January 1, 2016
Privileged, gay, drug-using, self-loathing teenager Lansky (currently a writer and editor at TIME) chose to be a high-school senior in New York City, living with his newly divorced father rather than staying with his mother in his hometown, Portland, Oregon. Lansky's memoir of that year and his first few months in college is unstintingly honest about his sexual activities, his rampant drug use, his continual warping of the truth to make himself likable to the new people he met. His beleaguered parents (and dad's new girlfriend) do their best, eventually paying to send the unrepentant, sick teen into several different rehab programs, fascinatingly depicted here and showing the young Lansky's calmly selfish language, thoughts, and actions. In this fraught and frightening telling, there's unbounded behavior on all levels, and Lansky ingests nearly every drug he can think of (many of which he spews back out again). There are moments of levity here and goodness, as well, but the best news is that Lansky ultimately wants to find his way back to normalcy. Readers will cheer him on.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
January 18, 2016
There is much in this memoir of addiction that comes off as stereotypical, from the socialite party girl best friend to the loving-yet-absent divorced parents. Yet despite the been-here-read-it-before feeling, there is something in Lansky's story thatâwait for itâcan be called addictive. An editor at Time magazine who has written for countless A-list publications, Lansky is more than another journaling junkie. Maybe its because his downward spiral only lasted a couple years in his late teens, but Lansky tells his tale with a rapid pacing that perfectly apes the speed at which he was careening out of control. But despite this flat out writing style, Lansky's command of language never wavers as he alternatively bears his soul and pokes fun at himself with prose that's incisive and witty. When he asks questions like "Do I need a green Dior trench coat in rehab?" there is no doubt that some will find him "fucking ridiculous," as one treatment center patient called him, but even those who find another addiction memoir a bitter pill to swallow can't deny Lansky's writing chops or storytelling skills. Agent: Andrew Stuart, Stuart Agency