Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines

Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I found this book at my mom's house in SF (my aunt left it there) and I probably wouldn't have it read it otherwise. I had nothing else to take with me on the 5 hour airplane back to NYC. I liked this enough to buy David Sheff's book 'Beautiful Boy' which I'll read when I finish Joyce Carol Oates. I appreciate Nic's honesty and his bravery in holding nothing back. I don't tend to like 'memoirs' about drug addiction and rehab, and Sheff is just so young to be writing about his experiences. I was hoping he would write more about his childhood experiences of living in a 'grown up world' and I was hoping he would write more about how his drug addiction and early rehab experiences destroyed his family. This is probably discussed in 'Beautiful Boy' (which I no doubt should have read first).


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I Know This Much Is True

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Identical twins. One is schizophrenic and one is not. And that barely even skims the surface of Wally Lamb's beautiful, questioning, and poignant second novel.



Wally Lamb's books are long. At 900 pages, 'I Know This Much Is True' is only a bit shorter than 'War and Peace'. I guess I've been reading his novels out of sequence (I started with 'The Hour I First Believed' and have not yet read 'She's Come Undone'). I love his prose. I love his constant soul searching blended intriguingly with historical fiction and epic family sagas. Yes, his metaphors get repetitive after 500 pages, but I don't mind. It's well worth it to find such a gripping novel which covers so much ground. I found myself wanting more. I didn't want this book to end.



This novel is not as polished as Eugenides' 'Middlesex' but Lamb's attention to detail and his creation of complex and believable characters and their struggles with self discovery are so moving. Finding peace through self discovery -- something we all seek and strive to achieve.






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The Rapture of Canaan

The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm becoming quite a fan of Sheri Reynolds. This is the second novel of hers (I read The Sweet In Between in December) that I have read and I love that her books center on very heavy issues while keeping an enrapturing flow of innocence -- mostly due to the first person narratives of the teenage protagonists. Reynolds never veers off the subject nor does she get repetitive or provide too much exposition. She provides the reader with fabulous and disturbing images -- building up to the eventual climax. In 'The Rapture of Canaan', she creates a religious commune that is so realistic and terrifying, a world that most likely *does* exist somewhere in America. But religion aside, assimilation with society, beliefs that are forced upon children by their parents, and coming of age are topics that are relevant to everyone, and *that* is what makes this book so powerful.


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