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This is an unusual book about addiction and redemption. It is unusual in that the author approached his own addiction as a reporter, examining his own memories and challenging them with facts from police reports, hospital records and interviews with everyone from friends, drug dealers and lovers to the cops who arrested him and the lawyers who defended him. In the process, he examines the reality that we remember much as we'd like it to have been rather than as it really was.

I found this both enthralling and disturbing. I'm conflicted about drugs and addiction already: I think our current drug laws are idiotic, but I am very aware of the damage that addiction can do to individuals, families and society as a whole. I also have had a bit of a subconscious "better than you" attitude toward addicts.. it couldn't happen to me, because I have will power, I'm too smart to be trapped by chemicals..

Well, maybe not. I read this and have second thoughts. David Carr makes me uncomfortable and uncertain. His writing can at times be wonderful; he has the gifted author's knack for calling up powerful images, but you may not like those images once conjured. His story is fascinating, but I mean in the original and true meaning of the word: it's the fascination of the snake's prey. I both admired David and found him disgusting, asking almost aloud "How could you DO that?". The problem is that you begin to see how he could, and you have to wonder if you could, too..

As is evidenced by the wide disparity of opinion at Amazon's reviews page, you will probably either like this a lot or really dislike it. Maybe both.