|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 "The night of the score" is more like it Sep 25, 2009
To my mind this book should have been titled "The Night I Left My Babies in the Car Alone for Hours in the Middle of Winter in Front of A Crack House So I Could Go In and Score." That scene was the emotional core of the book as far as I'm concerned.
"I walked toward the darkened car with drugs in my pocket and a cold dread in all corners of my being," the author writes. "I could see their breath. God had looked after the twins, and by proxy me, but I realized at that moment that I had made a mistake... I made a decision at that instant never to be that man again."
Well, the author's intent was good, yet still it took quite a few rehabs to sober up. But at least his story, and that of his children, ends well. To see his byline in the New York Times these days makes you realize how easily he could have been just another obit in the same paper.
The hook of a journalist investigating his own story was what drew me in. But, truthfully, I really didn't care whose memories among this sorry, addicted lot were accurate and whose not. That one of them wielded a gun one night - the author? the author's friend? - isn't a particularly shocking event sandwiched as it is between hundreds of similarly depraved scenes.
I read this book in batches. I had too. The sordidness got to me every few chapters and I had to put it down. If I could just summon a little more of that prurient interest the bottom-feeding public is so widely credited with having, I might rate books like this higher than I do.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Short of anything purposeful Sep 17, 2009
I tried so hard to like this book. I really wanted to, given all the rave reviews and press. But, like so many other over-exposed media products, this one fell short of my expectations. I found Carr's writing style to be self-indulgent. I found myself asking "Well, why do I care?" while I was reading about his problems. He failed at connecting the reader to the story in any emotional realm. Some may like this, however, it made it impossible for me to get into the book with any sort of interest. It was just a very disjointed collection of random events during his life that he's gone through without much purpose. Possible fun for some, but not for me.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Awesome. Sep 17, 2009
I am a memoir addict, which I suppose is the literary equivalent of reality TV (but I hate reality TV, I swear. But I digress). The more brutally honest, the better in my mind.
David Carr is a gripping writer with a compelling story of addiction and loss to tell. It's one of those books you can't put down. And he's an author to admire for having the courage to tell a story that doesn't spare any unflattering details. This kind of writing is urgent, rare and captivating. This book is excellent and deserves to be read.
 Help me to remember who I am Aug 20, 2009
With many memoirs, writers can tend to build themselves up in such a way as to glory in the things they have done. Or experienced. Or seen.
David Carr seems to take a different approach by weaving in a reporter's knack for getting to the bottom of things with a life that was lived between the space of true cognizance and a drug induced oblivion. That knack for reporting is what makes this book truly interesting as Carr unabashedly discloses the reality of who he was through other peoples' eyes.
Though I myself have never been addicted to drugs or alcohol, it's easy to relate to Carr's experiences as his story is interrupted by love, faith and community. None of this looks perfect, but whose life does? At the end of the day, there's an honest sense that he is where he is because other people helped him to get there - and that's an amazing theme for life in a culture whose subtext can more often be that of self reliance rather than interdependence.
At the end of the day, it's a great read because it causes the reader to reflect whether or not our interpretation of "what happened," is even close to accurate...even for those of us to teeter through life as generally sober. It's a wonderful look at how the people that loved David helped him to become a person who loved back and how they are helping him to stay in that mind set even now.
This is not a book about super heroes.
It is not a book about the self made man.
It is a book that acknowledges how truly broken our lives can be and how much we need other people. Thank you for the read, Mr. Carr.
Fascinating, but tedious chronicle of a personal journey Jul 27, 2009
In "The Night of the Gun," David Carr examines his own life using the same reporting techniques he used as a reporter. He does not believe his own memory is the definite truth, but uses it as one way of looking at the truth, along with the memories of others and historical data such as police reports. In the process, he discovers that his own memory is incredibly biased towards his own self-interest; he finds that reality differs incredibly from his own perceptions. This realization is the important journey in "The Night of the Gun"--not how Carr spiraled into further disasters, nor how he got himself out of them. It's really Carr's philosophical musings that are most interesting. Unfortunately, he spends a lot of time talking about boring details of his tale or introducing far too many characters. So, Carr's book is a fascinating exploration of memory, but unfortunately it often gets too bogged down in irrelevant specifics.
|
| |
|
![Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V%2Beipy8-L._SL75_.jpg "Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray]")
![Across the Universe [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T24FuHPEL._SL75_.jpg "Across the Universe [Blu-ray]")
![Underworld Trilogy (Underworld / Underworld: Evolution / Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F27VzUl%2BL._SL75_.jpg "Underworld Trilogy (Underworld / Underworld: Evolution / Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) [Blu-ray]")
![Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RQUEopdlL._SL75_.jpg "Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour [Blu-ray]")
