book review

Please choose a book and answer the questions. There is an example added to the end. Attached is a grading rubric. I need fully credit on this so please follow it.

While Hollywood doesnt always create an accurate portrayal of addiction on film, the written word has been the source for some truly remarkable stories about the lives of those who struggle with drugs. The following represents some of the most realistic, moving portrayals of drug addiction ever published. Each book presented here represents a different look at addiction and how it impacts our lives.

Choose one book you will read:

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts- Gabor Mate

Based on Gabor Mats two decades of experience as a medical doctor and his groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouvers skid row; this book radically reenvisions this much misunderstood field by taking a holistic approach. Dr. Mat presents addiction not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throughout (and perhaps underpins) our society; not a medical “condition” distinct from the lives it affects, rather the result of a complex interplay among personal history, emotional, and neurological development, brain chemistry, and the drugs (and behaviors) of addiction

Drinking: A Love Story (Caroline Knapp) Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as “liquid armor,” a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.

A Million Little Pieces (James Fry, Memoir/Fiction), when author Fry was outed for faking many of the details in his harrowing memoir, it seemed like the author had little credibility left. But further research into his story found that a large percentage of his story was true -including his lifelong battle with drug addiction.

Beautiful Boy: A Fathers Journey Through his Sons Meth Addiction, an unflinchingly honest book about a fathers struggle with his sons crystal meth addiction. Beautiful Boy has not been on shelves for long, but it is already considered essential reading for any parent whose child is engaged in substance abuse.

Orsons version

Tweek ( Nic Sheef) This New York Times bestselling memoir of a young mans addiction to methamphetamine tells a raw, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful tale of the road from relapse to recovery and complements his fathers parallel memoir, Beautiful Boy

Valley of the Dolls (Jacqueline Susann/Fiction), Although it has been much-maligned and parodied throughout the years, this tale of bored suburban housewives who numb their emotional pain with drugs was actually ahead of its time. Author Susann likely had no way to know that it would predict the epidemic levels of prescription drug addiction we are experiencing today.

Go Ask Alice (Anonymous, Memoir), Still hailed today as classic young-adult literature, this fictionalized memoir was written in 1971 and tells the tale of a young teenage girl who becomes addicted to drugs. The book has been used throughout the years as drug awareness propaganda because of the rapid journey the protagonist takes from experimentation to full-on addiction.

Junkie/Junky (William S. Burroughs, Memoir), This 1953 masterpiece is still considered the most detailed representation of the day-to-day life of a heroin addict. Burroughs used free-form prose to describe the ups and downs of heroin addiction, and what it felt like to always be chasing just one more fix.

Broken ( William Moyers) Broken is a true-life tale of recovery that stuns and inspires with virtually every page. The eldest son of journalist Bill Moyers, William Cope Moyers relates with unforgettable clarity the story of how a young man with every advantage found himself spiraling into a love affair with crack cocaine that led him to the brink of death-and how a deep spirituality allowed him to conquer his shame, transform his life, and dedicate himself to changing America’s politics of addiction.

The Gilded Razor
A Memoir
By Sam Lansky (Links to an external site.)

Sharply funny and compulsively readable, The Gilded Razor is a powerful addition to the literature of active addiction and recovery (New York Times bestselling author Bill Clegg) from debut author Sam Lansky.

The Gilded Razor is the true story of a double life that New York Times bestselling author George Hodgman called virtuosic. By the age of seventeen, Sam Lansky was an all-star student with Ivy League aspirations in his final year at an elite New York City prep school. But a nasty addiction to prescription pills spiraled rapidly out of control, compounded by a string of reckless affairs with older men, leaving his bright future in jeopardy. After a terrifying overdose, he tried to straighten out. Yet as he journeyed from the glittering streets of Manhattan, to a wilderness boot camp in Utah, to a psych ward in New Orleans, he only found more opportunities to create chaosuntil finally, he began to face himself.
After  reading, write a review of the book while addressing with the text ( cite the text and page numbers  in your book  FOR EACH OF THE FOLLOWING AREAS and then the textbook that corresponds to the component of addiction described) , USE EXAMPLES FROM THE TEXT AND YOUR NOVEL FOR EACH SECTION:

Describe and give examples of how you can see how the disease of addiction is defined (pp. 6, 9,71)
What were the warning signs that you read about in this story which were evidence for the disease of addiction and the symptoms (pg 71-72)
Explain what were the RISK FACTORS, which contribute to this addiction ( p73-74)
Describe the types of TREATMENTS AND OUTCOMES of these treatments in this story( p 648-649)and compare them to the text.
Research the ways to PREVENT this disease p(610-612.  Describe three ways this individual may have prevented this disease (use ch 17 of text)
Sample book review of Beautiful Boy

  Book Review

Beautiful Boy

              Beautiful Boy by David Sheff is a heart-wrenching story about a man who is struggling with his sons crystal meth addiction. Davids son, Nic, was a normal child. At a young age he began winning writing prizes and was very smart. When Nic was 11 he began smoking Marijuana, drinking alcohol and eventually started doing LSD. After doing LSD Nic eventually moved on to crystal meth, and all the promise that he once had began to diminish.

              When looking back upon his sons life and his struggles with addiction, David Sheff recalls multiple warning signs that Nic subconsciously gave him. David noticed that Nics style was changing and his attitude became quite dark.

              Nics taste in books and music continues to evolve. His onetime favorite authors, J.D. Salinger, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck and Mark Twain, have been replaced by an assortment of misanthropes, addicts, drunks, depressives, and suicides(pg. 82, Beautiful Boy).

According to the text Drugs and Society, a change in a persons moods or behavior is a danger signal of drug abuse, and Nic was a prime example of this. Nic began stealing from his father and his fathers wife, and he also began to write bad check on their accounts in order to get money to support his addiction. Addiction is a very complex disease. According to Drugs and Society,
                The World Health Organization (WHO)defined it as a state of periodic or                chronic intoxication detrimental to the individual and society, which is    characterized by an overwhelming desire to continue taking the drug and to obtain it by any means, (pg. 58).

Through out the story Nic was blind to the fact that he had a problem, he would disappear from home for night and when he would return he looked as if he was knocking on deaths door. Nic would refuse to go to rehab because he did not think that he had a problem, meanwhile he would steal and lie to his parents in order to support his crystal meth addiction.

              There are many risk factors that could have led to Nics addiction. One of the risk factors that affected Nic was repressed and unresolved grief and rage when it came to his parents getting divorced, this could lead to chronic depression, anxiety or pain thus leading to addiction. Nic struggled with his parents divorce; his mother moved to Los Angeles where she remarried and that took a toll on Nic. David describes, Sometimes we all acutely feel Vickis absence. When Nic misses her, the telephone helps, though after hearing her voice he can be sadder, (pg. 36). Another risk factor that played a role in Nics addiction was the availability of drugs this made it easy to use drugs frequently. Nic started smoking weed and drinking at a very young age and eventually graduated to crystal meth because it was so easy to get.

              When David realized how serious of a problem Nic had he felt hopeless because now that Nic was 18 he could not make him go to rehab. After doing some research David finally found a treatment facility in Oakland where he would take Nic, David told Nic that in order for him to live at his house he would have to go to this treatment facility and even though Nic didnt believe he had a problem he agreed to go. Nic isnt able to go to the facility in Oakland because his addiction is much too serious. Nic enters a four-week recovery program and seems to be getting better when he moves into a halfway house then disappears. Nic relapses and does not return home for a long time. Over the months Nic trys different approaches to dealing with his addiction weather its medication, treatment facilities, weekly meeting with a sponsor, Nic tries it all and some times it works and sometimes it does not. The book concludes with Nic on the path to recovery and still staying sober. David describes, I call Nic to say hi. We talk awhile. He sounds-he sounds like Nic, my son, back. Whats next? Well see, (pg. 317, Beautiful Boy).

              Drug prevention is one of the most important things a parent could do for their child. Through out the book David is continuously blaming himself for his sons addiction but he realizes that it is not his fault. There are some things that could have been done to prevent Nic from getting this disease. One of the things that would have been beneficial to Nic is having strong and positive family bonds, Nic lost these bonds when his parents got divorced and I think that played a big role in why Nic became an addict.  Similar to having strong family bonds another way that his disease could have been prevented is involvement of parents in his life, when his mother and father got divorced his mom immediately moved to Los Angeles and remarried and this hurt Nic because he needed to have his mother in his life to be there and support him. Lastly, his disease could have been prevented if he had stronger bonds in school. Nic was brilliant at such a young age; he was winning awards for his writing and was very passionate about school. When he began to lose that passion the drug addiction began, if he had stronger bonds at school his disease could have been prevented.