![dek](https://content.time.com/time/daily/2009/0909/dt_jess_walters_1005.jpg)
The hero of Jess Walter's novel, the funniest way-we-live-now book of the year, is a financial journalist with a poetic bent. Hit hard by the recession, he becomes the world's worst suburban pot dealer, to make ends meet. He's like a stoner Humbert Humbert.