An often entertaining though sometimes erratic paean to the joys of psychedelic adventuring.
An exuberant endorsement of the use of psychedelics as an instrument of self-discovery.
Michael Pollan’s How To Change Your Mind explores the effects of psychedelic drugs, especially LSD and psilocybin, on the damaged psyche, but “only under the supervision of a trained professional.” Nonsense, says Williams, who notes that “Pollan advocates for the use of psilocybin in a clinical setting within an established Western psychopharmocological context.” Such a provision ignores the explorations of “women, indigenous people, old-school hippies, herbalists, and even teenagers” in self-directed trips courtesy of magic mushrooms. The author’s explorations began at the age of 15 and picked up again in adulthood; not for her the old bromide that one should abandon a drug when it no longer has anything to teach. “I almost got arrested is a good answer,” she counters and then adds, “If it happened decades ago, it’s just a memory.” Offering a few useful rules for would-be psychonauts, Williams counsels not to store your drug dealer’s number on your cellphone, share that dealer’s name with friends until you’ve cleared it beforehand, and never show up with less than the amount you need to clear the transaction. Otherwise, “you deserve to be the unlucky victim in one of those scenes that happens in an abandoned dump site in Breaking Bad.” So much for peace and love. Otherwise, she writes, ingest some mushrooms and take a bus across West Texas, digging the vibes—and don’t be like Jane Fonda, who confessed to doing peyote with Lily Tomlin to prepare for a film role but didn’t enjoy the experience. Venturing into New Age territory, Williams even advises that one doesn’t need to eat a plant such as datura in order to “have a powerful relationship with it”; sometimes it’s enough just to have it on hand to dig its essence and head out into the cosmos.
An often entertaining though sometimes erratic paean to the joys of psychedelic adventuring.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-948340-31-1
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Dottir Press
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
An unflinching self-portrait.
The tumultuous life of a bisexual, autistic comic.
In her debut memoir, Scottish comedian Brady recounts the emotional turmoil of living with undiagnosed autism. “The public perception of autistics is so heavily based on the stereotype of men who love trains or science,” she writes, “that many women miss out on diagnosis and are thought of as studious instead.” She was nothing if not studious, obsessively focused on foreign languages, but she found it difficult to converse in her own language. From novels, she tried to gain “knowledge about people, about how they spoke to each other, learning turns of phrase and metaphor” that others found so familiar. Often frustrated and overwhelmed by sensory overload, she erupted in violent meltdowns. Her parents, dealing with behavior they didn’t understand—including self-cutting—sent her to “a high-security mental hospital” as a day patient. Even there, a diagnosis eluded her; she was not accurately diagnosed until she was 34. Although intimate friendships were difficult, she depicts her uninhibited sexuality and sometimes raucous affairs with both men and women. “I grew up confident about my queerness,” she writes, partly because of “autism’s lack of regard for social norms.” While at the University of Edinburgh, she supported herself as a stripper. “I liked that in a strip club men’s contempt of you was out in the open,” she admits. “In the outside world, misogyny was always hovering in your peripheral vision.” When she worked as a reporter for the university newspaper, she was assigned to try a stint as a stand-up comic and write about it; she found it was work she loved. After “about a thousand gigs in grim little pubs across England,” she landed an agent and embarked on a successful career. Although Brady hopes her memoir will “make things feel better for the next autistic or misfit girl,” her anger is as evident as her compassion.
An unflinching self-portrait.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9780593582503
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harmony
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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