By Karen McCarraher
Stoned by Jill Hoffman is the story Maud Diamond, a middle-aged poet who teaches poetry at the college level. She is divorced with two children aged 7 and 12. Maud smokes pot all day every day. She claims it helps her to think (but we shall see). Maud falls madly in love with Kazimir, a young, Russian “artist”. Her children hate him. Kazimir makes no effort to win them over. Maud is not the best mother—she tells her children to sleep in the bed of a truck while she is inside a house making love to Kazimir. While she thinks of herself as a very literary person, her pot smoking becomes addictive. She loses her teaching job. Kazimir takes advantage of her; he does not work, and she supports him and his “art”. Eventually, her savings run out and she must sell her Manhattan apartment. They move to Brooklyn, and she buys a storefront that Kazimir is going to renovate into an apartment. Her daughter turns 16 and quits school to start a phone sex business. This type of behavior goes on for years and years.
So, does Maud ever quit smoking pot? Kazimir seems to leave her every other week. Does she ever stop taking him back? Can she repair her relationship with her children? All valid questions, but will it ever happen?
This story was funny at times but very sad with regard to the family dynamics. As you go through Maud’s life—page after page of pot smoking, back and forth with Kazimir, and her relationship with her children, it becomes repetitive. It was not one of my favorite books.
Jill Hoffman is an American poet and editor. She graduated from Bennington College with a B.A.; from Columbia University with an M.A.; and from Cornell University with a Ph.D. She taught at Bard College, Brooklyn College, Columbia University, and The New School. She is the author of several books, and her work has appeared in New York Quarterly, Paris Review and The New Yorker.
Published by: Box Turtle Press, 184 Franklin Street, New York, NY 10013
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