Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff
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Book Summary Author: David Sheff Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published) Published: 2008-02-26 ISBN: 0618683356 Number of pages: 326 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co |
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Book Reviews of the Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
Customer Review: A Father's Sad and Ultimately Futile Struggle
Summary: 4 Stars
The book is indeed moving but hardly inspirational. On the contrary, it returns again and again to the theme that a parent's search for a solution to a child's addiction is likely to be futile.
As he struggles to find some way to help his son, the author seeks advice from anyone and everyone -- therapists, medical researchers, addiction counselors, family members of other addicts. In the process he learns a great deal about the suffering of those whose loved ones become addicted, but he learns nothing that is of any real assistance to him. Everyone he talks to gives different advice about what works or doesn't work, and no one can tell him what will or will not work for his child. Most of what he tries does not work, and by the end of the book while there are many hopeful signs it is far from certain that his son's troubles are over.
Popular fiction about substance abuse tends to suggest that there are neat, lasting solutions to the problem -- intervention, rehab, AA, medical treatment. As this book makes clear, none of these methods has a high rate of success. The most poignant moment in the book for me is a scene in which the author meets a mother who is pleased that her daughter, a former student at Harvard, is now in prison for drug offenses, because prison is the only place the girl can be kept away from drugs.