A controversial but empathetic argument for humanizing the treatment of those locked in substance abuse.
An overview of—and advocacy for—“harm reduction” in addressing drug addiction.
Journalist Szalavitz opens with a grim moment of autobiography: “I had no intention of quitting. I’d only just been introduced to the glories of shooting speedballs, a seemingly divine mixture of cocaine and heroin. I wanted more.” Like most addicts, she wasn’t interested in anything but chasing the high. Thankfully, someone in the room advised her, in those years of the raging AIDS epidemic, not to share needles but, if she had to do so, to run bleach through the syringe and wash the injection point. That, Szalavitz writes, was her introduction to “harm reduction,” a variation on the Hippocratic oath that “works to minimize the damage that may be associated with substance use.” Forms of that damage are many—not just the physical effects of addiction and the danger of numerous diseases, but also social stigma, poverty, and imprisonment. “A big form of harm reduction is keeping people out of jail,” notes one activist, “because jail is really harmful.” Urging that harm reduction is a form of “radical empathy,” the author offers numerous case studies in its practical application over the years—the working-class addicts who educated British doctors in how to treat the illness. One positive outcome was the widespread availability of naloxone, the overdose-fighting drug; ironically, one of its key proponents died of a fentanyl overdose with a strong element of PTSD attached. “Policies to change risky behavior cannot be more harmful than the behavior they seek to alter,” Szalavitz sensibly remarks, noting that efforts to contain drugs such as opioids have driven users to more dangerous street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl.
A controversial but empathetic argument for humanizing the treatment of those locked in substance abuse.Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7382-8576-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Hachette Go
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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