Book excerpt: The novel that inspired the major motion picture directed by Gus Van Sant Bob Hughes, the offbeat, edgy, and slightly skewed leader of a crew of traveling junkies, describes himself as “one of the cleverest and ringiest and most notorious dope fiend drugstore cowboys on the entire West Coast, including Alaska.” Bob, his wife, Diane, Rick, and Nadine have a penchant for robbing drugstores and grabbing pills and capsules to support their habit and relieve their boredom. It’s an all-too-real examination of the addict’s domain: the euphoria, the paranoia, the busts, the overdoses, the haunting reality of trying to survive your own world. But James Fogle—who based this extraordinary novel on his own experiences, and who spent thirty-five years of his life in prison—has turned their lives into something darkly comic. Set in Portland, Oregon, in the early 1970s, Drugstore Cowboy is a resonating evocation of life at the bottom, and yet, by portraying his characters without judgment or glamor, Fogle has illuminated them. His debut novel is a singular work of contemporary fiction.