Synopses & Reviews
After several years representing a growing list of highly acclaimed writers, literary agent Bill Clegg walked away from his world and went on a two-month crack binge. He had been released from rehab nine months earlier, and his relapse would cost him his home, his money, his career, his status, and--very nearly--his life.
What is it that makes an exceptional young mind want to disappear? Clegg makes startlingly clear the powerful attraction of the reality-obliterating drug that had him in its thrall, calling its effect a state where doom does not eclipse bliss. The terrifying story of Clegg's addiction is intercut with flashbacks to his childhood, when a harrowing physical condition is treated with mockery by one parent and with negligence by the other, shaping the future addict's desire to hide, to be away.
Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is an utterly compelling narrative--sometimes lyrical, sometimes gritty, and always disarmingly honest. It shows us how a gifted, charismatic, and successful young professional can too easily end up exposed, de-railed, and alone. We can be grateful that Bill Clegg is now firmly back in the world, offering this terrifying, beautifully written cautionary tale.
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"Clegg may not have been able to control his demons, but he is utterly in charge of this material, with a voice that is knowing and self-deprecating in exactly the right measure."--Jonathan Van Meter, Vogue
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"It turns out there is room on the shelf for one more addiction memoir....Clegg spares no one's feelings, least of all his own; it's not the brutality that makes this worthwhile but rather the strange beauty of the stream-of consciousness prose. We're voyeurs, as helpless to stop the carnage as the author himself."--Mickey Rapkin, GQ
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"Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is an instant classic. Anybody who knows anything about addiction will feel morally altered by this book. To an extraordinary degree, it has both beauty and truth."--Andrew O'Hagan
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"Bill Clegg's memoir is a startling, hair-raising, and compulsively readable account of one man's descent into the hell of addiction."--Danielle Trussoni
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"Bill Clegg's story of a man-largely locked in hotel rooms, engaged in a desperate, heart-wrenching battle with himself--is destined to become a cult classic of writing on drug addiction."--Irvine Welsh
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"I devoured Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, couldn't put it down. The writing throughout is beautiful, and all the while it is reportorial and efficient and honest--a rare combination of feats!"--Elinor Lipman
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"Rings true in brutal, blunt strokes."--David Carr, The New York Times Book Review
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"This narrative of addiction is itself addictive, and strangely beautiful."--Maggie Fergusson, The Economist
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"I raced through the book in an evening.... That Clegg survived and is well enough to write a book this good is incredible."--Susan Juby, The Globe and Mail
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"Bill Clegg has written an exceptionally fine addition to a genre largely bereft of style, intelligence, and moral complexity.... It's plain to see that people stuck by him because they enjoy his company, because he inspires fierce loyalty. Now, at last, Bill Clegg seems capable of believing it."--Kirk Davis Swinehart, Chicago Tribune
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"One of the reasons to stick with Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is the lightly narcotized sensorium of Mr. Clegg's prose.... He can write."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times
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"Many first-time memoirists are motivated by self-serving desires: to make the world notice them or to make the world like them. Neither can be said of Bill Clegg."--Newsweek
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“A miasma of misfortune… the authors many battles have wrung from him both catharsis and poignancy… [a] raw yet eloquent presentation of a life in crisis mode.”
—Kirkus“The failure is real, the voice is raw, the story is haunting.” —Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom
“Its all very funny and a joy to read, but what lifts this memoir from good to outstanding is that the humor and the darkness are merely a patina. Under the irony there is no irony. Under the panic lies a remorseful heart, a steady determination to figure this out and become a better person.” —New York Times Book Review
“Too Good to Be True is smart and honest and searching…so plaintive and raw that most writers (and many readers) will finish it with heart palpitations." —Dwight Garner, New York Times
“Scenes of a 70s childhood, complete with pot-smoking parents and ‘a lot of adult nudity yield unexpected sweetness and humor in a book thats often searingly painful.” — Boston Globe
“Self-pity has never been so bracing—or hilarious.” —Town & Country
“Anastas has written one of the most memorable memoirs we've read all year.” —Sarah Weinman, Publishers Lunch
“A spectacular account of mind-blowing failure. It is short and it is beautiful and you must buy it.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story
“‘Enjoyed is the wrong word for this book. You don't enjoy eating a bag of glass shards mixed in with bloody pulpy bits of a human heart. Enjoyment, in this case, is irrelevant —I devoured this book not in spite of the pain, but because of it. This is a messy, vital, non-story of a story. I finished it and felt covered in the debris of a life.” —Charles Yu, author of How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
“I love this book so much. Which is weird, considering that it consists of watching Anastas take blow after blow, before being battered and receiving more blows. But you wont pity the author, who leans into even the most difficult situations with wonder and boundless empathy; instead youll just wish he could narrate your own disasters to you, so you could see the art in the salvage.” —Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances
“A lot of books get called things like ‘brutally honest, but few books are really as brutal as Too Good to Be True. Benjamin Anastas has taken disheartening failure and turned it into searing, soaring success.” —Daniel Handler, author of Why We Broke Up
“In this taut memoir, Anastas writes about his admittedly colossal failures and the myriad indignities of poverty, such as what it feels like to be pursued at all hours by debt collectors or having to pay tribute to a Coinstar machine just to buy food for your son. The train wreck (and it is a grisly one) isnt the only compelling thing here, however, since Anastas can craft a world-class sentence.” — The Daily Beast, “Hot Reads”
Listed in O, The Oprah Magazine The Reading Rooms “10 Titles to Pick Up Now” — November 2012, O, The Oprah Magazine
Featured in Vogue.coms “Falls Best Memoirs”
Featured in TIME Magazines “Fall Reading”
Synopsis
Bill Clegg had a thriving business as a literary agent, representing a growing list of writers. He had a supportive partner, trusting colleagues, and loving friends when he walked away from his world and embarked on a two-month crack binge. He had been released from rehab nine months earlier, and his relapse would cost him his home, his money, his career, and very nearly his life.
What is it that leads an exceptional young mind to want to disappear? Clegg makes stunningly clear the attraction of the drug that had him in its thrall, capturing in scene after scene the drama, tension, and paranoiac nightmare of a secret life-and the exhilarating bliss that came again and again until it was eclipsed almost entirely by doom. PORTRAIT OF AN ADDICT AS A YOUNG MAN is an utterly compelling narrative-lyrical, irresistible, harsh, and honest-from which you simply cannot look away.
Synopsis
Clegg's utterly compelling narrative shares the story of the relapse that would cost him his home, his money, his career, and very nearly his life. He makes stunningly clear the attraction of the drug that had him in its thrall and explores how the pattern of addiction can be traced to the past.
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About the Author
Bill Clegg is a literary agent in New York. Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is his first book.