1 of 1 copy available
Award–winning author James Brown gained a cult following after chronicling his turbulent childhood and spiraling drug addiction in The Los Angeles Diaries. This River picks up where Brown left off in his first memoir, describing his tenuous relationship with sobriety, telling of agonizing relapses, and tracking his attempts to become a better father.
This is the heartbreaking and at times uplifting tale of Brown’s battles, peeking into his former life as an addict and detailing his subsequent ascent to sobriety and fight for redemption.
“A beautifully crafted and intensely moving book. Without artifice or pretension—without false moves of any sort—James Brown goes after the biggest literary game: death, love, children, degeneration, hopelessness, hope. I read this book straight through, in one spellbound sitting, and I will read it again in a week or two. It is so good.” —Tim O’Brien, National Book Award winning–author of The Things They Carried
“Beautifully written, this is clear–eyed truth–telling by a man coming to terms with the best and worst in himself and others.” —Booklist
“This River pulls no punches—art shouldn’t and Brown doesn’t. The good, the bad, the ugly are all there in a lucid, uncluttered, muscular prose studded with honesty, willpower, and courage. Brown’s is a story of a man who, against overwhelming odds, not only came back from the abyss, but triumphed.” —Duff Brenna, author of AWP Best Novel The Book of Mamie
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
March 10, 2011 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781582438740
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781582438740
- File size: 637 KB
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
March 15, 2011
Not long after publication of his highly acclaimed The Los Angeles Diaries (2003), Brown relapsed into drug abuse. Yet, again, he pulled himself out of addiction and depression. This book recounts memories of struggling with addiction to alcohol and drugs, the truth of mental illness in his family, and the tragic deaths of family members. Brown is unsparing in describing his failings: risking his youngest sons life as the boy follows him injumping from a moving car to flee an intervention; the way he provided his children with instructions in the use of heroin; his wholehearted attempts to be a good father (teaching his sons wrestling and fishing, passing on lessons learned from his father); and his sympathy for others (closely noticing an emotionally troubled student and the vulnerabilities of fellow druggies). He is also unflinching in recognizing the trouble he visited on his children with the cruel dance of his inherited addictive personality. Beautifully written, this is clear-eyed truth-telling by a man coming to terms with the best and worst in himself and others.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
-