Ah! I just remembered another one from the 60s:
Manchild In The Promised Land by Claude Brown.
Ah! I just remembered another one from the 60s:
Manchild In The Promised Land by Claude Brown.
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent
~ Isaac Asimov
One last thing: I remembered many moons ago reading about Toulousse-Latrec and his circle of French intellectuals with their predilection for absinthe. His circle may have included Oscar Wilde and other intellectuals who lived in exile. I believe that such a proclivity also existed during the 1920s in Paris as the ''Lost Generation'' succumbed to that evil potable.
When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent
~ Isaac Asimov
Of course you need to include some Crowley:
The Green Goddess - about absinthe
Diary of a Drug Fiend -
about a couple who spend their honeymoon on a coke and heroin binge and when they run out, kick the habit with black magic. Pretty shocking for 1923.
On Wine and Hashish - Charles Baudelaire
I was going to suggest this, too. Very vivid and detailed and crazy.Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson
'For sale: baby shoes, never worn'. Hemingway
Surprised no one mentioned Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Was very comprehensive and difficult to tackle at first, but after I lost my copy I watched the film 10 times, then found it in a bookstore and read it again for the first time in 4 years. Completely blew me away. Once you can digest the whole thing, it's amazing.
A little synopsis though it's super-famous and you may be familiar with it: the plot is mainly about Mark Renton, a young Scottish guy doused in heroin with his bunch of junky/psychotic/criminal friends. Along with that, you get about four more different spotlights on other minor characters, and I think there's five or six changes in perspective. One minute it's Mark's narration, then it's Spud's. Then focus on Mark's cousin. & on...
The film adaptation is fantastic despite the fact that it cuts out half the content. I highly recommend the book & film to anyone.
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