The film? Journalist David Sheff introduces his forthcoming memoir, Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction (Houghton Mifflin), with a lyric by John Lennon: Before you cross the street, / Take my hand. You must be logged in to leave a comment. But when it comes to the actual drug, reasons are in short supply. Free chapter from AARP’s book by Julia Mayer and Barry Jacobs. Comments: 0. But Nic plummets into drugs. Once you confirm that subscription, you will regularly But that’s meth: “Only Satan himself could have designed a disease that has self-deception as a symptom so that its victims deny they are afflicted, and will not seek treatment.”. Soldiers of many nations used it in World War II. By the time Sheff knew of his son's condition, Nic was strung out on meth, the highly potent stimulant. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. Nic missing, again. Houghton Mifflin $26 (326p) ISBN 978-0-618-68335-2. Clearly, it’s easy to get. Nic? Beautiful Boy may be a simplistic cautionary tale about drug addiction, made for such a demographic that’s so wealthy they may as well be alien. Both men are writers—David Sheff is a longtime journalist—and individual details give their tale a rich specificity. He’s better. by Jesse Kornbluth, AARP The Magazine, March 2008 But then, three days in, he disappears. It seems right, somehow, to herald a nightmare with a fragment of song. Beautiful Boy Summary and Study Guide. Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction Read this Web-Exclusive Book Review by Jesse Kornbluth. | Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse, and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years. If you are a parent or grandparent—or are just concerned about children—you too will feel better at the end of Beautiful Boy. Nic steals an old family car and disappears for almost two weeks. Its origins may lie in moral weakness or a hole in the soul, but as a practical matter, it’s about brain damage. Take control of your brain health with Staying Sharp! Sure, he’s tried drugs—he’s a teenager, and about half of all American kids will try drugs. In the meantime, please feel free And the highly touted, hugely expensive “war on drugs” only seems to include meth at the local level. Members save 30% off the first year of a World Explorer subscription. No way he's going to do heroin. If I—or, I’m sure, David Sheff —had been looking down the barrel of addiction, we would have sobered up, and fast. But now Nic is stealing from his family for drug money. And Nic lives some of the year with his remarried father and two step-sibs near San Francisco, and some of the year with his remarried mother in Los Angeles. His therapist’s advice: Don’t ban drugs from the house, he’ll just take them somewhere else. Inexplicably, one of them was his son, by every measure a smart, witty, ambitious kid. Unlikely he’ll try cocaine. While his son struggles to get clean, his second wife and two younger children are pulled helplessly into the drama. How could you not? No doubt the White House had a reason. David Sheff, like many boomer parents, is on weak ground as a role model when it comes to drugs. (Aug.), Prebound-Glued - 340 pages - 978-1-61383-819-8, Hardcover - 330 pages - 978-1-84737-130-0, Paperback - 340 pages - 978-0-547-20388-1, Hardcover - 464 pages - 978-1-60285-294-5, Paperback - 384 pages - 978-0-307-45568-0, Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-4332-0465-4, Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-60252-929-8, Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-4332-0467-8, Open Ebook - 336 pages - 978-0-547-34792-9, In David Sheff's Next Book, a Caged Bird Sings, CHINA DAWN: The Story of a Technology and Business Revolution, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place, Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children, Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy. For now. In months, use became abuse, then abuse became addiction. to search for ways to make a difference in your community at Jesse Kornbluth is the editor of HeadButler.com, a cultural concierge service that recommends books, movies, and music. receive communications related to AARP volunteering. Learn more. Who would later say that meth was what he’d been looking for his whole life. But that mostly means marijuana. Nic, overdosed, in a Brooklyn emergency room, his father racing to the airport only to learn that Nic has pulled out his IVs and catheters and fled the hospital. In 1951, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration classified meth as a controlled substance, requiring a prescription. Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction David Sheff, Author. They resist what they consider excessive government control. AARP members receive exclusive member benefits & affect social change. But that same, straightforward framework gives the film’s remarkable cast the room they need to develop and deliver uncanny performances, rich in detail and emotional complexity. Members can take a free confidential hearing test by phone. I know a mother of four sons who, as they were growing up, cautioned them: “You will be someone’s bitch in jail before I bail you out.” (Her sons have an unblemished record.) Sign up for the AARP Lifestyle Newsletter — and get movie reviews, great games and more delivered to you every month. Steve Carell stars. A bright, capable teenager, Nic began trying mind- and mood-altering substances when he was 17. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of “Beautiful Boy” by David Sheff. His father weeps “in a way that I have not wept since I was a young boy.” It is time— it is past time—for rehab. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Not David Sheff. It reached #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List on April 6, 2008, and again on May 4, 2008. Sheff, as the parent of an addict, cycles through denial and acceptance and resistance. Entertainment Weekly named it the #1 Best Nonfiction Book of 2008 and it won the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for … Nic seems to have a good chance—he wants to move from rehab to a halfway house. The early chapters of Beautiful Boy are largely spent detailing Nic’s promise and innocence, and David’s early understanding of parenthood and how to navigate it. It may not be a great movie, but Timotheé Chalamet delivers a performance so vibrant that it almost rubs off on everything else, and he’s matched in every scene by Steve Carell, Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan. It is difficult to speak of this part of the book without bursting into tears. I couldn’t. Chemists did, in 1919. In the next 24 hours, you will receive an email to confirm your subscription to receive emails Back in the day, he tried “marijuana, Quaaludes, Jack Daniels, Jose Cuervo, cocaine, and random uppers and downers.” I’m about his age, so I know firsthand of those substances. His journey is long and harrowing, but Sheff does not spare himself or anyone else from keen professional scrutiny any more than he was himself spared the pains—and joys—of watching a loved one struggling with addiction and recovery. Javascript must be enabled to use this site. www.aarp.org/volunteer. Chip and Dan Heath's new book on the 'Power of Moments', Ron Chernow's new biography of Ulysses S. Grant. And no one knows what to do. Expanding on his New York Times Magazine article, Sheff chronicles his son's downward spiral into addiction and the impact on him and his family. And David Sheff didn’t. But here’s the thing about meth addiction. Except that Satan did not create this drug. Manage your email preferences and tell us which topics interest you so that we can prioritize the information you receive. by Jesse Kornbluth, AARP The Magazine, March 2008 | Comments: 0 Most meth is cooked in clandestine labs, but it should be fairly simple to stop that part of this epidemic caused by pharmaceutical meth. He gets arrested. David Sheff suggests that 12 million Americans have tried meth and that 1.5 million are addicted to it. Sheff quotes the old saying: “Parents can only be as happy as their unhappiest child.” So as Nic bottoms out, so do his parents. Because everybody knows that meth is the most addictive, demeaning substance ever created, a drug that takes responsible, successful citizens and turns them, with astonishing speed, into grotesque creatures with rotted teeth, wild eyes, and concentration camp bodies. He has published seven books and has written for many major magazines. Real recovery creates—and can itself be—its own reward; this is an honest, hopeful book, coming at a propitious moment in the meth epidemic. Spider-Man 3's First Look Is Reportedly Coming in 2020, The Boys' Boss Is a Marvel Fan But Finds the MCU 'Dangerous', How Adam Sandler Knows if He's Made a Hit Movie or Not, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order: Cal Kestis' Lightsaber Headed to Galaxy's Edge, Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor: All the Hidden Ghosts Revealed, Daily Deals: Save on an LG Ultrawide Monitor, LG 4K OLED and More, Netflix's The Trial of the Chicago 7 Review, Things Ghost of Tsushima Doesn't Tell You. As Sheff notes, only nine factories make most of the world’s legal supply. While Nic’s early childhood is idyllic, the missteps that both David and Nic make in his upbringing have a … Chalamet is Chalamazing. Now, according to some law enforcement officials, 80 to 100 percent of crime in some cities is meth-related. You’ve been to hell and back. And there’s a real question: even if the addict stops, will his brain recover? A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. He bails his son out. AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers people to choose how they live as they age. Okay, so Nic Sheff's parents got divorced. The author was already a journalist of considerable standing when this painful story began to unfold, and his impulse for detail serves him personally as well as professionally: there are hard, solid facts about meth and the kinds of havoc it wreaks on individuals, families and communities both urban and rural. Beautiful Boy tells the story of David Sheff (Steve Carell) and his teenage son Nic (Timotheé Chalamet), who becomes addicted to a series of dangerous drugs, including crystal meth and heroin. Nic in recovery, again. And as for methamphetamines—never. Not so Chalamuch. You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. Why not meth? “Beautiful Boy” is based on both of their memoirs: David’s Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction and Nic’s Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines. With no effect on Nic. “I became addicted,” Sheff writes, “to my child’s addiction.” The father must enter the next stage: acceptance that Nic may die, the realization that his parents must save themselves. It’s a crapshoot: who lives, who dies. The Bush administration’s Office of National Drug Policy downplayed that survey. related to AARP volunteering. What would you do? Could you take this strain? The trick is how quickly you get clean and how long you stay clean. He had his own brain event—a subarachnoid hemorrhage —and barely survived.