Smuggler's Blues

February 22, 2016
Featuring encounters with the late David Bowie and Norman Mailer, plus Mick Jagger and convicted murderer and mob boss Whitey Bulger, this memoir by Stratton, a former editor and publisher of High Times magazine, details the author’s final years as part of the so-called Hippie Mafia. Beginning in 1980, he rehashes his time smuggling pot around the world and encountering an eclectic and often laughable cast of characters. Stratton went on to spend eight years in federal prison for transporting and harboring marijuana. While there, he wrote the cult classic novel Smack Goddess, and many of the tales of his real-life adventures in search of a massive high and the ultimate payday are absorbing in the same zany way as his fiction, often at the expense of credibility. Most of the individuals he mentions are identified only by nicknames such as Fearless Fred Barnswallow and Jonathan Livingston Seagull (later referred to as Jonathan Dead Seagull). Stratton’s liberal use of dialogue casts some doubt on the veracity of his action and sex scenes. There’s no doubt that Stratton is a keen and thrilling writer, but he reveals pieces of his own back story the same way he operated as a criminal: on a need-to-know basis. Agent: Ria Julien, Golden Literary Agency.

February 15, 2016
Former drug smuggler, TV writer, and magazine contributor Stratton (Altered States of America: Outlaws and Icons, Hitmakers and Hitmen, 2006, etc.) revels in his glory days in the drug trade and his eventual downfall at the hands of a determined government agent. The author--a former publisher of High Times and consultant for HBO's prison series Oz--is determined to showcase the romantic side of drug smuggling, admit that there is still an ugliness to it, and come out the hero of his own man-against-the-world narrative, all with a dose of humor and keeping the ultimate cool. He isn't entirely successful, but the attempt results in a compulsively interesting story with the requisite drama and suspense that will keep the pages turning. From the beginning, Stratton frames the story as the ongoing battle between himself and Drug Enforcement Administration agent Bernard Wolfshein, who comes across as calm, confident, and a little obsessed with Stratton. In turn, the author portrays himself as cleverer, admittedly less confident, and at least equally obsessed with Wolfshein. Much of the humor is wrapped up in this cat-and-mouse chase, where Wolfshein always seems one step ahead and still doesn't get his man. In the scenes featuring both men, Stratton's background in TV writing is apparent; Wolfshein's dialogue always sounds a bit like an episode of Law and Order. Stratton and his crew pulled off a surprising number of impressive smuggles while Wolfshein tried to pin them down, and Stratton throws in a lot of extra color by way of lavish spending, sex, and glittering parties that make heads spin. Near misses abound and offer great fun for readers, even though it's obvious from the start that Stratton won't stay free for long. Eventually, heavy hints and one too many existential rants become tiresome. A wild, entertaining ride that could have been a little shorter.

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