The Night of the Gun
 

"“You say you’re a bit bored by the banal splendors of everyday life? Try taking them away. When I was in the midst of an off-and-on jag with booze, I would have given anything to go to bed like a normal person and get up and go to work, with no consideration of dosage the night before or the shakes that inevitably arrived the following morning. As a drunk, every question asked of me seemed freighted with threat. A simple inquiry like, “What have you been up to?” becomes an indictment in the drunk’s ears. "Oh, not much, sneaking drinks at every opportunity, having occasional blackouts, and doing my level best to generate a patina of normalcy over all the mayhem.”

"To people who do not have the allergy, there is no clear way to explain the unmanageability that goes with addiction. A drunk or an addict picks up a shot or a dose because, same as everyone, he just wants to feel a little different. But it never stops there. I could be drunk tomorrow or shooting dope even as you read this, but the chances of that are low as long as I make a daily decision to embrace who I really am and then be satisfied with that at the end of the day.”

Excerpt From: Carr, David. “The Night of the Gun.” Simon & Schuster, 2008. iBooks.
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David Carr's memoir is a visceral, very powerful, personal account of this journalists decent into alcoholism and cocaine addiction in the late '80's. I've read a number of recovery memoirs, but his is the first that really captures how it feels to be different, as an addict, as a man and father, and his poise in long-term recovery in the very environment that catapulted his substance abuse.

Has anyone else read this memoir? If so, what were your thoughts on his process of recovery? Did his gradual loss of control mirror anyone else's life? Did you empathize with a man who, in a previous life, was manipulative, aggressive and extremely selfish?

I want to read it but haven't yet :)

D

Me too. Thanks for the reminder Dan.