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| Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction | 
| Author: David Sheff
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $7.63
You Save: $16.37 (68%)
New (69) Collectible (3) from $7.63
Avg. Customer Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 507
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 326
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0618683356
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.299
EAN: 9780618683352
ASIN: 0618683356
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 I am in college and starbucks.. March 15, 2008
6 out of 19 found this review helpful
I went to college this year. I have never been addicted and have never had addiction in my family. Normally I would never read such a book but last year I read The Lost Years by Kristina Wandzilak and Constance Curry, a mother daughter addiction story and it simply changed my life. It was the best book I have ever read and The Lost Years brought my family together in a very amazing way, as it gave us an opportunity to have a hard conversation about drugs and alcohol. And for a busy person like me, the fact that the mother daughter story was in one book, not two, was perfect. I read The Lost Years in two days, and therefore the whole story of addiction, not one side. However, as I spend many days in Starbucks, I bought Beautiful Boy and it was very well written. Clearly Mr. Sheff is a writer. The Lost Years is gritty, like a diary, and Mr. Sheffs writing is very polished. I will not buy his sons book, simply because I have too much else to do in my life, but it was a great story. It took two weeks to get through it, as I found it less compelling since it was only the father's perspective. I kept thinking, "I wonder what his son is thinking or feeling at this point?" I loved how The Lost Years was written with the mother daughter perspective, one after another, not in a separate book. Beautiful Boy and The Lost Years show me, a person never touched by addiction, that addiction can happen to a normal mother and daughter and to a family with a father who has interviewed the most famous musician that had ever lived.
 Heartbreaking and Helpful March 13, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a remarkably well-written story. It is also offers helpful advice--not so much for those who are wondering how to protect their children from drugs, but more for those who are struggling with loving a family member struggling with an addiction.
The story is absolutely riveting and heartbreaking. Like many other readers, I couldn't put it down. Even though it doesn't offer a great deal of advice about what parents can do to prevent their kids from using drugs, it makes all parents aware of the need to prepare themselves for whatever may come. It emphasizes the importance of having a plan to help your kids avoid the dangers of drugs, and, in the event the a child makes choices that harm them, having a plan to take care of yourself and the rest of your family.
Therefore, whether you want a great story or some practical advice, Beautiful Boy has both. Highly recommended.
Compelling and Courageous March 13, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
David Sheff is a courageous man. Beautiful Boy is a great read, a horror story, and great reference material. It pulses with the unconditional love of a father in a way that makes me admire him and the guts it took to tell this story. For those of us with practicing and/or recovering alcoholics and addicts in our families, David's story is our story. Different drug, different town, different path....but same shame, frustration, anger, and the relentlessness of a disease with no bottom. I couldn't put this book down. Thank you, David Sheff, for your humanity and your gift of putting into words the unthinkable and the untouchable emotions in lives impacted by addiction.
great read March 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I heard about this on Fresh Air and went out and picked it up that day. Sheff creates an amazing and terrible ride of emotion. Each chapter fades with something that piques your interest to continue making it impossible to put down.
I found this story insightful and moving. It will go a long way in helping others in the throes of addiction. Thanks for writing it!
 A Troubling and Honest Memoir March 13, 2008
This is a very good memoir insofar as it radiates with a degree of honesty that is often unseen in other so-called "tell all" memoirs. For better and for worse, David Sheff really pours his heart into this memoir and you can really *feel* how his son's addiction ruined his own life. The writing is extremely strong and while the book is about 100 pages too long, it reads fairly quickly.
Sheff does a good job of illustrating the myriad of contradictory emotions he feels as his son spirals into the abyss of drug addiction. I couldn't help but think Sheff made some serious parenting mistakes in raising his son. Initially, he apparently is proud of the fact he has abandoned his Jewish roots. He raised his son in this sort of post-modern liberal ethic that rejects organized religion and, instead, embraces a fluid "do what is right and not what is wrong" approach. This obviously didn't work; some organized religion would have done this kid some good. In addition, I felt as his son started hanging out with the "wrong crowd," Sheff enabled it more so than discipling him. And obviously smoking weed with - even one time - was a real stupid mistake, which he sorta admits.
Would this have prevented his son's drug addiction? Hard to say. But you will finish this memoir with a lot of questions about the father's conduct....which is another reason this is a good memoir.
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