Green is the hope
Green is hope (original title: Budding Prospects ) is a 1984 novel by the American writer T. C. Boyle . It tells the story of the frustrated old-school hippie Felix Nasmyth, who hopes to get rich from illegal marijuana cultivation in Northern California .
content
The unemployed 31-year-old Felix lives alone in his apartment in San Francisco and lives off his dwindling savings from past home renovations. One evening gets Felix visit from his friend Vogelsang, who shall present the offer, 500,000 dollars on his property in Mendocino County , California, marijuana grow. Felix accepts the offer and moves to what he calls “summer camp” for nine months. He hires two friends, Phil and Gesh, who are supposed to help him with his work and each receive a third of Felix's share.
The company has been under a bad luck from the start. The isolation, curious neighbors, vicious highway police and all sorts of environmental adversities ensure that the three friends are becoming more and more paranoid, frustrated and impatient. The company's failure is becoming more and more apparent. After a weekend vacation at home, however, Felix meets young Petra and falls in love with her. However, since Felix gets into a clinch with the local police, he is not allowed to visit them and is resigned.
At harvest time only a fraction of the plants are intact, the proceeds are only $ 4,800 per capita. Disbelieving that they lived in seclusion and solitude for less than $ 5,000 for nine months, the three also learn that Vogelsang only used them to let them develop the property and then sell it. At the end, Felix Vogelsang, who shows no remorse or feelings of guilt. Felix gives up, waives his share and drives back to Mendocino County to live with Petra.
criticism
“If you don't expect too much from green, hope is, you can definitely have fun with the book. Well, and then there is another variant, you would just have to read the book completely stoned. Who knows, maybe the story will look much more real and stressful, but I leave that to you with a clear conscience, because this is not my world. "
"In other words, for all that the structure of the novel is neatly worked out, the sense of depth is yet to come. Still Mr. Boyle possesses a rare and a redeeming virtue - he can be consistently, effortlessly, intelligently funny. Which means that he belongs to a species even harder to locate than a good, solid novelist. He is to be cultivated. "
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.literaturasyl.de/?p=1376 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ BOOKS OF THE TIMES; PICARESQUE PARABLE, The New York Times
