7. The "Oakland heat" have a habit of shooting first and asking questions later.
8. In Berkeley, demonstrators wear helmets, because "anyone who exercised the right to assemble and petition in this town knew what to expect."
9. "The campus revolt began in Berkeley . . . because the people who are striking and picketing are picking up their energy from the land."
10. The people have no power. They should have all of it.
All very glib, all true to widely varying extents, all very "now" things to say. All offensive, especially in their slick matrix, but not particularly pernicious. Unfortunately, Harkness shares other insights that are far more insidious. For instance, he criticizes "a fervent Marxist-Leninist" acquaintance: "We figured that any changes that were really going to happen were going to happen in people's heads . . . . So we blew our dope and stayed in our heads . . . . " Yet, describing the transformation of his friends and himself from straight to freak, Harkness includes the stage when "your parents [see] a picture of you in the papers with long hair, hanging out of the occupied administration building." The hopped-up hippies taking over buildings. From where else but Life could these people come?
For people pushing to legalize dope- Dealing's dedication reads, "To the lawmakers of our great land: Play This Book LOUD" -the Crichtons are not very convincing. Their freaks are as contemptible as their pigs. And when Harkness, driving stoned, nearly wrecks his car, one wonders which side this book's on. Is it all a put-on? Most reviewers, like the one in the New York Times, thought the book was a plea to abolish anti-marijuana laws. But Peter Harkness, like the narrator of "They Grind Exceeding Small," antagonizes more than he convinces. The message of the book is not clear. What is clear is that every letter in Dealing is superimposed on a dollar sign. Like Crichton's other two efforts, this book is designed for one overriding purpose: to make money.
What can you say about a book like Dealing? Only that it should have died before being born. Like certain other recent books, it has its eye on the cash appeal of Ivy League glamor and a "where it's happening" subject. But it is more wearisome and dangerous than most. For Dealing has all the subtlety and compassion of a spray-painted slogan, without a concomitant clarity of purpose.