LoveReading Says
This book tells a dreadful, familiar tale. Nic’s parents separate, acrimoniously, when he is three. He has his first joint at twelve. By eighteen, he is addicted to the ‘most malefic drug of all’ – methamphetamine (meth). There are worrying disappearances from home, theft (also from home), violence (‘tweaking’) and trouble with the police. But it’s the father who feels guilty. The son just hates himself and takes more meth.
Three things make this book different. Nic does not die (at the time of writing). He writes his side of the story in his own book (“Tweakâ€). His father, a former drug-taker, knew about meth addiction all along – a university friend died of it on the eve of his fortieth birthday.
Alongside the human story, this book examines the origins and usage of meth, its depth of market penetration compared to other drugs and the benefits, or not, of therapy.
A lot of books are just like drugs. Once you have started, you can’t stop. This is one of them. If you are a parent, you need to read it. If you are a teenager, you should read it.
LoveReading
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Beautiful Boy Synopsis
David 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, honour 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 candour, 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 one another too, lest they become addicted to addiction.
About This Edition
About David Sheff
David Sheff's work has appeared in the New York Times, Outside, Rolling Stone, Wired, Fortune and elsewhere. His piece for the New York Times Magazine, 'My Addicted Son' received an award from the American Psychological Association for 'Outstanding Contribution to Advancing the Understanding of Addiction.'
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