An entrancing journey through the lower depths.
A sensitive, wildly out-of-control girl grows up battling drug addiction and manic-depression in this memoir of dysfunction.
Given her home environment—a hostile, alcoholic father and a mom who rolled marijuana cigarettes at the kitchen table—it’s not surprising that by the time she left high school, the author was regularly indulging in weed, acid and cocaine, and cutting herself. But these habits were relatively minor problems compared to the voices in her head and the constant cycling between black funks and surges of elation that have her convinced that she is “greatness personified.” To relieve her psychic pain, Wells embarks on an odyssey through the mental-health archipelago and enlarges her illicit armamentarium to include heroin and crack; the result is a horrific downward spiral, suicide attempts, bulimia, innumerable stints in psych wards and rehab, homelessness and a flirtation with crack whoredom. Through it all, Wells is sustained by a support system that includes a string of long-suffering therapists—drawn to them as surrogate fathers, she bombards them with late-night crisis phone calls—who try to stabilize her bipolar swings with their own pharmaceutical cocktails, and her not always helpful mother who swoops in when her daughter overdoses and then relaxes with her over a soothing joint. (One of the book’s many revelations is its depiction of the ubiquity of drugs, legal and illegal, in all walks of American life and the thinness of the line separating the respectable middle class from the addict underclass.) Wells’ story is full of lurid scenes, but she avoids melodrama; her writing has both a lyrical intensity—“I love the feel of a big piece of crack. Rough between my fingers. I hate when I have to break it up too small. Reducing its might.”—and a deadpan humor that dispels bathos. She manages to convey a whirlwind of narcotized craziness with remarkable clarity and insight.
An entrancing journey through the lower depths.Pub Date: July 14, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-557-43353-7
Page Count: 430
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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