I was hooked on this book about the third paragraph when the main characters frustration about his divorce is described as feeling like throwing a fat man through a plate glass window...just to hear the noise
The perspective of Southern California's sub-culture as viewed by an ex drug dealer (pot only, thank-you) is fascinating as are some of the compelling characters who include:
- the outwardly glamorous, successful ex-wife, whose true nature could make Charles Manson appear compassionate - the vietnam vet brother-in-law, formerly an alligator-sweater-wearing preppie college golf star, now enjoying a hermit-like high tech existence in the ground zero environment of an abandoned oil plant - Cubanito, a refugee from Castro's most horrifying prison camps, who now combines the lifestyle of a Rolex wearing Ferrari driving drug dealer with a Dale Carnegie type entrepenurial attidude that could only happen in America.
The plot does become hard to both follow and believe, but the author's talent for character development as well as dialogue and observations that stick in a reader's mind more than compensate.