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A Season of Reading - Beautiful Boy

Before I tell you more about the books my book club has been reading, I first must tell you about the first book on tape I listened to... which by the way turned into a gateway for a whole new world!  This was an intense experience as I drove and listened and it made me understand why people love this option who have long commutes.  I am hooked, and am on my fourth book on tape in the car right now! 

I will tell you all about them in good time...


This is an autobiography of a father wrestling with his son's drug adiction, and it effected me to the core.  The book goes through the child's entire life, and shows the connection between the father and son.  It shows why this relationship was so important to them both.  They are as close as a father and son can be when he is young and even as he gets older, but drugs get in the way of everything.

The slippery slope is detailed in that Nic (the son) started smoking pot at an early age and got drunk on a family vacation when his parents had gone to bed.  It only gets worse from there.  The story is so painful I wanted to cry at times.  Not even because it was sad, but because you can feel the father's emotional frustration.  I would be frustrated too!  Drugs are something I may never understand and I do not relate to, but I know they are a very real problem and this book had tons of information that brought me to acute awareness of the industry and of the effects of crystal meth and other drugs on the human brain.

As I listened I experienced the story.  It was intense and dark and often times horrifying.  The things drug addicts do and say are difficult to listen to.  I have known a few alcoholics, and it breaks my heart to be around them.  They cannot help themselves, but you cannot help them either.  The vicious cycle is exhausting and ultimately impossible, as the father experiences in the book.  It is hard, because he offers little hope, because the option of complete recovery is not something that is preached, expecially on hard drugs.

I would absolutely recommend this book to others who feel they can handle it.  Having never experienced it, I feel as though I have a tighter grasp on the reality of the situation, and people should step outside themselves for a book like this to gain insight on the horrifying phenommenon that the drug world is.

Books on tape? Yes please. 
I can soak up an entire book while running errands and I have been loving it.

Any recommendations?
Want to send anything my way?

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Comments

  1. AshleyJune 27, 2012 at 4:06 PM

    Barbara Kingsolver's "A Prodigal Summer". The version I listened to is the one she reads herself, unabridged. It's fantastic.

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