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More copies of this ISBN:The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism, and Murderby Stephen Elliott
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In the spring of 2007, a brilliant computer programmer named Hans Reiser stands accused of murdering his estranged wife, Nina. Despite a mountain of circumstantial evidence against him, he proclaims his innocence. The case takes a twist when Nina's former lover, and Hans's former best friend, Sean Sturgeon, confesses to eight unrelated murders that no one has ever heard of. At the time of Sturgeon's confession, Stephen Elliot is paralyzed by writer's block, in the thrall of Adderall dependency, and despondent over the state of his romantic life. But he is fascinated by Sturgeon, whose path he has often crossed in San Francisco's underground S&M scene. What kind of person, he wonders, confesses to a murder he likely did not commit? One answer is, perhaps, a man like Elliott's own father. So begins a riveting journey through a neon landscape of false confessions, self-medication, and torturous sex. Set against the backdrop of a nation at war, in the declining years of the Silicon Valley tech boom and the dawn of Paris Hilton's celebrity, The Adderall Diaries is at once a gripping account of a murder trial and a scorching investigation of the self. Tough, tender, and unflinchingly honest, it is the breakout book by one of the most daring writers of his generation. Review:"As a writer stymied by past success, writers block, substance abuse, relationship problems and a serious set of father issues, Elliott's cracked-out chronicle of a bizarre murder trial amounts to less than the sum of its parts. Not long into the 2007 trial of programmer Hans Reiser, accused of murdering his wife, the defendant's friend Sean Sturgeon obliquely confessed to several murders (though not the murder of Reiser's wife). Elliott, caught up in the film-ready twist and his tenuous connection to Sturgeon (they share a BDSM social circle), makes a gonzo record of the proceedings. The result is a scattered, self-indulgent romp through the mind of a depressive narcissist obsessed with his insecurities and childhood traumas. Elliott is an undeniably good writer, but his voice has more to do with amphetamines than the author himself or the trial at hand. Elliott's frustration with himself is contagious; any readers expecting a true crime will be bewildered, and those familiar with Elliott (My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up) will find more (or less) of the same." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"An endlessly fascinating memoir by a profoundly courageous writer....[A] refined, beautiful work of art....Deserves a place on the shelf next to such classics of uninhibited American introspection as On the Road and A Fan's Notes." Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Review:"Brilliant, memorable prose...an unforgettable read." Foreword Review:"You don't just read The Adderall Diaries; you fall right into them. You read as if you are a few words behind the writer, trying to catch up, to find out what happens, to yell at him that he's doing a great job. And he is. It's a brilliant book." Roddy Doyle Review:"The Adderall Diaries is a startling and original concoction, an irresistible melding of reportage and memoir and reconstruction. This is Stephen Elliott's best book, perfectly suited to his gifts as a seeker, as a storyteller, as a poet of wounds, unwelcome and otherwise." Sam Lipsyte Review:"The Adderall Diaries is phenomenal. With jittery finesse and a reformed tweaker's eye for detail, Stephen Elliott captures the terrifying, hilarious, heart-strangling reality of a life whose scorched-earth physical and psycho-emotional dimensions no one could have invented — they absolutely had to be lived. By all rights, the author should either be dead or chewing his fingers in a bus station. Instead, he may well have written the memoir of an entire generation." Jerry Stahl Review:"I felt like a voyeur reading Stephen Elliott's memoir — what is shocking and unbearable to most of us is commonplace to him. Although a murder trial provides the structure for this book, it is really about the strangeness of life, about things that don't make sense and never will, about lessons that don't get learned, and ultimately about what we can and can't know about ourselves and others. Reading The Adderall Diaries is like taking a step toward the edge of a cliff so you can peer down and imagine what it might be like to slip and fall. Normally we shudder and step back. Stephen Elliott jumps, and his harrowing, riveting memoir convinces you to follow him vicariously." Amy Tan Review:"The Adderall Diaries begins like the ocean, seemingly able to take in everything — prize fights to Paris Hilton — until the ocean forms into a river, making its way through unmapped territories — a murder, an absent father — and finally this river is distilled into one precious teardrop. Stephen Elliott is one of those 'people who keep searching when everything is dark' — I don't know a more hauntingly fearless writer, and this is an immediate, visceral, and ultimately beautiful book." Nick Flynn Synopsis:Set against the backdrop of a nation at war, The Adderall Diaries is at once a gripping account of a murder trial and a scorching investigation of the self. Elliott presents a riveting journey through a landscape of false confessions, self-medication, and torturous sex. About the AuthorStephen Elliott is the author of seven books including Happy Baby, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award as well as a best book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, the Journal News, and The Village Voice. In addition to writing fiction he frequently writes on politics. In 2004 he wrote Looking Forward To It, about the quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Elliott's writing has been featured in Esquire, the New York Times, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 and 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and is a member of the San Francisco Writer's Grotto. He is the editor of The Rumpus. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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