 US edition cover | |
| Author | T. C. Boyle |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
Publication date | May 3, 1984 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 326 p. |
| ISBN | 0-670-19439-5 |
| OCLC | 10146303 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3552.O932 B8 1984 |
Budding Prospects: A Pastoral is a 1984 novel by T. C. Boyle. It details the misadventure of protagonist Felix Nasmyth, who plans to get rich quick by illegally growing marijuana.
Felix Nasmyth, the first-person narrator, is a young man who, as he tells readers right at the beginning of the book, has "always been a quitter". Without any hopes for the future, he is persuaded by one of his few friends to take part in a "summer camp"—a secluded rural area in Mendocino County, California-and grow marijuana on a large scale.
The illegal business venture seems doomed from the start, but for once Nasmyth decides to prove something to himself and follow through. In the end, after many misadventures, the venture is a failure.
At the same time Nasmyth has made the acquaintance of a lovely girl and has fallen in love with her. He ends his narrative on an optimistic note, returning to the girl with plans to "plant a little seed".
Capitalism, male fellowship, drug and alcohol abuse, and the war on drugs are all featured extensively throughout the book.
Capitalism in the North American tradition is examined throughout the book - although mostly from an illegal business framework. The book specifically focuses on the ironic use of capitalism by society's subversive elements. The financier of the project, Vogelsang, is described as an apprentice to Andrew Carnegie or Jay Gould, and involved in various investments and trading of commodities. Vogelsang's agricultural expert, Boyd Dowst, is described as an optimistic Yankee farmer with a master's degree from Yale. The opening two epigraphs quote Benjamin Franklin and the Death of a Salesman. A water pipeline, central to the survival of the group's crop and enterprise, comes under attack at various points in the book from a neighbor and a bear. At one point, the proprietor of an illegal glory-hole-based sexual business is described with great similarity to J. P. Morgan - his rosacea, his affinity for cigars, his cane, and a copy of The Wall Street Journal. [1] In another passage, Felix expands upon the group's beliefs in and possible disillusionment with - if the project fails - the principles of the classless society, upward mobility, and the law of the jungle. [2]
The authorities are largely symbolized by the California Highway Patrol, and are one of the many threats to the group's illegal enterprise. Felix's paranoid thoughts focus on Officer Jerpbak, with whom he has several hostile and unrelated encounters throughout. The book is set during the high-profile war on drugs in Northern California administered by George Deukmejian in the early 1980s.
Budding Prospects by T. C. Boyle
In September, 2016, Amazon Video greenlit a pilot based on the book. The series stars Will Sasso as Gesh, and is directed by Terry Zwigoff. [3] The pilot became available for streaming on March 17, 2017. [4]
A Friend of the Earth is a 2000 novel by T.C. Boyle. The novel is a story of environmental destruction set in 2025; as a result of global warming and the greenhouse effect, the climate has drastically changed, and, accordingly, biodiversity is a thing of the past.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act, sharing concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. However, the DEA has sole responsibility for coordinating and pursuing U.S. drug investigations both domestically and internationally.
Thomas Coraghessan Boyle is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published nineteen novels and more than 150 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988, for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York.
The Emerald Triangle is a region in Northern California that derives its name from being the largest cannabis-producing region in the United States. The region includes three counties in an upside-down triangular configuration:
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The Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) is a multi-agency law enforcement task force managed by the California Department of Justice and composed of local, state and federal agencies organized expressly to eradicate illegal cannabis cultivation and trafficking in California. Since its establishment in 1983, more than 110 agencies having participated, making CAMP one of the largest law enforcement task force in the United States.
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The Guadalajara Cartel, also known as The Federation, was a Mexican drug cartel which was formed in the late 1970s by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in order to ship cocaine and marijuana to the United States. Among the first of the Mexican drug trafficking groups to work with the Colombian cocaine mafias, the Guadalajara Cartel prospered from the cocaine trade. Throughout the 1980s, the cartel controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border. It had operations in various regions in Mexico which included the states of Jalisco, Baja California, Colima, Sonora, Chihuahua and Sinaloa among others. Multiple modern present day drug cartels such as the Tijuana, Juárez and Sinaloa cartels originally started out as branches or "plazas" of the Guadalajara Cartel before its eventual disintegration.
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The Sinaloa Cartel, also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization, the Federation, the Blood Alliance, or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, transnational organized crime syndicate based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico that specializes in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering.
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Carlos Alberto Arellano Félix is a Mexican medical doctor who is known for his illegal involvement in money laundering for the Tijuana Cartel. Carlos was born on the 20th of August in the year 1955 in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa. Historian Paul Eiss states that Culiacán is the origin of modern drug trafficking and the home of Mexico's most powerful drug cartel. Carlos is currently working as a licensed surgeon. He finished his surgical training at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara The Tijuana Cartel is an organisation that is notorious for being one of the most well-known drug trafficking groups in Mexico to smuggle goods into the United States. Carlos’ family is made up of seven brothers and four sisters who inherited the Arellano Felix Organisation from their godfather, Miguel Ángel Félix. Despite Carlos’ involvement in money laundering for the Tijuana Cartel, he is one of two brothers who remains free and is not wanted by the United States law enforcement.
Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar was a Mexican-American intelligence officer for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In February 1985, Camarena was kidnapped by corrupt police officers hired by the Guadalajara Cartel. He was interrogated under torture and murdered. Three leaders of the cartel were eventually convicted in Mexico for Camarena's murder. The U.S. investigation into Camarena's murder led to ten more trials in Los Angeles for other Mexican nationals involved in the crime. The case continues to trouble U.S.–Mexican relations, most recently when Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the three convicted traffickers, was released from a Mexican prison in 2013. Caro Quintero again was captured by Mexican forces in July 2022.
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Narcos: Mexico is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro that premiered on Netflix on November 16, 2018. It was originally intended to be the fourth season of the Netflix series Narcos, but it was ultimately developed as a companion series. It focuses on the development of Mexico's illegal drug trade, whereas the parent series centered on the establishment of Colombia's illegal drug trade. The series' second season premiered on February 13, 2020. On October 28, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a third and final season but announced that actor Diego Luna would not be returning to reprise his role as Félix Gallardo. The third and final season premiered on November 5, 2021.
