Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

#521
Title: Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town
Author: Nick Reding
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Year: 2009
269 pages

Read as an audiobook. An absorbing, educational, and grim history of methamphetamine production and distribution in the Midwest, punctuated by the stories of meth makers, users, and the people trying to shut it down. The criticism that Reding got some geography wrong is picayune and of little consequence, though I agree that it is a problem that should be corrected. More concerning is Reding's reductive concept of how meth is a drug that uniquely fits the American work ethic, and that meth use and addiction pretty much comes down to bad eco0nomic times. For one thing, I'm sure people in Southeast Asia, where it's manufactured in Burma/Myanmar and is a long-time favorite of long-haul truck drivers, could tell an equally compelling story about the meaning of meth and how it fits their culture. For another thing, sociology aside, meth is inexpensive, a compelling high, and quite addictive.