Book Review

 

 

This book is a memoire of a drug user, who just so happens to be the author. This book entails all the events that he is able to recall from the time when he was heavily addicted and relient on drugs such as Methamphetamines and Heroin. It is split into two parts; the first part starts with him relapsing after a year being clean on the streets of San Fransico after running into an old girlfriend and user. The memoire then launches into a crazy journey with drugs, ripping down the entirety of Nic's life. On this "journey" Nic befriends a dealer adn they become fast friends, even attempting to start their own drug syndicate with the help of a homeless man as their "muscle". Finally after seemingly losing everything, Nic seeks help once again and goes through the process of detoxing. This is around where Part 2 starts.

Part 2 starts off with Nic calling his old sponsor and getting out of San Fransico to begin the process of detoxing. He manages to keep his body clean of illicit substances for over a year, and then he once again relapses. This relapse is worse than ever. As he develops a relationship with an emotionally unstable woman they both decide that they don't care about the consequences, and would start using again. Once again they lost everything, but instead of getting help, they decide to try to make it on their own. Stealing and selling most, if not all, of their possesions they manage to get by with using for quite a while after losing most everything. But just liek before, Nic realizes that he needs to stop doing this to his life, and manages to get into a rehab center far away from drugs and their influence on him. At this center Nic is forced to cope with things that happened in his past that he had shut out for a long time with drug use. It is only now that we begin to see the true extremity of everything he has been through. In the process of self-recovery he is able to realize that the realtionship he had with the emotionally unstable woman was out of neccessity to be accepted, rather than for love or true companionship and he begins to let go of the idea of her. The book ends with him still in the rehab center, with a slight passage letting you know how he is doing today.

 

Thoughts on the book:  This book was definately a page turner, and i found it hard to put it down once i started. it is very well written, and gives a very deep insight into a live with drugs. Through reading this bbok i could feel the way his life was collapsing, and how he was to ohigh to even care until he hit rock bottom and was forced to kil lthe habit, or have it kill him. During the first half of the book i kept thinkign to myself "why doesn't he just stop?" and then i realized that he can't. He shows the way that drugs are like a whirlpool, once you you fall in it's incredibly hard to pull away from the current and break free from the cycle.

 

When he finally decided to get clean about 1/3 the way through the book I finally felt relieved, and started to have hope for him. This book really managed to convey moods exceptionally well, and had you feeling for the main character the entire time, aware of every shift in his attitude. It was inspiring to see him rebuilding his life after practically destroying it, and getting the things that he found important back, including a relationship with his family again. But, seeing as how it's only about half way through the novel now, he inevitably falls back into old habits and starts using agin, By this time I was starting to get a little angry reading the book, but it demonstrates yet again how drugs have control over every aspect of your life once you start and he once again goes into a downward spiral, destroying his body and his life once again.

Overall, i think this was an incredible book, very graphic, lots of mature content, but all neccessary to get the point clear across about the effects drugs have over everything. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is curious about the other side of life, the side where you don't know when your next hit will come, or if you will even survive the day.