Overview

After three decades of living in the sandy beach suburbs of Huntington Beach, Jon Vreeland's heroin addiction has finally destroyed his once promising music career, and estranged himself from his wife and his two daughters. Now Vreeland broods his daughter's absence while living in his old tour van that is broken down and parked on Atlanta Avenue, on the brink of downtown Huntington Beach. He and his brand new lover and longtime junkie, Zooey Leigh, live in the van and sell and shoot heroin, move from place to place, shift from crime to crime, rob the undeserving in their brazen attempt to escape their hypodermic reality and themselves. But no matter where they go or who they stay with, they always circle back to the shores of Huntington Beach, where the dark nights are their lonely playground. But Jon isn't meant for this life--he wants nothing more than to rid himself of this very real nightmare, and return to his estranged family and career. This is the story of how he began to get out.

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9781925417685

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Reviews

The Taste of Cigarettes, Jon Vreeland's memoir of the romance and degradation of heroin addiction in Southern California, is compellingly readable. With a novelist's sense of pacing (and a playwright's ear for dialogue), Vreeland moves his incident-filled story along briskly, from its startling opening to its satisfying conclusion. David Starkey, author of Like a Soprano Jon knocked my socks off with this compelling story of living in the parallel universe of heroin addiction. Frank Frost, author of Gershwin's Last Waltz and Other Stories Vreeland defies storytelling physics with a wholly arresting account of his outlaw degeneracy, yet told with a candor so charming it borders on innocence. Craig Clevenger, author of Dermaphoria

The Taste of Cigarettes, Jon Vreeland's memoir of the romance and degradation of heroin addiction in Southern California, is compellingly readable. With a novelist's sense of pacing (and a playwright's ear for dialogue), Vreeland moves his incident-filled story along briskly, from its startling opening to its satisfying conclusion. David Starkey, author of Like a Soprano Jon knocked my socks off with this compelling story of living in the parallel universe of heroin addiction. Frank Frost, author of Gershwin's Last Waltz and Other Stories Vreeland defies storytelling physics with a wholly arresting account of his outlaw degeneracy, yet told with a candor so charming it borders on innocence. Craig Clevenger, author of Dermaphoria

Author Information

Jon Vreeland was born in Long Beach California. He is a writer of prose, poetry, plays and journalism. His twenty-year addiction to drugs and alcohol is the essence of his writing, and one of the main components in his perpetual process to treating this terrible disease; a battle so many have lost. Vreeland was raised in Huntington Beach by his parents and now lives in Santa Barbara California with his wife and successful artist, Alycia Vreeland. Visit his website: jonvreeland.com

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