"A psychological novel with a twist" - Rabia Tanveer, Readers' Favorite

Bongs For Steve is the memoir of newspaper copy-editor Seamus Cullen, 50, who has been invited to reflect upon happier times and thinks only of long-past bong sessions.

As he immerses himself in recalling these binges with friends, he sees that his slide into sadness began when he got a real job.

The novel is unusual in its extended realising of stoned conversation, presenting it as bantering and rich in ritual, and yet frequently risky and intimate.

Key characters are illuminated from multiple perspectives: as encountered by Seamus in his present; as Seamus remembers their behaviour from events in his past; and as he has represented them in creative non-fiction that he composed in his bohemian 20s.

The dramatic arc follows the maturing of the reluctant memoirist as he re-evaluates his history through telling his story, appreciating more fully the generosity of his associates.

An enduring thread is Seamus’s relationship with his hospitable one-time housemate Roland Browne. Seamus delights in his memories of rehearsing with Roland the smoking adventures the pair had pursued with the late Stephen Hurtley, a reckless companion who had resourced their experiments.

In an encounter with Steve’s former girlfriend, Patience Moore, Seamus meets his match, but his susceptibility to intoxicated disclosure has consequences here too.

Among many in-jokes and ironies is the contrasting of the narrator’s punctilious use of language with his fond memorialising of abandoned play.

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