BEAUTIFUL BOY by David Sheff

David Sheff writes this memoir from the perspective of a father going through hell.  His smart and charismatic son Nic becomes addicted to meth, but both father and son are in denial about the seriousness of Nic’s drug habit. Bouncing from rehab to relapse over and over again, ad infinitum, Nic’s problems become his father David’s problems, and David’s obsession with Nic’s life has a profoundly detrimental effect on the rest of the family, including Nic’s much younger half-siblings.  At one point, thanks to a comment from another Al-Anon member, David realizes that if Nic were in jail, at least David would know where he is.  David’s life is basically an endless rollercoaster that parallels Nic’s progress and regression.  At some point he has to accept the fact that Nic’s recovery is in Nic’s hands. This book may be recommended reading for parents and family members of addicts, but I am neither, and I still found it to be riveting.  I also liked the fact this book is not a tearjerker at all, and I am someone who cries over rom-coms.  It is told in a clear-eyed fashion with many musings on what happened to Nic to cause him to become an addict and what David and his family could have done differently.  The bottom line is that no one really knows the cause or the solution.  I found it interesting that bootcamp-type rehab facilities are among the least effective.  The AA philosophies seem to be the most effective, but no addict is ever cured, so that the possibility of relapse looms threateningly for the rest of his or her life.  As hopeless as all this sounds, I found this to be a beautiful book.