DRUGSTORE COWBOY

by James Fogle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 1990

The first publication of the novel carbon-copied into the acclaimed 1989 Film starring Matt Dillon. First-novelist Fogle, 53, has been in the Washington State Penitentiary (for robbery and parole violation) since 1979; like the film, his semiautobiographical, seriocomic tale of a band of junkies roaming the Pacific Northwest in the early 1970's sting with a tough and bitter authenticity. Bob, 35, is the ultimate drugstore cowboy--veteran of 20 years of matching his keen wits against cops and the owners of the pharmacies and hospitals that house his beloved narcotics. Accompanying Bob on his never-ending drug-runs are his wife, Diane--also a hard-core junkie but without the generous heart that makes Bob so appealing--and sidekick Rick and Rick's young girlfriend, Nadine. The first half of the story details with high if sordid spirits the band's junked-out life: ripping-off drugstores, shooting-up into narcotics-nirvana, avoiding ""hexes"" (sighting a hat on a bed means years of bad luck), fencing with local cops (including the tale's comic center-piece, Bob's entrapment of two snoopy narcs as Peeping Toms). Melodrama seeps into the black humor when Nadine overdoses on Dilaudid while the band is holed up at a motel also hosting a sheriffs' convention. After smuggling out and burying Nadine's body, Bob vows to go straight, leaves Diane and Rick, checks into a methadone program, and actually gets a job--drilling holes into sheet metal. He nearly makes it too, until gunned down by another junkie in search of the drugs Bob's left far behind. Despite some stiff dialogue (""God, Devil, Sun, whoever you are up there that controls this whirly-girly, mad, tumbling world. . .""), a sharp and original evocation of junkiedom--albeit not quite as stylish as the film, with its sleeker pace and slyly skewed imagery.

Pub Date: Nov. 9, 1990

ISBN: 038530224X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delta/Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION