An incredible, incredible book

books:


	• Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction David Sheff Houghton Mifflin Co, 2008 - 326 pages average customer review:based on 86 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I'm living it...

Beautiful Boy is dead on. My son is a 17 year old drug addict. I look at pictures of him as a small child and wonder what the hell happened. It's excrutiatingly sad. I'm actually selling my copy of the book on Amazon, and all of my other books- everything I have, because rehab is so expensive- $28,000.00 cash up front. I will do whatever it takes to save my child's life. Beachbookery.

Fascinating and Well-written

This book really builds empathy and understanding for families drawn into this dreadful problem. I just finished acting in two consecutive plays that coincidentally dealt with addiction and recovery and this book just expanded what I learned from that experience. Most of this information I had heard or read before, but when it is delivered in such a personal way it becomes more meaningful. Toward the end I became more and more anxious to get to some final resolution and I am sure the family felt and still feels that way, but their lives are not a book that they can just put aside. The mental state that the author arrives at in the epilogue was especially surprising and interesting. I am eager to read Tweak for another point of view.

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honest and riveting

Loved this book! It is a very honest and heartbreaking depiction of the back-and-forth existence of being the parent of an addict. The father makes no excuses and continually reassesses his impact and/or responsibility in his son's illness. No self-pity or blame placed - just raw emotion. I hope to never have to go through this, but will give this book to anyone suffering through it. BEAUTIFUL BOOK!

An incredible, incredible book

Being that I'm currently going through much the same thing that David Sheff went through--albeit on a smaller scale (if there is such a thing as a "smaller scale" of addiction when your own kid is the addict)--Beautiful Boy made me cry like a baby many, many times. I'm sure if you read it, it will affect you, too. So many of the thoughts the dad has are dead on with what I've experienced over the last four years. And the realization that he finally came to--that one way or another, your child will live or die with or without you, and it's really out of your control, so you have to let go of it--is the one thing that I just haven't been able to get my arms around yet. I totally understand what he's saying. But letting go is so, so, so hard. I get daily updates from my kid's counselor at rehab (my son signed a full disclosure agreement). And I cry after reading them. I never in a million years thought that I'd have an addict for a son who would be in rehab 360 miles away from home at age 18. It's tough. To everyone who is reading this review and has a younger child: Talk to them about drugs. Talk about the dangers, talk about alternatives to self-medication, etc. You do NOT want to go through what David Sheff went through and what my wife and I are going through and have gone through for 4+ years. You'll just have to trust me on that one. Kudos to Mr. Sheff for writing one of the best books I've ever read. I wish nothing but the best for him and his son, Nic.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Sheff s story is a first: a teenager s addiction from the parent s point of view a real-time chronicle of the shocking descent into substance abuse and the gradual emergence into hope. Before meth, Sheff s son Nic was a varsity athlete, honor student, and award-winning journalist. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who stole money from his eight-year-old brother and lived on the streets. With haunting candor, Sheff traces the first subtle warning signs, the denial (by both child and parents), the three A.M. phone calls (is it Nic? the police? the hospital?), the attempts at rehab, and, at last, the way past addiction. He shows us that, whatever an addict s fate, the rest of the family must care for each other too, lest they become addicted to addiction. Meth is the fastest-growing drug in the United States, as well as the most addictive and the most dangerous wreaking permanent brain damage faster than any other readily available drug. It has invaded every region and demographic in America. This book is the first that treats meth and its impact in depth. But it is not just about meth. Nic s addiction has wrought the same damage that any addiction will wreak. His story, and his father s, are those of any family that contains an addict and one in three American families does.

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