Budding Prospects

“Budding Prospects: A Pastoral” is a 1984 novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle that follows Felix Nasmyth, a self-described lifelong quitter who agrees to help run an illegal marijuana farm in remote Mendocino County, California, lured by the promise of a tax‑free half‑million‑dollar payoff.

What begins as a laid‑back get‑rich‑quick venture with his equally hapless friends turns into a series of escalating mishaps involving hostile neighbors, wildlife, unreliable infrastructure, and their own incompetence, as Boyle uses sharp humor and irony to explore themes of capitalism, idealism, and bad decision‑making on the fringes of 1970s–80s California counterculture.