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9781860498213

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New York writer/critic Marlowe crafts a memoir of her years among the East Village heroin demimonde in the provocative format of an alphabetized guide to this darkly indulgent world. The narrative is broken down into brief passages, in which tales of a pallid, ominous suburban childhood alternate with edgier evocations of the dope life in lower Manhattan during the halcyon pre-Giuliani days. The best of these passages, surprisingly, are the most abstract (likely rooted in Marlowe's philosophy studies at Harvard). Elsewhere, one finds trenchant, unexpected observations on drug-use ramifications: her early equating of addiction with nostalgia, for example, or of the jealous love triangle among a junkie, a straight, and the drug. Marlowe never passes up a chance to remind us how not just cool but epochal she is: we learn in great depth how, years before grunge hit, she rocked out wearing Gaultier to the hippest junkie-filled clubs in the East Village, which are all gone now, and pursued sexual adventure with men who had not even a foot in the straight world. Marlowe's emphasis on her insider-ish privilege - which is an elaborate, underlying theme in the book, despite occasional populist stabs - is nowhere near as effective as a stance divorced from this essentially elitist component of the drug milieu might have been. It makes a serious book harder to take seriously. Although she returns to her other characters periodically, sketching the contours of her dope circle, both the fragmented nature of their depiction, and the fact that they also are moneyed, attractive geniuses makes these portrayals less than affecting. That said, there's a sense of brightly lit truth here that surpasses Marlowe's fondness for high-end brand names. One is left marveling at the depth of her heroin-related observations, and sharing in her apparent sadness for the years and potential which she and her friends sacrificed to the shared glamour of their habits. (Kirkus Reviews)

'A brilliant and impressive book, all the more so because of its remarkable calm and restraint after such a terrifying experience' PENELOPE FITZGERALD ** 'Her insight is a positive addition to the literature about the drug, and a telling and sophisticated examination of modern society' THE LIST ** 'A calm look at middle-class heroin addiction and an honest analysis of how an obsessed society mythologises it . compelling' IRISH TIMES

Author Information

Ann Marlowe is a journalist who has written for THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW. She has a BA & a PHD in Philosophy from Harvard & an MBA from Columbia Business School. She has worked on Wall Street. This is her first book.

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