Clegg's sense of pacing is superb, and he finds this wonderful balance between detailing his condition, the drugs, his friends, his losses, and gathering a larger sense of perspective on his life that's a joy to read. I've never suffered the kind of addiction he has lived with and lived through, yet the writing is so strong, so honest that it allows anyone, even an outsider like myself, to feel something of the turmoil of that state.
By what magic does he conjure this immediacy with a reader? I don't exactly know, but I can't imagine anyone not being gripped by his writing and his story. Despite my knowing Bill slightly in his pre-recovery days, I never understood him nor liked him much. Yet here I was reading his book, rooting for him and sharing a little of his love for his friends in the AA program "the rooms", as he calls it. It's meaningful and memorable and wise.
Get a copy and breathe it in. You won't be disappointed. At the start of each meeting, you go around the circle and each person says aloud how many days clean they have. This involves some repetition, and there are lots of references to friends and lovers, both past and present, that I had trouble keeping straight. For me, there are no finish lines. No recovered, just recovering. My sobriety, that delicate state that can, for years at a time, feel unshakable, is completely dependent on my connection to other alcoholics and addicts, my seeking their help and my offering it.
Jan 25, Ilyssa Wesche rated it did not like it. I am hopping mad about this book sorry Julie! This should be edited down to be the epilogue of the paperback edition of his last book which I also read, and wasn't crazy about, but liked more than this. Listen, I get that addiction is a horrible, wrenching, soul-sucking disease. Reviewing memoirs is tricky - even little Goodreads reviews for my own self.
There's a line between critiquing a book and the person, and I am only talking about the former. The bottom line is Bill Clegg, like anyone, should be commended for getting sober, for continuing to go back to meetings, for sharing his story with other addicts, and for his honesty. And I recognize some of my fury is just some old baggage I've been carrying around. Some of my ire is jealousy.
See a Problem?
I feel the same way I always feel when addicts are commended for getting up and going to work at the and coming home and cleaning their bathroom. Oh yay you, you did great today! Except that's called being a grown person. Everyone needs a little recovery time, but most of us aren't lucky enough to get a year of not working and living in their own apartment in the city, while a rich friend brings food over every week.
But mostly I'm angry because this isn't a book, it's a diary. Publishing it seems to feed into Clegg's terminal uniqueness. If he were anything other than a literary agent there's no way in hell this follow-up memoir would be published at all. Lousy business decisions like this make the whole publishing world look bad! Out of rehab, still terminally unique, barely holding on Day Relapse Rinse, repeat, interject a couple of stories about fellow addicts Day 5, The epilogue is the only redeeming factor.
Anytime an addict says "Day 1 for the last time", you know it isn't the last time. I felt a sense of relief in Bangkok. Next time, maybe a nice article in the NYT would be sufficient. Feb 07, Abeck01 rated it really liked it. This book fills in a lot of the blanks from "Portrait of the Young Man as an Addict. I was extremely angry at him as I read this new book and realized how he had misrepresented his recovery in the prior work, but I guess once in denial, always in denial.
Yes,he does try to make up for that here, and his descriptions and representations of himself are quit This book fills in a lot of the blanks from "Portrait of the Young Man as an Addict. Yes,he does try to make up for that here, and his descriptions and representations of himself are quite harrowing.
One leaves the book with a much clearer understanding of just how difficult it is to remain on the recovery path, that it takes a lot of determination and commitment, and just how easy it is to go off the path. One also gets a greater appreciation for the one day at a time philosophy, which enables a reader to be less judgmental, but leaves room for feelings of exasperation.
I also wondered how much of this book he had to write in order to fill in more of his story before his former partner Ira Sachs released his film "Keep the Lights On," which essentially is the story of their relationship told from Ira's point of view. Since Ira's film goes beyond Bill's initial rehab and into their relationship post-release, I think Bill felt he had to account for more of his behavior that may or may not have been covered in Sach's fictional yet clearly autobiographical film.
I also wish that Clegg had included in his new book the reactions of people around him to his first book, not only his partner's reaction, but some of the people he met in rehab, his family, etc.
90 days from today
But Clegg doesn't go there, which seems to be a major omission from this newest work. Jun 01, Eric Rickert rated it it was ok Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I live for a good memoir, but in the words of Nicki Minaj, "I don't know, mane. He smoked a lot of crack, wrecked his life, destroyed his career, drained his ba I live for a good memoir, but in the words of Nicki Minaj, "I don't know, mane. He smoked a lot of crack, wrecked his life, destroyed his career, drained his bank account, fixed himself, moved back to NYC, and spends the rest of the pages in a kind of Groundhog Day of addiction and abstinence, like Bill Murray is Bill Clegg and Andie MacDowell is a crack pipe.
And I get that addiction is cyclical; it's hard to break any kind of cycle. And then there's the question of his boo's. I particularly disliked his treatment of Asa. The fact that he brings him up again and again after Clegg flatly dismisses his romantic advances feels really mean-spirited. And I'm sure Clegg himself would say he's emblematic of addiction, in that a person must always keep it in mind because it's always right around the corner, but I think Clegg's biography alone speaks volumes to that.
Just cut him out of the narrative after you're finished using him as a basic driving device. Asa will now forever know that his story was made public; even if his name is changed, that stain will never be erased. Props for exorcising the demons and helping people by airing your dirty laundry. Rah rah, I guess. Being sober is the coolest thing in the world. I felt the need to take a shower after finishing this, and it had nothing to do with the crank.
Oct 29, Katie rated it really liked it.
- The Adventures of the Peters Family : A Dolphin of a time;
- Whitewater: A Thriller.
- 90 days from today?
- Das Rätsel des Lebens bleibt ein Geheimnis: Wissenschaftsgeschichte (German Edition)!
- The Hitmans Holiday (The Hitman Series Book 1);
Talk about a time when I did NOT need a good cry, but finished this book and had one anyway. Bill Clegg is so talented. Jun 24, Allizabeth Collins rated it liked it. Ninety Days is the true story of Bill Clegg's recovery - crack addicted to clean and sober. This memoir is the follow-up to his first book , Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, and begins where it left off - after seventy-three days of rehab. A raw and highly emotional look into the life of a once prominent businessman and his strenuous journey to sobriety, Ninety days is an intense, yet simply-written, look into recovery from addiction.
It feels like I am reading Clegg's j Description: It feels like I am reading Clegg's journal, and the entries have a lot of impact. His writing style is honest and full of poignant prose, his ordeal a glimpse into a torment of the human condition. The interactions and dialogue are well-written, but the sections about his relapse s are some of the most engrossing.
I am very moved by his story, however, I feel like Ninety Days should be read after Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, because it feels sort of incomplete alone. Apr 06, Eris rated it really liked it. After reading his story of going down in flames in "Portrait of an Addict", I was curious to see how the recovery process went for him. If you are an addict or know an addict, the path is predictable but still painful in all of the relapses, moments of personal blindness, the pain and the fury.
Halfway through this, I found myself itching - while I think this recovery memoir can be useful to many who are new to recovery, those who are at risk of being set off by trigger memories should avoid thi After reading his story of going down in flames in "Portrait of an Addict", I was curious to see how the recovery process went for him. Halfway through this, I found myself itching - while I think this recovery memoir can be useful to many who are new to recovery, those who are at risk of being set off by trigger memories should avoid this until they have some time and distance from their worst days.
Those who have gone through the recovery process, or who are going through it, might find this a useful book to give friends to help explain what they are going through This is not "every man's tale", this is a tale, though, of many men and women. Those who bob their way to rock bottom rather than hitting it once and coming back for air permanently. Bill was brave in his writing, even in the face of saying things that do not endear his character to the reader.
It feels honest, and that is the hardest part of the recovery process - facing the world in your naked truth. Apr 08, Jennie added it. Seems like ninety years of groundhog day as Clegg tried to piece together three months of time that benchmark a solid toehold on sobriety. Clegg was finally able to write this account of his many failed attempts at rehab, of quitting binges with crack and vodka, of pissing off his sober friends while burning bridge after bridge and crack pipe after crack pipe.
It's nothing short of miraculous that Clegg had a single human being to turn to after his dissolute spiraling antics or even Ninety days? It's nothing short of miraculous that Clegg had a single human being to turn to after his dissolute spiraling antics or even remember enough of his early sober days to write it down. But, as with many other addicts, when Clegg is good he's very good; His portrayals of other addicts and drunks, also struggling to build a life out of their own messy wreckage, betray an astute compassion, a preternatural ability to connect with other humans in distress, a certain charm and charisma.
And this gift for friendship could very well explain Clegg's survival despite his strangely persistent impulse to self-annihilate. As we consider resurrections in the month of April, this odyssey is apropos. Jan 17, Emily M rated it it was ok Shelves: This follow-up memoir lacks the unmistakable intensity of its first volume, Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir , and I think my appreciation of that first book has at least slightly colored my impression of the second.
Still, though, this small book is worth reading. At the end of Portrait, there is a sense of triumph over addiction, which I felt hungry for after reading page after page of Clegg's shocking experiences as a crack addict. But this book reminds you that recovery from addi This follow-up memoir lacks the unmistakable intensity of its first volume, Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: But this book reminds you that recovery from addiction is not a straight upward line, but a series of hills and valleys that waffle interminably.
Portrait scares you straight. Ninety Days reminds you that nobody is ever fully recovered, and that perhaps that truth can be just as scary. View all 3 comments. Mar 23, Sean rated it really liked it.
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Ninety Days: A Memoir of Recovery by Bill Clegg
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At least the book has the virtue of relative brevity and neither is it actually written badly. Memoirs of an Addicted Brain , Marc Lewis's trajectory of addiction, is different because it started in the s, first with an overlong account of the bullying he suffered at school, which places his future adventures in the pharmacopoeia in some kind of context, and encompasses enormous numbers and quantities of drugs.
The difference here is that Lewis is a neuroscientist, and so can tell us what is going on in our brains when we take a particular drug. This is actually useful. He tells us why drugs make us crave more drugs. It is all about the dopamine, really: Lacan was on to something when he proposed desire as the driving flaw, if you wish, of human nature; but he never gets a mention in these books, which, when they turn to the matter, are mechanistically inclined.
And for those who doubt that drugs can alter the neural pathways, he points out that even "learning to play the violin or the piano changes your brain permanently". It is in linking and comparing the changes to the brain made by drugs and those made by our daily routines that Damian Thompson finds his purpose. That little kick of pleasure you get when you order your insanely complex coffee from Starbucks?
The thrill of a new product from Apple with a lower-case "i" in front of it? The time you spend on your phone, or on Facebook, or Twitter, or World of Warcraft , or online porn, or eating cupcakes?