A lively and intensely personal addition to the drugs-memoir genre.
Strassman chronicles his experiences with psychedelic drugs.
The author’s recounting of his “psychospiritual growth” follows his story from boyhood to medical school and beyond, detailing his slow introduction to the world of altered consciousness. He recalls the desire to reinforce his “masculine qua masculine credentials” among his peers, his first rum-and-Coke (“I gulp down the rest of the drink,” he writes. “It tastes better than beer, that’s for sure. I drink two more”), and his increasingly serious experiences with heavier drugs. Strassman breaks down these experiences into considerations of one’s “set” (“our mental set includes long-standing personality, habits, and coping style”), “setting” (“everything else, the ‘not-you’ part of the experience, the outside world”), and “cause,” the actual mechanism of the experience, whether drugs or more mundane practices like breath control. In a series of illustrated chapters, the author takes readers inside the world of psychedelic drug experimentation, addressing both the ecstatic aspects and the grubby, frightening sides (the book opens with a scene of Strassman fighting his way through a rough drug experience: “Panic stirs as I begin sinking into the bed. I jerk upright before I descend much further”). Strassman writes with an engaging directness—his prose deftly toggles between sarcastic observations and sincere confessions, bringing heartfelt intensity to his observations on love, heartbreak, therapy, and particularly the wild experiences he’s had under the influence of various psychedelic drugs. His descriptions are remarkably vivid: “I inhale deeply and my entire body expands just beyond its normal boundaries, feeling nearly weightless,” he writes. “The sweet dampness pours across my lips, past my teeth, over my tongue.” Readers who give the entire spectrum of psychedelic drugs a wide berth probably won’t find themselves tempted to indulge Strassman’s chronicle, but every reader will find this account fascinating.
A lively and intensely personal addition to the drugs-memoir genre.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781644119792
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Park Street Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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