Publishers Weekly
James is a writer living the good life in "wild and lusty" Austin, Tex., a man who finds himself, "At thirty... suddenly making and spending money in a way I never had." But it's not long after he meets Kate, another bright young thing, that "both of our careers were gone," casualties of the Great Recession. The couple moves to Northern California, where James meets Kate's old friends and quickly realizes that he could buy their marijuana crop cheap, haul it cross country, and make a tidy profit. Things fall neatly into place as James assumes the middle-man role between his California grower and his Floridian dealer and the money—along with big trouble—starts pouring in. D'Souza does an admirable job of creating likable characters in James and the people around him, but there's only one way that this narrative can go. Or rather, there are any number of possibilities, but one obvious choice. The same actions—pick up drugs, encounter/overcome obstacles, deliver drugs—repeated too often, and too much time spent on the road, pushes anything but the basic plot into the background, creating a compelling but anemic read. (Sept.)w
Mule: A Novel of Moving Weight
by Tony D'Souza
- ISBN: 0547576714
- ISBN-13: 9780547576718
- Pub. date: 03/28/2011
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Paperback
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19.95
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“Thanks to its wicked style and pacing, Mule lets me forget I’m reading serious literature while I follow its terrifying story into the land of the all-American damned.” — Walter Kirn, author of Up in the Air
“Mule is swift, taut, and relentless, both a rip-roaring drug tale and a fascinating portrait of a decent human being whose morals slowly disintegrate under unbearable financial strain.” — Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton
James and Kate are golden children of the late twentieth century, flush with opportunity. But an economic downturn and an unexpected pregnancy send them searching for a way to make do. A friend in California’s Siskiyou County grows prime-grade marijuana; if James transports just one load from Cali to Florida, he’ll pull down enough cash to survive for months. And so begins the life of a mule.
A page-turning, Zeitgeist-capturing novel that plunges us into the criminal underworld with little chance to take a breath, Mule is about young people trying to make do in a moment when the American Dream they never had to believe in — because it was handed to them, fully wrapped and ready to go at the takeout window — suddenly vanishes from the menu.
“With adrenaline-infused sentences and a seat-gripping story line, Mule is a novel that illuminates contemporary American desperation, both its dangerous precipices and its thrilling, overwhelming freedom.” — Dean Bakopoulos, author of My American Unhappiness
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From the Publisher
"An acutely detailed page-turner..."—Entertainment Weekly
"[D'Souza's] authorial voice is sharp and crisp, eschewing flowery prose for a hard-hitting narrative style that perfectly suits the page-turning, drugfueled tale. Fans of Toby Young and Max Barry and those who follow D’Souza’s magazine work will greatly enjoy the timely, witty, fast-paced Mule."
—Booklist
"A smart and bracing ground-level exploration of the drug trade."
—Kirkus
"Mule is the sort of novel I love: it solves nothing but explains everything. It also, thanks to its wicked style and pacing, lets me forget I’m reading serious literature while I follow its terrifying story into the land of the all-American damned."
—Walter Kirn, author of Up in the Air
"Mule is swift, taut, and relentless, both a rip-roaring drug tale and a fascinating portrait of a decent human being whose morals slowly disintegrate under unbearable financial strain. Tony D'Souza proves, yet again, that he is an immensely clever storyteller with plenty of talent to spare."
—Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton
"With adrenaline-infused sentences and a seat-gripping storyline, Tony D’Souza has written one of the first great novels to emerge from our perplexing, endless recession. A heartfelt tale of one family’s freefall, Mule is a novel that illuminates contemporary American desperation, both its dangerous precipices and its thrilling, overwhelming freedom."
—Dean Bakopoulos, author of My American Unhappiness
Library Journal
In his third novel, D'Souza (Whiteman) provides an in-depth look at the creation of a drug mule. James, a young writer thrown out of work by the recession, delivers a pound of prime-grade marijuana to a friend in Texas as a one-time money-making opportunity. But with his wife, Kate, and a new baby to support, James soon builds a cross-country courier route stretching from California to Florida and finds himself constantly on the road, delivering drugs to an increasingly sketchy and dangerous group of contacts. The money is great, but with each trip the risks—and James's crimes—grow exponentially more serious. VERDICT Despite thinly drawn characters, this gripping novel provides an insider's view of drug trafficking. While in some sections it reads like a how-to for drug mules, D'Souza's careful pacing and narrative style provide a tension-filled ride. Recommended for readers who enjoy crime novels and general fiction.—Amy Hoseth, Colorado State Univ. Libs., Fort CollinsKirkus Reviews
A young family man escapes the Great Recession by driving marijuana cross-country, raking in good money and bad vibes.
"Drive fast and swerve a lot" is the joking advice drug dealers give mules like James, an unemployed freelance journalist who begins driving pounds of weed from California to Florida to make ends meet when he and his pregnant wife fall out of work. Of course, the job involves a stressful amount of careful attention to detail, not just to the speed limit but to the type of car, its plates and the safest routes. Some early pages shoehorn in an overabundance of detail about the legal complexities of the gig, butthe book is largely a propulsive and intense journey into the degradations of living in the black market. James' story begins in the middle of 2006, the start of the U.S. economy's latest stumble, and as the markets collapse he takes some comfort in the large wads of cash he accumulates. But happiness is fleeting and, as D'Souza reveals, ultimately inaccessible. Sub-dealers break promises, which leads to violence; the business demands keeping secrets, which slowly drives a wedge between James and his wife.The book is a departure from D'Souza's previous two novels, 2006'sWhitemanand 2008'sThe Konkans, which focused on themes of race and assimilation, but he eases comfortably into this milieu: He's clearly studied the mechanics of the marijuana trade, and he addresses it in ways that reject the simple moral boundaries of most cinematic portrayals of drug dealers. D'Souza captures the push and pull of James' emotions, his paranoia and his frazzled rationalizations. James has a nerviness that makes him perfect for the gig, but it's agonizingly clear how much he sacrificed to get it.
A smart and bracing ground-level exploration of the drug trade.