White Lines: Writers on Cocaine [Paperback]

Geno Zanetti (Editor), Stephen Hyde (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 18, 2002

Blow, candy, Charlie, coke, go, ice, rock, snow, crack. Whatever you call it, thrill seekers have surrendered to cocaine's siren call, paid their toll, and sold their souls. Its embrace can be deadly, a place of no return, the ultimate rush, public enemy number one. From the gutter to the penthouse, inner city to outer burb, from the Third World coca farmer to the executive addict, coke is the lifeblood of a global black economy and an outlaw underground. Coke has also been dark muse, torment, and theme to many of our greatest writers. White Lines gathers these literary thrill seekers in a classic and contemporary snort through the fog- and fear-filled streets of Victorian London to the dance macabre of the post-Vietnam culture of the 1970s, from the couch of Dr. Freud and the bacchanal of Mr. Magus, Aleister Crowley, to the narcotic thrill of fin de siecle casino capitalism, White Lines takes you into illicit and artificial worlds, near wild heavens and then deep, down underground. Selections from writers like Irvine Welsh, Bret Easton Ellis, William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Kim Wozencraft, Terry Southern, Sigmund Freud, Arthur Conan Doyle, Peter Biskind, and Julia Phillips are featured.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's choppy, intense and stings just a bit." -- Playboy, November 2002

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (December 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560253789
• ISBN-13: 978-1560253785
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,483,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential accessory to these dark times, April 6, 2003

By 

Martin Prague (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Lines: Writers on Cocaine (Paperback)

The Playboy review was on the money: "Choppy, intense and stings just a bit." I like Zanetti's collections -- they are always supercool and down and dirty, but with a strong literary flavor. This book charts an incredible journey from when coke was perceived to be a 19th century cure all (see Freud) to the dark nose candy it is today. The book covers most bases -- COlumbia, Hollywood, NY in the 80s, crack, Miles Davis --but there's some surprises too: the piece was spooky old Aleister Crowley is new to me and the selections from RObert Louis Stevenson, Conan Doyle and Steve Earle are imaginative. And there are some gold standards from Stephen King, Terry Southern, Burroughs, and Ballard.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sell your children (if need be) to buy this book., December 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: White Lines: Writers on Cocaine (Paperback)

I was lucky enough to find this book on the shelf of a local book store, where I was drawn to it like a comet pulled by the gravity of a planet. I had no idea what the book was about; even upon reading it over again now, I get new meaning from it. White Lines contains biography, story and prose-like writing regarding cocaine. Magnificently it captures the complex facets of the drug from medicinal to maniacle. Aleister Crowley contributes an astounding piece capturing the euphoric richness of the drug. Stephen King and Miles Davis conclusively illustrate the doom imminent cocaine. The book as a whole is a masterfull assembly of writings -- a great job by the editors. I strongly recommend this to anyone who seeks to be moved by story.