FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Mike And His Ilk. => Topic started by: B_Buster on July 11, 2010, 07:49:03 PM
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I'm kicking off The Mike Show Book Club with Nick Reding's Methland. Please join me here to discuss.
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Mike, have you read it or are you just starting it? Did you see the brief exchange about it in the "Books I'm currently reading" thread?
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I just started reading it, cavorting. I've already learned about the Fuckit Bucket which I find very intriguing.
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Damn good book!
I gave this book to my sister last week as one of her birthday presents. Prior to the exchange my mom asked me what I got her, and I said "a book about meth." She was initially appalled, thinking it was some sort of DIY how-to manual. I then informed her that my sister had been running a fairly successful meth lab since 1993, but the book was in fact a work of investigative journalism.
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For those of you who may be still on the fence, here's a little taste of Methland:
"Following one of his trips outside, Jarvis looked down and saw what he thought was egg white on his bare arms. It was not egg white; it was the viscous state of his skin now that the water had boiled out of it. Jarvis flung it off himself, and then he saw that where the egg white had been he could now see roasting muscle. He looked at his legs and his abdomen. His skin was dripping off his body in sheets. Panicked, standing there in the frigid night outside the inferno of his mother's home, naked but for his boxer shorts, which he'd inadvertently soaked in water while fighting the fire, Roland Jarvis began pushing sheets of skin from himself, using his hands like blunt tools, wiping and shoving the hide from as much of his body as he could reach. He'd have pulled the melting skeins of skin from himself in bigger, more efficient sections, but for the fact that his fingers had burned off of his hands. His nose was all but gone now, too, and he ran back and forth among the gathered neighbors, unable to scream, for his esophagus and his voice box had cooked inside his throat."
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In like Flynn.
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For those of you who may be still on the fence, here's a little taste of Methland:
"Following one of his trips outside, Jarvis looked down and saw what he thought was egg white on his bare arms. It was not egg white; it was the viscous state of his skin now that the water had boiled out of it. Jarvis flung it off himself, and then he saw that where the egg white had been he could now see roasting muscle. He looked at his legs and his abdomen. His skin was dripping off his body in sheets. Panicked, standing there in the frigid night outside the inferno of his mother's home, naked but for his boxer shorts, which he'd inadvertently soaked in water while fighting the fire, Roland Jarvis began pushing sheets of skin from himself, using his hands like blunt tools, wiping and shoving the hide from as much of his body as he could reach. He'd have pulled the melting skeins of skin from himself in bigger, more efficient sections, but for the fact that his fingers had burned off of his hands. His nose was all but gone now, too, and he ran back and forth among the gathered neighbors, unable to scream, for his esophagus and his voice box had cooked inside his throat."
I'll stick to Goodnight Moon.
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I'm about three chapters in. Really enjoyed learning of Tom Arnold's connection to the Midwestern meth trade.
This is a great companion to the last novel I read, Winter's Bone. The film is incredible too; I recommend taking them both in.
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At times this book reads like an updated Winesburg, Ohio. Dude goes really deep into the personalities & motivations of the town's sheriff, family doctor, mayor--and, of course, the town's most notorious addicts. Entire chapters go by with only passing references to methamphetamine. I don't mind the digressions, because the guy's a great storyteller, if a little egg-headed. As someone who grew up in a rural community, I have a hard time with the notion that the town doctor is quoting Kant or the deputy prosecutor is applying the Whorfian hypothesis to his cases--maybe a little poetic license on the author's part? All in all, a great read. Thanks for the rec, Mike!
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That's a good analogy, Clem. I thought it was also another classic example of greed trumping the public good in American politics. It's a very good read.
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For those of you who may be still on the fence, here's a little taste of Methland:
"Following one of his trips outside, Jarvis looked down and saw what he thought was egg white on his bare arms. It was not egg white; it was the viscous state of his skin now that the water had boiled out of it. Jarvis flung it off himself, and then he saw that where the egg white had been he could now see roasting muscle. He looked at his legs and his abdomen. His skin was dripping off his body in sheets. Panicked, standing there in the frigid night outside the inferno of his mother's home, naked but for his boxer shorts, which he'd inadvertently soaked in water while fighting the fire, Roland Jarvis began pushing sheets of skin from himself, using his hands like blunt tools, wiping and shoving the hide from as much of his body as he could reach. He'd have pulled the melting skeins of skin from himself in bigger, more efficient sections, but for the fact that his fingers had burned off of his hands. His nose was all but gone now, too, and he ran back and forth among the gathered neighbors, unable to scream, for his esophagus and his voice box had cooked inside his throat."
Best part of the book.
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Jesus Christ.
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I also got a weird look when I asked about this book at a bookstore over the weekend. Does the title really suggest to people that this will be a cheerful celebration of all things meth?
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Maybe the title reminds people of fun films like "Adventureland" and "Zombieland" but with meth.
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I haven't read this book yet, Mike, but I do have something that might be of interest to you-
http://exiledonline.com/stupid-or-how-to-lose-money-running-a-speed-lab-part-1/#more-19133 (http://exiledonline.com/stupid-or-how-to-lose-money-running-a-speed-lab-part-1/#more-19133)
http://exiledonline.com/stupid-or-how-to-lose-money-running-a-speed-lab-part-2/#more-19583 (http://exiledonline.com/stupid-or-how-to-lose-money-running-a-speed-lab-part-2/#more-19583)
http://exiledonline.com/stupid-cubed-let-the-alchemy-begin-or-how-to-lose-money-running-a-speed-lab/#more-20044 (http://exiledonline.com/stupid-cubed-let-the-alchemy-begin-or-how-to-lose-money-running-a-speed-lab/#more-20044)
http://exiledonline.com/stupid-or-how-to-lose-money-running-a-speed-lab-part-four-every-flake-a-20-bill%e2%80%a8%e2%80%a8/#more-20334 (http://exiledonline.com/stupid-or-how-to-lose-money-running-a-speed-lab-part-four-every-flake-a-20-bill%e2%80%a8%e2%80%a8/#more-20334)
http://exiledonline.com/stupid-part-5-back-to-berkeley-for-the-big-epiphany/#more-22136 (http://exiledonline.com/stupid-part-5-back-to-berkeley-for-the-big-epiphany/#more-22136)
The above is John Dolan's work-in-progress "Stupid (Or, How To Lose Money Running A Speed Lab)". Dolan is an English professor whose dark, toxic wit and harsh opinions on populist literature have seen him booted from university lit departments in UCLA, Austrailia, and Vancouver, BC (among others). He's also the guy who busted James Frey, a year before Frey admitted to fraud on Oprah.
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I am reading this book now. I had no idea that meth, prior to it's illegal production, was a drug prescribed to housewives and soldiers. I guess I never thought about it. I am finding out so much, including all the gruesome details I will never forget...
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Just finished The Grand Design. It is better than A Brief History of Time, even if the title isn't.
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When, and if, someone makes a film version of Methland, it would make a fearsome double feature shown with The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.
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Let's get reading in the New Year! I purpose, Patton Oswalt's exciting new book! I'll be getting my copy on Saturday.