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A review by aa2q7
Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market by Eric Schlosser
3.0
Warning: The title of this book is a bit more risqué than its content.
Eric Schlosser explores pot, porn and illegal immigrants in his 2003 book, Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market. The book, comprising three essays, is part historical, part narrative and part story.
I had high hopes for this book: It was a New York Times bestseller, and Schlosser had previously found success as the author of Fast Food Nation. But I wasn't impressed with the whole package.
Each essay was interesting and easy-to-read, an unlikely feat for arguments tracing the history of the criminalization of marijuana, the undocumented workers who work California's strawberry fields and the rise of the adult entertainment industry. Each essay could have been its own book, and in the end, I wasn't quite sure why the topics were grouped together.
Each industry is part of the underground economy in America, but the essays touched on just a small aspect of each. I would've preferred to have read three separate books in Schlosser's writing style. And furthermore, the essays varied too much in-depth. The essay on illegal immigration was about 35 pages, while the porn industry — focused mostly on the story of Reuben Sturman — occupied about 100 pages. Certainly, there's a lot to say about both subjects, so why the discrepancy?
Schlosser's arguments were compelling, thanks in part to his in-depth reporting and humanizing of each industry. His conversational tone lends simplicity to otherwise, often complicated and controversial topics. His most compelling essay, also the book's namesake, argues for the decriminalization of marijuana and offers historical, geographical and legal context on the issue. His focus on marijuana crops in the Midwest provides an interesting, too-close-to-home angle. I've recently marked a couple of books to read about drugs in the American Midwest, which seems to be a growing problem and one I've heard mentioned a couple of times since I moved to Missouri.
Eric Schlosser explores pot, porn and illegal immigrants in his 2003 book, Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market. The book, comprising three essays, is part historical, part narrative and part story.
I had high hopes for this book: It was a New York Times bestseller, and Schlosser had previously found success as the author of Fast Food Nation. But I wasn't impressed with the whole package.
Each essay was interesting and easy-to-read, an unlikely feat for arguments tracing the history of the criminalization of marijuana, the undocumented workers who work California's strawberry fields and the rise of the adult entertainment industry. Each essay could have been its own book, and in the end, I wasn't quite sure why the topics were grouped together.
Each industry is part of the underground economy in America, but the essays touched on just a small aspect of each. I would've preferred to have read three separate books in Schlosser's writing style. And furthermore, the essays varied too much in-depth. The essay on illegal immigration was about 35 pages, while the porn industry — focused mostly on the story of Reuben Sturman — occupied about 100 pages. Certainly, there's a lot to say about both subjects, so why the discrepancy?
Schlosser's arguments were compelling, thanks in part to his in-depth reporting and humanizing of each industry. His conversational tone lends simplicity to otherwise, often complicated and controversial topics. His most compelling essay, also the book's namesake, argues for the decriminalization of marijuana and offers historical, geographical and legal context on the issue. His focus on marijuana crops in the Midwest provides an interesting, too-close-to-home angle. I've recently marked a couple of books to read about drugs in the American Midwest, which seems to be a growing problem and one I've heard mentioned a couple of times since I moved to Missouri.