Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction

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It's a hit!

This is the most difficult book I have ever read. I don't mean in a literary sense (although it is written well). This was difficult emotionally, ... (show more)

This is the most difficult book I have ever read. I don't mean in a literary sense (although it is written well). This was difficult emotionally, especially when there's someone you love and can connect it to. With that, it seems all too real and provokes SO much emotion, exhaustion, worry, and love that - i've never had that from a book ever so much as this.

But it is also so very, VERY good and SHOULD be read by so many. Read it because of someone you love - for your kids to inform them before they ever begin. Read it for someone you love who is already a user so you can better understand them, their illness and be informed by the research and experience in it's pages, and so you can recognize some familiarity and, maybe, not feel so alone. Or read it, if you are a user, to know what it does to those who LOVE you. (show less)

 

 

by Facebook-användare

No, it's a flop!

i got this book because i wanted to understand the process. i wanted to empathize with this family... and i did to an extent. i mean, drug addictio... (show more)

i got this book because i wanted to understand the process. i wanted to empathize with this family... and i did to an extent. i mean, drug addiction is just devastating. but couldn't overlook the fact that this father made some major choices in his life that affected his little boy tremendously. i'm not sure he even really understood that effect bc at one point in the prologue (?) he says he thinks his son had a charmed life. meaning, he's not sure where his tendency for drug use might've sprouted from. and you know what, he might have had a his "good" life. but as a young kid, he was going through custody battle. as a five year old, he was traveling alone in a plane to visit the other parent for months at a time or crawling in bed, to find his dad with another woman. (not to mention the episode in which he smoked pot with dad.) i just think that's a major issue and as a society we SO overlook the effects of our choices and the effects of divorce on children. i'm not saying this father did not love his son. he really did and it's very obvious in this book. and hindsight is 20/20, i know. but so much could've been avoided.

as an educator, i see some many kids come into the classroom with family baggage. they are hurt, they are hurting... and we as grown ups continue to make choices that affect them tremendously, not remembering that their little lives are 100% dependent on us and what we do with them. we don't always really realize what amount of help and love they need. so they look elsewhere.

i know i didn't really review the book. it's a fine book. read it. but i don't think we can ignore the lesson in it either. (show less)

 

 

by Carol Nascimento

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  Upon first picking up this book I thought, "Yeah, yeah, another poor addict book." But although it did begin like that, the father and family getting used to the fact their son may be a drug addict, it didn't continue this way. David truly delved into the way addiction effects the whole family, leaving little to the imagination and showing me just how much families and friends of addicts are at first in denial, then how we support their addictions, how we lose hope, how we wait fo... (show more)

  Upon first picking up this book I thought, "Yeah, yeah, another poor addict book." But although it did begin like that, the father and family getting used to the fact their son may be a drug addict, it didn't continue this way. David truly delved into the way addiction effects the whole family, leaving little to the imagination and showing me just how much families and friends of addicts are at first in denial, then how we support their addictions, how we lose hope, how we wait for "the phone call" and also how much drugs affect trust within the family dynamic.
  I found many of the facts and figures interesting and also how David explained the science behind addiction and withdrawal. I understood how he felt about some of the preaching behind rehabs. Having a family go through all this (and still is) I could relate to these frustrations with rehabs and their lack of success and fluff they tend to sprout. Many families of addicts should read this book, as should members of the Government involved in the health care that is provided for addicts, as there certainly is not enough out there. (show less)

   

  by Rachel Hanlon on Feb 21, 2009 at 12:27PM

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  Ever read a book and really just want to love it...and can't? That's how I feel about Beautiful Boy.

  David Sheff talks about all the things that could have left Nic astray: his own drug-use, bad parenting, permissiveness, blame, guilt and simply not catching the problem in time. At no point however do we as a reader get any sense of exactly how any of these could have changed things...Sheff jumps from believing them to be the cause of Nic's problems to declaring that none of them are to bla... (show more)

  Ever read a book and really just want to love it...and can't? That's how I feel about Beautiful Boy.

  David Sheff talks about all the things that could have left Nic astray: his own drug-use, bad parenting, permissiveness, blame, guilt and simply not catching the problem in time. At no point however do we as a reader get any sense of exactly how any of these could have changed things...Sheff jumps from believing them to be the cause of Nic's problems to declaring that none of them are to blame. (The truth is probably somewhere between those extremes in reality.) We get a detailed account of Nic's ups-and-down and the history that led to his drug problem as well as a detailed study of how this effects his family...but at the end of the book, we're left with no sense that things are better than before, that things will be different this time for Nic. We, like Sheff, have heard the lies and believed them too many times to no longer be skeptical.

  This book feels like a middle rather than a beginning-to-end account of a personal story of the horrors of methamphetamine. (show less)

   

   

  by Jamie Gordon on Dec 04, 2009 at 04:21AM

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