Gone to Pot

Jennifer Craig

Second Story Press Softcover $19.95 (256pp) 978-1-77260-034-6

Gone to Pot is a great read for any age, reminding us that the elderly can be vibrant, active, and involved.

A destitute grandmother is forced into an untraditional business venture and ends up dealing with much more than she bargained for, in Gone to Pot, by Jennifer Craig.

The novel opens with protagonist Jess discovering the she’s lost her waitressing job, thanks to a kitchen fire. Distraught, Jess then learns that a bad business investment may force her to lose her house as well. Grown accustomed to self-sufficiency in the years since her divorce, she does not solicit help from her ineffectual son, Jason, or his boorish wife, Amy, instead opting to take matters into her own hands and start a grow-op within the confines of her basement.

Aided by former coworker Swan and “gardener” Marcus, Jess’s life changes rapidly, leaving her to balance her public roles as a grandmother and as a member of the town’s senior women’s group, The Company of Crones, and her private life as a drug manufacturer.

Gone to Pot is an entertaining read, thanks largely to Craig’s dynamic writing style. Characters all differ greatly from each other in age and disposition, but dialogue is well parsed and believable, Craig making the seamless transition between voices look easy. Despite the largely humorous tone of the book, Craig also manages to explore many complex ideas, such as the rampant ageism that many older people face, as well as extreme flaws in medical and governmental systems that force people into illegal endeavors either to make ends meet or to find some relief for chronic pain.