, ambitious and raw. However, my recommendation would come with the warning not to lean on the ending and not to expect everything to be connected by a cohesive unending thread.

After reading Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead--a smart, alternative noir mystery--I was left craving for more. Dope, an earlier novel with some of the same gritty vibe, is set in the petty thieving underworld of 1950's New York, a place that in no way resembles anything from Happy Days. Josephine, a former addict, straight for two years, is just getting by picking pockets and shoplifting jewelry when she is paid a colossal pile of cash by a distraught couple who wants her to locate their drug addicted, college drop-out daughter. Using all her former drug connections and street smarts, Josephine is closing in when she discovers she has been betrayed by someone who must know her well, but who? Dope winds around, filled with twists and reversals, right down to its startling culmination.

Only if you have not recently read Hammett, Chandler and co could you be satisfied with this unpersuasive rehash of the American post-war 'noir' thriller. Gran may love the sassy language of this period, and find echoes of its dark wit, but she brings nothing sufficiently new to the genre to make this exercise worthwhile. Many classic genre novels were actually quite ropy in the plot department, but Gran seems to think this an excuse to follow suit, and hers is thin to a degree that most contempory crime writers would find unacceptable. Being a contemporary novel there is more drugs and more in-your-face nastiness than in noir novels of the past; but all that kind of thing is handled with far more panache and impact by James Ellroy ('LA Confidential', 'The Black Dahlia', 'The Big Nowhere' etc.).
I enjoyed Gran's last short novel, 'Come Closer', although that too suffered from a lack of story development, hence its extreme brevity. But this is a step in the wrong direction.

In 1950 in Manhattan, Josephine Flannigan has stayed off the drugs for about two years while working at Tiffany's where she pilfers jewelry to sell, supplementing her income. She meets Nathaniel and Maybelline Wilson of Westchester County in the law offices of Jackson, Smith & Alexander. Nathaniel tells her that Nick "the Greek" suggested she could help them find their nineteen years old daughter Nadine, a Bernard drop-out hooked on drugs, who vanished three months ago in the city with a boyfriend Jerry McFall. They provide her with a retainer of $1000 and another $1000 if successful.

Though she has never done anything like this and has no idea which Nick the Greek recommended her as that is a common street name, she accepts the case. Joe begins searching the mean streets of hell's Kitchens seeking out the pimps on the assumption that would be the only way Nadine could pay for her habit as he knows form first hand experience. However, danger lurks on every corner and with every stranger as well as the threat of returning to the environs where she first embraced drugs.

Set just after World War II, DOPE is a gritty look at the underside of Manhattan where the drop-outs from the Blackboard Jungle die easily with no one to grieve them. The story line pulls no punches with its in your guts glimpse of the mean streets where drugs and prostitution are king and queen while the euphoria of victory in Europe and the Pacific is someone else's celebration. Joe is a fabulous heroine who knows the peril that walks everywhere she goes in search of the Westchester runaway as pimps and sellers do not want anyone interfering with their assets.

Harriet Klausner

Sara Gran's sophomore novel is billed as Chandleresque detective noir. She certainly has the setting correct--flophouses and the streets of 1950's New York. She employs a cast of addicts, pick pockets, hookers, up-and-coming actresses, and pimps in her detective story. Unfortunately, the novel completely lacks a plot or plausible mystery. It's centered around reformed heroin addict named Josephine ("Joe") who is employed by a missing girl's parents to track her through the underbelly of the city.

The novel consists entirely of Joe traipsing through the city, talking tough and being in the know. Towards the end, Gran throws in a series of "twists" that serve more as monkey wrenches in a plodding story that as compelling plot devices.

If you want noir, stick to the tried and true classics. Gran's novel is barely mediocre, and certainly not worthy of comparison to any of the great detective authors.

The year is 1950. The place is New York City long before the reign of Mayor Giuliani: seedy, dangerous, crime-ridden and corrupt. Josephine Flannigan knows this world inside and out; its drug dealers, junkies, exotic dancers and prostitutes are all well known to her, from the years she spent as a heroin addict herself.

These days, though, Joe has cleaned up --- everyone she meets tells her she looks "so great" now that she's not shooting up. Even though she still does the occasional small-time crime, she's in a safe place, off the junk and on the right track. Even so, money is tight, and the occasional odd job (or afternoon of pickpocketing) isn't so profitable.

So when Joe gets hooked up with the Nelsons, a suburban couple whose eighteen-year-old daughter Nadine, a student at Barnard College, has abruptly disappeared after getting involved with drugs, she is stunned by the amount of money they offer her: $1,000 up front and another $1,000 when she finishes the job. The Nelsons figure that Joe has all the connections to find her daughter and the mysterious, violent young man with whom she was last seen.

Josephine embarks on an odyssey through New York's underworld. She reconnects with many of her old friends (and enemies) and must constantly resist the temptation to return to her old addiction. More than once, as she hits a dead end, Joe wonders why she's even bothering to search for a girl who had every advantage and just managed to screw up her life: "She wanted her walk on the wild side and now she was getting it. So let her see what The Life was like. Let her lose her looks from getting hit in the face too many times. Let her lose a few teeth and all of her pride and all her charm school manners. Her college education wouldn't do her any good out here." Before long, though, Joe starts to care about the absent girl in spite of herself, and she continues her quest even when it looks like she might be getting played herself.

With DOPE, Sara Gran (whose previous books include a horror novel) experiments with the noir genre. Josephine, with her combination of frankness and vulnerability, brings a unique voice to the story, even if her narrative occasionally seems a little too polished to be the product of a reformed junkie with a ninth-grade education. Nevertheless, Josephine is a more than competent tour guide to a New York City that no longer exists, populated with colorful characters, tragic stories and dark secrets. Fans of Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy will relish DOPE's gritty period details and vintage atmosphere.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Todd Haynes is turning this short novel into a film (with Julianne Moore, I believe, as the lead). It's a quick read, taking us back to an Raymond Chandler era. The story-telling is smart and intelligent. Be prepared for some twists and turns in this wonderfully-told tale of Josephine, struggling with a past of substance abuse and trying to make her way in the world without ending up back in her old shoes. I read it a few years ago, but re-read it recently, imagining it's filmic qualities.

I picked this book up on a whim. I'm not even a big mystery buff, but I like that Raymond Chandler thing once in a while and from the opening line Gran's narrative voice caught me up and did not let me down. The hardboiled tone never feels fake or simply derivative, but always quite natural. More importantly, this is a book whose main character is very believable and despite a very checkered past, deeply honorable. Your heart goes out to her in a way that it never would for, say, a Sam Spade. Josephine Flannigan is a superb novelistic creation, and I do hope Gran can find a way to bring her back for more.

One of my favorite contemporary noir books. Just great sleazy fun with a tough female protagonist. Fast and compelling read.

This was a fine novel, and noir in the truest sense of the word. I can't believe that a contemporary author caught the idiom so well! This is the story of Josephine (Joe) Flannigan. The year is 1950, and Josephine is in the second year of being clean from drugs. She is contacted by a man and woman about finding their daughter. She had been recommended to them because she knew the streets. Word is that their daughter had gotten mixed up with dope and prostitution. The story follows Josephine as she searches for the illusive Nadine.

While the story itself is interesting, the true beauty of this novel is the local color -- the sense of hopelessness in a community of losers: drug addicts, taxi dancers, street girls. I haven't read anything so engrossing on the subject since I read William Bourroughs's book Junkie.

This is an excellent book and should be widely read in the mystery genre. My only regret is that the end seems to indicate (and I am not going to spoil it here) that Joe won't be doing any more detecting. I could have happily read a dozen stories about her.