STROKE A SLAIN WARRIOR

by Frank Michael Cortina ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1970

In their own words with brief introductory commentaries and interlinear remarks by Mr. Cortina, a consultant to HEW on narcotics, interview-profiles of seventeen drug addicts who call themselves ""lames"". . . . A pusher -- ""You know, why do people cop out?""; an epileptic who wanted to fight in Vietnam; a call girl whose mother was ""screwed up like me, just like me""; a musician -- ""I used it to cope"" but has been off it for 1841 days clocked hour by minute; a rich girl -- ""It's a continuum of falsehood""; an old-timer, perhaps the loneliest of all; a fourteen-year-old ghetto boy now dead; a father who had other answers -- peer pressure, a weak wife -- before he admitted his own failure; etc., etc. This is comparable to Lamer & Tefferteller's taped The Addict in the Streets (1965) and once again manages to give the most immediate fix on the inherent dislocation of the addict: ""Drugs are not the problem. They become the problem after you use them."" In Mr. Cortina's hands, the material is not only evidential but eloquent.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION