Randall Koral

Although I enjoyed this book and recommend it to others, the editors of this anthology have made several mistakes that force me to give it a less-than-glowing review.

The first problem is that I had already read about half of this book in the originals. By choosing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Alice in Wonderland, The Doors of Perception, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The Sign of Four, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Kubla Khan, they ensured that anyone who was both well read and interested in drug literature had already read many of the pieces. Sure, they are great, but I would rather be introduced to something new.

Another problem is that it is primarily composed of excerpts, and no context is given about the greater work. The book would have been much enhanced with a brief introductory paragraph or two before each of the excerpts, orienting the reader. This is somewhat remedied at the back of the book, in the Author Biographies section, but the excerpt from Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood was almost nonsensical out of context.

Besides the items mentioned above that I have on my shelves already, the highlights consist of an excerpt from Carrie Fisher's Postcards from the Edge (which I have to pick up now), Terry Southern's great “new journalism” piece, The Blood of a Wig (which I already have, but I suspect that most people probably don't so I left it off the list above), and Sigmund Freud's thoughts on cocaine.… (mehr)