My Fair Junkie
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Amy Dresner
In the tradition of Blackout and Permanent Midnight, a darkly funny and revealing debut memoir of one woman's twenty-year battle with sex, drugs, and alcohol addiction, and what happens when she finally emerges on the other side. Growing up in Beverly Hills, Amy Dresner had it all: a top-notch private-school education, the most expensive summer camps, and even a weekly clothing allowance. But at 24, she started dabbling in meth in San Francisco and unleashed a fiendish addiction monster. Soon, if you could snort it, smoke it, or have sex with it, she did. Thus began a spiral that eventually landed her in the psych ward--and then penniless, divorced, and looking at 240 hours of court-ordered community service. For two years, assigned to a Hollywood Boulevard "chain gang," she swept up syringes (and worse) as she bounced from rehabs to halfway houses, all while struggling with sobriety, sex addiction, and starting over in her forties. In the tradition of Orange Is the New Black and Jerry Stahl's Permanent Midnight, this is an insightful, darkly funny, and shamelessly honest memoir of one woman's battle with all forms of addiction, hitting rock bottom, and forging a path to a life worth living.
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Author
Amy Dresner
Pages
256
Publisher
Hachette Books
Published Date
2018-09-18
ISBN
0316430935 9780316430937
Community ReviewsSee all
"I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone who knows me that I’m in recovery, and Amy Dresner has written a stellar recovery memoir. A former stand-up comedian, Dresner’s gift for addressing the dark comedy of her own life — meth addiction, alcoholism, sex addiction — through dry observations and wry tone really delivers. In a fight with her ex-husband early the morning of Dec 25th that led to her catching a felony domestic violence with a deadly weapon charge, she muses, “This is what a Jew gets for celebrating Christmas.” As the officer reads her Miranda rights, she quips, “Law & Order is my favorite show. I know the drill.”
Dresner’s journey leads the reader from high-end treatment centers with private chefs to budget sober living facilities she shares with a questionable cross-section of men, from court-ordered community service on Santa Monica Blvd to the labyrinthine state-funded healthcare system in (not so)-greater L.A., from the search for gainful employment and some semblance of stability to the realization that sharing her own experiences through writing can bring about precisely that.
This book doesn’t set out to win the reader over with political correctness and daytime talk show-worthy epiphanies, and for me, that is not just part — but rather the heart — of its charm. "
Clint Catalyst
"While I liked how comedic and raw Amy’s memoir was, I didn’t love it like I thought I would. But I did really enjoy it, more so as it went on. Bradley & Amy’s relationship was easily my favourite part."
Rhiannon Rabby
"Raw memoir of recovery"
Erin Jo