Customer Reviews

Weed Man: The Remarkable Journey of Jimmy Divine

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

 

 

I have been waiting for this book to be published for so long now, it was such a treat to finally get it in my hands. McCaslin does such a great job of telling Jimmy's story, mostly (it seems) using Jimmy's own words. The picture McCaslin paints of Jimmy's childhood is masterful, such that you can't help but laugh as you read of him having to endure Olive's punishments.
I have thought Jimmy was a great character from when I first met him on Briland. Reading this, you can't help but admire the man even more.

Taking a break from his Inside The Beltway column, Mc Caslin spins an entertaining tale of a highly unlikely - yet highly likable - marijuana smuggler from the Bahamas. Peppered with historical and geo-political tidbits (which should raise some eyebrows in DC) Weed Man tells Jimmy Divine's story in such a way that I felt I'd just had a conversation with the man, himself. Throughout his many precarious escapades in the island waters, and considering his generous spirit, you actually end up rooting for the guy to escape justice. A true character!

From the first page till the end you find yourself laughing and interested in finding what will happen next in this hilarous, yet real life of Jimmy Divine. You won't want to put it down and you won't. In true McCaslin story telling fasion he writes yet another great and fasinating short novel. Highly recommend it. I loved it.

John McCauslin gives us the tale of Jimmy Divine, a man who stumbles into the marijuana trade totally by accident back before there was a strong intervention ability by the various governments involved.

During the period of the early 1970's, as now, there was a big black market for good grades of 'smoking dope' in the USA, and plenty of adventurers trying to fill that need. One of the best at his trade was teetotaler Jimmy Divine. The book reads almost like a novel in certain areas since McCauslin had to create fictitious names and jobs for so many of the books main characters. The author goes out of his way to cover their tracks, and because of this the book loses a certain amount of authenticity.

But it remains a good and easy read, a yarn about a fisherman, a seafaring sailor, who found his niche in life and helped many poor, struggling island people with large envelopes full of hundred dollar bills. His close calls with growing government interdiction forces keep your interest level high and the pages turning.

(This review is of the Kindle edition)

If you 've ever sat on a barstool and heard a story you'll never forget, here's an even better one. With a storyteller's timing and eye for comic detail, John McCaslin spins up the story as he must have heard it -outrageous, funny, scary and street-smart. It winds around and back again, gradually exposing the main character - a virtuous white Bahamian, committed to his family and community, caught up in the pot trade at a time when the world moved a step slower - until it catches up to him.

Raises many issues so in the news today - border control, drug smuggling, immigration. Great book for armchair adventurers - it reads fast and funny. It captures the spirit of the islands past and present and somehow pinpoints changes in our culture and collective consciousness through Jimmy Divine's smuggling experiences. In recounting the tale, he flips up a rearview mirror for us so that we can know an honorable man in a sometimes dishonorable trade, and see ourselves in him.

As a libertarian minded person I found the book to be well written and fair. Its so nice to see a book that is funny as well as serious, about a sensitive topic like marijuana, and all the myths about the drug. Of interest to me was how Jimmy Moree also called Jimmy Divine, got into smuggling marijuana when he came upon some marijuana that had washed ashore on a Caribbean island where he lives.

The story begins in the 1970's and covers his lifestyle and the sensitive issue of the role race plays in drug issues. Have to admit I did a double take when I saw the book was published by a well known Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson Publishers. But then I reminded myself the author also wrote for the conservative Washington Times. The fact the book is so well written and non judgmental is simply refreshing!!

In the end I was reminded that even William F. Buckley believed in decriminalizing marijuana. We know prohibition, didn't work. And this book shows why having marijuana as an illegal drug, is wasting government tax dollars, that if the product was taxed would bring in more tax dollars.

This is a very entertaining story. It is well written and fast paced. Unfortunately I was left with a feeling that the story was fiction. I don't know what it is exactly that makes me feel that way. Perhaps it is the missing small details that are found in most books of this genre. Or possibly the outrageous antics of the main character Jimmy Devine who shoots up a Colombian drug lord`s nephew without being gunned down himself, is lost in 30 foot seas during a hurricane at night and is rescued and who barely escapes a dog bust with 1200 pounds of pot on board his small fishing boat. It all reads beyond reality but who knows it could be true. Anyone else feel like me on this-

Based on a true story, this book is very funny and shows a different prospective on life and survival in an illegal trade. It was hard to put down!!

I knew the book would be good when the acknowledgements stated that the some of the names had been changed to protect the guilty.

The benchmark book against which all other drug books are measured is "In Search of Captain Zero." This book is a close second. This book is so entertaining, I couldn't put it down. Although it is supposed to be true, I have a hard time believing Jimmy Devine could stumble across 40 bales of primo weed, keep it and sell it, and no one got killed over it. But then that was the 70's. My how times have changed. It certainly changed Jimmy's life and his future livelihood, emphasis on the lively.

The stories of him growing up poor and white in primarily black Bahamas were hysterical, especially when the black preachers Brother Franks and Brother Bell were involved. Where were these guys when I had to go to church?

If there were a reason not to legalize marijuana, it would be that none of these books would have been written.

Good reading ... and for those who are wondering whether or not the story's factual, I knew the Chief personally as well as a few of the other "characters" in the book.