BUDDING PROSPECTS by T.C. Boyle

T.C. Boyle can dole out vivid and comical metaphors like nobody’s business.  The storyline here stagnates occasionally, but generally it moves along at a decent pace.  The plot is a get-rich-quick scheme that doesn’t pan out.  No surprise there.  It’s the 1980s, and Felix, at the suggestion of his enterprising so-called friend Vogelsang, recruits two buddies, Phil and Gesh, to plant, tend, and harvest two thousand marijuana plants on Vogelsang’s property.  Vogelsang neglects to tell Felix how rudimentary their housing will be, not to mention how hard the work will be, including fencing and irrigation.  The work is the least of their worries, though, with a nosy neighbor, a mean cop, and, of course, Mother Nature—rodents, bears, and monsoon-like rain.  These guys are not really screw-ups, although one accident lands Phil in the ER.  I was amazed that there weren’t more such mishaps, given the amount of booze and drugs these guys consume.  And any trip into town is bound to spell trouble.