Bookshots: 'The Marijuana Chronicles' Edited by Jonathan Santlofer

Bookshots: Pumping new life into the corpse of the book review

Title:

The Marijuana Chronicles 

Who wrote it?

Edited by best-selling crime novelist and artist Jonathan Santlofer

Plot in a Box:

A themed anthology about the good ole whacky tabaccy.

Invent a new title for this book:

The I Can't Believe It's The 21st Century and This Shit is Still (Mostly) Illegal Chronicles

Read this if you liked:

The Cocaine Chronicles edited By Jervey Tervalon and Gary Phillips, Claire DeWitt and The City of the Dead by Sara Gran (I was actually a little surprised Gran wasn't in this collection. But then again, there weren't that many West Coast writers, which is a minor kerfuffle  I'll address a little bit down the line),Piggyback by Tom Pitts.

Meet the book’s lead:

A big old NOT APPLICABLE on this one, gang. It's an anthology, so there's too many characters and stories to narrow down a “Lead”.

Said lead would be portrayed in a movie by:

Same as above.

Setting: Would you want to live there?

The stories take place all over the world, so, yes to some, no to others.

What Was Your Favorite Sentence?

When I got loosely acclimated to marijuana, I realized it just put me to sleep and I was more interested in climbing the walls. I gave up the ganja.

- “Cannibal Sativa” By Dean Haspiel

The Verdict:

I'm a longtime reader of Akashic Books' “Noir” series of anthologies (Orange County Noir, Brooklyn Noir, and Phoenix Noir are particular favorites), but in recent years the “Noir” series has become a bit bloated and a little far reaching (Haiti Noir and Mumbai Noir, really?). So I was pretty excited that Akashic decided to launch a new “drug” chronicles anthology series in 2012, starting with The Speed Chronicles. Since its launch, we've seen The Cocaine and Heroin Chronicles (both of which were engaging and diverse reads) and I suppose it was only a matter of time before they got around to everyone’s favorite “gateway” drug, that cute, cuddly little Ms. Thing, Mary Jane.

Much like its predecessors, The Marijuana Chronicles is a mean and lean 233 pages. (Themed anthology editors, take note: I love short stories, but when a collection surrounding a single theme goes above the 300 page mark, you've lost me.) Santlofer's choice of work is as varied and diverse as marijuana's many users, and the stories range in styles from hardboiled crime to contemporary satire. There's even some poetry and graphic work in the mix, too. Highlights include Lee Child's “My First Drug Trial” (I have a love/hate relationship with Child: I HATE his novels, but his short fiction always manages to surprise me), “Zombie Hookers of Hudson” by Maggie Estep (Yes, it reads as it sounds: Weird, funny, and just a little sad), “Cannibal Sativa” by Dean Haspiel (The aforementioned graphic work, which focuses on the awkward, off-putting effect pot has on some users), ”Ethics Class, 1971” by Jan Heller Levi (A poem about an ethics teacher who asks his class if they've ever experimented with drugs, and then proceeds to turn in the students who raised their hands), and “Kush City” by Richard Mungo (Middle age man and long time Mexican swag smoker experiences the bliss of the pot dispensary boom in Southern California).

For readers looking for a straight forward crime fiction anthology, you should probably go elsewhere. As I previously stated, The Marijuana Chronicles spotlights a diverse range of styles and genres, which makes it far more engaging and left me eager to move on to the next story and the next to see where the authors would take the theme. My one beef with the anthology—and it is a minor beef—is the lack of west coast writers included in the book. I mean, come on, marijuana is such an engrained part of west coast culture that I can't help but think that one or three more writers out of California, Oregon, or Arizona would've brought a distinct change in tone and pacing. But overall, The Marijuana Chronicles is a solid—albeit much quieter—entry into what is shaping up to be a great anthology series.