Dealing, or The Berkeley-To-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues
by Michael Douglas, Michael Crichton, Douglas Crichton
Why You'll Love This
Before Michael Crichton was writing dinosaurs and techno-thrillers, he was writing drug deals — and this scrappy early novel still crackles with gonzo energy.
- Great if you want: a snapshot of 1970s counterculture told with insider irreverence
- The experience: fast, breezy, and slight — reads in a single sitting
- The writing: lean and deadpan, with comic timing that cuts through the chaos
- Skip if: you expect the depth or scale of Crichton's later work
About This Book
When a Harvard student flies to California chasing both a drug score and a girl, he stumbles into a mess that's equal parts absurd and genuinely dangerous. Dealing, or The Berkeley-To-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues captures a precise moment in American counterculture — the late 1960s, when weed and idealism were tangled up together — and wrings real tension from it. A crooked federal agent, a girlfriend in serious trouble, and a half-stolen stash force the protagonist into a corner where his only way out is the very thing that got him in. The stakes are higher than he bargained for, and that gap between naïve ambition and hard reality is where the story lives.
Written by Michael Crichton and his brother Douglas under the pen name Michael Douglas, the novel punches well above its genre. The prose is lean and propulsive without feeling generic, and the sharp satirical edge — aimed squarely at campus privilege, law enforcement hypocrisy, and the mythology of the drug trade — keeps the comedy from softening the danger. At 222 pages, it never overstays its welcome, delivering exactly what it promises: a fast, smart, surprisingly knowing ride.