Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #920 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-26
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 326 pages

Amazon.com
Amazon Best of the Month, February 2008: From as early as grade school, the world seemed to be on Nic Sheff's string. Bright and athletic, he excelled in any setting and appeared destined for greatness. Yet as childhood exuberance faded into teenage angst, the precocious boy found himself going down a much different path. Seduced by the illicit world of drugs and alcohol, he quickly found himself caught in the clutches of addiction. Beautiful Boy is Nic's story, but from the perspective of his father, David. Achingly honest, it chronicles the betrayal, pain, and terrifying question marks that haunt the loved ones of an addict. Many respond to addiction with a painful oath of silence, but David Sheff opens up personal wounds to reinforce that it is a disease, and must be treated as such. Most importantly, his journey provides those in similar situations with a commodity that they can never lose: hope --Dave Callanan

From Publishers Weekly
Expanding on his New York Times Magazine article, Sheff chronicles his son's downward spiral into addiction and the impact on him and his family. A bright, capable teenager, Nic began trying mind- and mood-altering substances when he was 17. In months, use became abuse, then abuse became addiction. By the time Sheff knew of his son's condition, Nic was strung out on meth, the highly potent stimulant. While his son struggles to get clean, his second wife and two younger children are pulled helplessly into the drama. Sheff, as the parent of an addict, cycles through denial and acceptance and resistance. The author was already a journalist of considerable standing when this painful story began to unfold, and his impulse for detail serves him personally as well as professionally: there are hard, solid facts about meth and the kinds of havoc it wreaks on individuals, families and communities both urban and rural. His journey is long and harrowing, but Sheff does not spare himself or anyone else from keen professional scrutiny any more than he was himself spared the pains—and joys—of watching a loved one struggling with addiction and recovery. Real recovery creates—and can itself be—its own reward; this is an honest, hopeful book, coming at a propitious moment in the meth epidemic.
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From AudioFile
David Sheff recounts his side of the story of his son's drug addiction in this powerful memoir, a counterpart to his son's telling memoir on the same subject (TWEAK). While the two works may be slightly more complete when listened to one after the other, in any order, this powerful and sorrowful story of a father living through his son's meltdown can also stand alone. Narrator Anthony Heald reads at a slightly fast pace that reflects the stream-of-consciousness point of view of the book. While Heald never truly becomes Sheff, his narration is exciting and engaging--but in a more theatrical style than may be appropriate for such a personal memoir. L.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Boy
Great Book! New book so product was in perfect shape. Delivery quick. This book is a wonderful story about addiction and a parents journey. Recommend this book for all who have travelled down this road!!

Beautiful boy
Another wonderful book that I have recommended to several members of our Family Annyomous group. Very enlighting as to what the addict goes through and how his family tried to help him. Gives hope to family members of addicts. Something we don't always have much of.

Love? Sacrifice? Principle?
I must admit, I couldn't get past the first twenty pages. So far, the author has written of the years of self-incrimination he's suffered, but ultimately he reaches the conclusion that we all must make our own life and death decisions, and he chooses life. Then, he begins to chronicle his experience: how having their first child complicates his relationship with his first wife, the child's mother, so he has an affair. At the first counseling session, he pronounces the marriage over. The divorce gets messy, and an arbitrator decides that the child should stay with the father in San Francisco except for holidays and the summer, when he'll be shuffled off to Mom in LA. At five, the child is flying alone. That's as far as I could go. Thank goodness for professionals like the arbitrator who acts in a child's interest by tearing his life in two, and most of all for the father who has never grasped that love means sacrifice. Another self-interested memoir about the "life struggles" of California's whine and cheese set? No thanks. I took it back to the library in favor of a recent biography of Washington. I'll wager the author wouldn't have the fortitude to survive a day in Washington's shoes. And Washington is ennobled by his adherence to principles, which as far as the author appears to know, are the people who run the public schools.