A friend gave me this book, and I only read it for that reason. I owe my friend because otherwise, I wouldn’t have read it. I thank my friend because there is something about this book, something special. I wondered if it was just me, but I suggested it to a fellow writer because I thought she could learn techniques from the author. I was a little nervous about it because she is very different from me, much more conservative, and sees things differently. I asked her what she thought of it and waited. The words she used were the same as I would have used. This book had us seeing things similarly, the same for the first time.
This memoir/novel is the story of a 17-year-old boy trying to find his way in the early 1970s amid drugs and the promise of a phantom hippy Goddess, Mary. He sets out from Miami with his secretly gay best friend to seek her, thinking he will find her. They make every mistake there is to make. The humor and pathos had me rooting for this kid as no other boy’s coming-of-age story has. I have read these stories from the myth of Perseus to the Catcher in the Rye, and they all left me cold. This true story could have been another in that millennia long tradition, but it isn’t. That is exactly how the conservative writer described it.
He gave up on finding Mary after obtaining many physical and emotional bruises and returned home to frustrated parents, but not for long. At the time, the notorious pyramid scheme conman Glenn Turner (a hybrid between Bernie Madoff and Donald Trump) was running out of money, about to be prosecuted, and willing to ‘hire’ anyone. He promised a glorious future if Doug cut his hair and donned a suit. Here is an insider’s account of the fall of a once-successful con. The book is worth reading for the historical content alone.
It was the 1970s, so our young hero also had run-ins at Disney World and with various other savory and not-so-savory characters.
From the Amazon description, bearing the stamp of Doug Shear, “The Marijuana Gods is difficult to believe, but proof exists in the form of letters, objects, and historical evidence. Besides, nobody could make this up.”
I’m not a fan of boy quest stories for many reasons, but partly because they end up self-serving at best. This book is the exception in my experience. It is easy to root for this kid like no other. 17-year-olds are self-involved, but this one also had a true heart. When my writer friend came up with the same description almost to the word, I knew that this was a book with universal appeal.
It is well-written and has a unique touch. The honesty shows what it is like inside a very young man, in a palatable way. He’s trying to do his best, sometimes comically, often sadly. You will be happy to know that our hero got through it all and became a responsible citizen, mostly. I most highly recommend this one.