Praise for Apology to the Young Addict The Rumpus , What to Read When the New Year Is Just Around the Corner One of Big Other ''s Most Anticipated Small Press Books of the Year "A dark yet hope-infused look back at the long-term transformations fueled by an addict''s recovery . Memorably well crafted, tight, and searing . Tough, meditative, realist prose creates a worthy addition to the crowded field of (post) addiction memoirs." -- Kirkus Reviews "Riveting . Readers will be drawn in by Brown''s gritty and intense narrative." -- Publishers Weekly "Incredibly powerful and moving while never being sensational or preachy. Readers who''ve appreciated Mary Karr''s and Caroline Knapp''s memoirs should give James Brown''s writing a try." -- Booklist "The SoCal bard of alcoholism recovery .
Brown recognizes the addiction in people around him and also acknowledges the sheer resilience that it takes for him as a husband, father and skeptic to get through the day, while making peace with the family of origin that created him. From the story of an 80-something couple of opioid addicts to a close call with the Las Vegas mass shooting and the loss of his trusted sponsor, Brown''s story is one of relatable hope in all circumstances." --Dana Dickey, PureWow "James Brown, already among the best memoirists in America, has surpassed his own high standards in Apology to the Young Addict . This superbly written book is about addiction, yes, but it is equally a book about courage, perseverance, love, desperation, recovery, and healing. More than anything, it is a book that reminds us, again and again, of the power of storytelling. In the pages of this heartbreaking but oddly exhilarating memoir, Brown deploys his narrative skills with precision, grace, complexity, and masterfully controlled intensity of emotion. What a fine piece of work." --Tim O''Brien "James Brown''s Apology to the Young Addict may be the closest linguistic facsimile to what it''s like to be in recovery: haunted, growing old, somehow not yet world-weary, but always a razor''s breadth--one day at a time--away from chaos.
The third panel in Brown''s masterwork triptych on addiction from youth to sixty, Apology to the Young Addict also accomplishes at last a staggeringly rare mercy--on the ghosts of memory, the ravages of disease, the brutal hypocrisies of religion, and finally--most shockingly--on himself." --Gina Frangello, author of Every Kind of Wanting and A Life in Men "The undeniable force of James Brown''s writing is its ability to concentrate and to distill. His language is pharmaceutical grade, has a devastating purity, and unlike many of the world''s great gritty writers--Céline, say, Bukowski--Brown''s writing makes no romantic claim, finds no virtue in degeneracy, sounds off no been-down-so-long-it-looks-like-up-to-me anthems to lull the reader. This is writing with the compulsive energy of an addict, and it refuses to traffic in bromides. Apology to the Young Addict is the last in a trilogy that started with The Los Angeles Diaries and continued with This River . Each is a reckoning with the misery of mourning, and each is a celebration of a life. Rarely is writing so hard-won, and rarely are the rewards this powerful." --Michelle Latiolais, author of She "In Apology to the Young Addict , James Brown has written a complex illustration of our human flaws and our chances at redemption.
It''s a book of perspective, empathy, and wisdom for addicts and anyone who''s ever loved them. And it''s a book that, while never preaching to the reader, will help an enormous number of people." --Rob Roberge, author of Liar "James Brown''s Apology to the Young Addict does not just breathe new life into addiction writing, it does so with enough grace, heart, and grab-you-by-the-throat style to transcend the genre and qualify as genuine literature. These beautiful essays will serve as balm for survivors of the opioid crisis, those still struggling to make it out, and pretty much anyone else trying to stay sane in these insane times. Prose-wise--with all due respect to his late namesake--James Brown has earned his title as the Godfather of Junkie Soul." --Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight Praise for This River " This River continues where Brown''s first memoir, The Los Angeles Diaries , left off. It''s molten stuff, the story of his efforts to control his river of rage." -- Los Angeles Times "A beautifully crafted and intensely moving book.
Without artifice or pretension--without false moves of any sort--James Brown goes after the biggest literary game: death, love, children, degeneration, hopelessness, hope. I read this book straight through, in one spellbound sitting, and I will read it again in a week or two. It is so good." --Tim O''Brien, author of July, July "When you put this book down, trust me, you will think about it for along time." --Robert Olmstead, author of the national bestseller Coal Black Horse and winner of the Chicago Heartland Award "James Brown is one of our most accomplished writers, and this brilliant memoir is among the finest of its kind." --B.H. Fairchild, author of The Blue Buick "This book is a must read for any clinicians dealing with patients with substance abuse and dependency issues and also for patients and their families.
" --Ana E. Campo, MD, Addictive Disorders & Their Treatment "James Brown''s provocative, beautifully written and gut wrenching memoir illuminates a life rich in those elemental passions that govern our lives--anger, fear, depression, death, and love. Sometimes tender, sometimes manic, but always wise and insightful, This River never falters in the muscularity of the writing, all of it filled with riveting details that kept this reader turning the pages as fast as he could read them. Mesmerizing from beginning to end. Unforgettable." --Duff Brenna, author of Minnesota Memoirs "This is a harrowing and beautiful memoir, shot through with excess and violence and shocking, heart-stopping compassion. James Brown renders his extraordinary life in tight, muscular prose, sparing neither himself nor the reader the hard lessons of addiction and recovery. The result is an unforgettable book, stripped of irony and pretense, that lays bare the darkness--and the light--in all of us.
" --Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Remember Me Like This "Sequel to Brown''s indelible The Los Angeles Diaries , this cycle of linked narratives is equally powerful and complete in itself. Brown''s profoundly authentic story of Brown, survivor of sibling suicides, drinker, user, writer, teacher, father, husband, is as fully imagined as it is unsparing. In speaking from the edge of loss, Brown''s eloquence recalls Robert Lowell''s ''my eyes have seen what my hand did.''" --DeWitt Henry, author of Sweet Marjoram "James Brown is a truth teller and here again he does not disappoint. His writing as always is lucid and unflinching. In laying bare his own soul, he makes of his work an act against loneliness, shot through with a sad wisdom." --Kem Nunn, author of Chance "This follow-up to his first memoir, The Los Angeles Diaries , highlights Brown''s literary prowess . This is dark, but also loving and literary.
" -- Library Journal "Beautifully written, this is clear-eyed truth-telling by a man coming to terms with the best and worst in himself and others." -- Booklist Praise for The Los Angeles Diaries Named a Best Book of the Year by Publisher''s Weekly , The Independent , and the San Francisco Chronicle "It''s the balance of agony and grace, of course, that makes life so ferociously interesting. Brown has perfectly captured that balance in this unpretentious, very profound book." --Carolyn See, The Washington Post "Each [chapter] shows the toolmarks of the well-crafted short story, carefully and even lovingly shaped and polished until it shines . The stories amount to a memoir of stunning intimacy and unforgettable impact." --Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times Book Review "This gemlike collection . materializes in such delicate strokes that the emerging theme becomes one of almost miraculous forgiveness, any pain and rage all but hidden between the lines." -- San Francisco Chronicle (Best Books of the Year) "As tragic as Brown''s life has been, the memoir displays neither pathos nor self-pity but elegiac wisdom .
How moving is Brown''s The Los Angeles Diaries ? While double-checking the quotes and facts, I simply gave in and reread it again, struck even more by its pain, its beauty and its craft." --Deirdre Donahue, USA Today "The ''Kennedy curse'' looks like a garden-variety hex compared with the dysfunction passed down among Brown''s alcoholic clan. When the acclaimed Lucky Town novelist was 5, his embezzling mom dragged him along to an arson; both his siblings committed suicide in middle age; Brown himself abandoned his wife, kids, and college English students for days to binge on booze and meth. If that''s not bleak enough, consider this memoir''s really depressing scenes . Hollywood script meetings. It''s all riveting and self-pitiless, but two passages are priceless: a devastating imagining of the post-recovery shame that led his sister to dive into the bone-dry L.A. River, and his nightmarishly funny battle of wills with a potbellied pig that was supposed to salvage his marriage but instead helped demolish it.
" --Chris Willman, Entertainment Weekly "James B.