portrait of an addict as a young man by bill clegg
Bill Clegg was a successful literary agent who descended into hell through drugs and alcohol. The short paragraphs in each chapter are tiny tidbits of his slow decline. Clegg has a brilliant command of the words he chooses to describe the highs, "the warm glow of the drug shield me from caring." His addiction is to crack. Vodka just helps the buzz. There is comfort to having a pipe in his pocket waiting for the next hit. Clegg spends day holed up in hotels through out NYC smoking and drinking without food for days. Money slowly dries up.
Certain chapters are devoted to snippets of his childhood. Substance abuse is in his family. There are interventions from his family and his boyfriend, Noah, who Clegg is lucky to have watching his back.
He goes to rehab, he relapses, he doesn't care. Drugs can make you care about nothing else but just doing drugs. Clegg writes in a way that makes the reader really understand why it is so difficult to quit, how the drug becomes you.
The book is a quick read. It is a powerful. He might have been an agent but Clegg is a powerful writer. An amazing insightful story of his addiction. A worth while read.