Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
24th out of 119 books
—
233 voters
More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction
Elizabeth Wurtzel published her memoir of depression, Prozac Nation, to astonishing literary acclaim. A cultural phenomenon by age twenty-six, she had fame, money, respecteverything she had always wanted except that one, true thing: happiness. For all of her professional success, Wurtzel felt like a failure. She had lost friends and lovers, every magazine job she'd held, a...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
December 31st 2002
by Simon & Schuster
(first published October 1st 2000)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
DON'T FEED HER DRUG HABIT! this is another indulgence memoir that give memiors a bad name. she describes how she finished her earlier book, bitch, by getting high first on ritalin, and then on coke. she never takes responsibility for anything, she blames the world and not herself, and I HATE HER.
view 2 comments
Make. her. stop. PLEASE!
I picked up this book whenever I felt emotionally constipated - I'd read a few pages, get fed up with her incessant whining and her seemingly endless supply of self-pity, let out a roar of frustration and throw the book against the wall. Then I'd smile and go back to doing whatever I was doing before. It was cathartic in a twisted way, so I guess that's one positive thing I got out of this book...??
I'm not a cold hearted bitch, and I tried really hard to not hate this boo...more
I picked up this book whenever I felt emotionally constipated - I'd read a few pages, get fed up with her incessant whining and her seemingly endless supply of self-pity, let out a roar of frustration and throw the book against the wall. Then I'd smile and go back to doing whatever I was doing before. It was cathartic in a twisted way, so I guess that's one positive thing I got out of this book...??
I'm not a cold hearted bitch, and I tried really hard to not hate this boo...more
More, Now, Again may often seem like merely arrogant, spoiled brat, stream-of-conscious writing, but it is also an honest and accurate account of the narcissistic, contrived and ingenuitive life of an addict drowning in psychosis and a disengaged mind.
www.booksnakereviews.blogspot.com
www.booksnakereviews.blogspot.com
Jun 10, 2007
Mo
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people who like watching car crashes
Shelves:
ahotmess
Oh, it was awful and I couldn't put it down. I have a certain, shall we say, *affinity* for memoirs about really fucked up people. Wurtzel comes across as simultaneously annoying, manipulative, awful, spoiled, whiny, desperate, genuine, shallow, talented and fascinating. The horror, the horror...
Wurtzel is a self-absorbed ninny who writes too many memoirs.
This is the real story of addiction. This is what A Million Little Pieces failed to convey.
She finally learns humility and loses a sense of entitlement, and that is a growing experience that most spoiled Americans would benefit from.
I believe the real addiction is that of consumption. As individuals we medicate ourselves with food, drugs, shopping, attention-seeking behavior etc. We try to replace people with things because we've grown to distrust others and refuse to appear vulnerable. Pride...more
She finally learns humility and loses a sense of entitlement, and that is a growing experience that most spoiled Americans would benefit from.
I believe the real addiction is that of consumption. As individuals we medicate ourselves with food, drugs, shopping, attention-seeking behavior etc. We try to replace people with things because we've grown to distrust others and refuse to appear vulnerable. Pride...more
I made the mistake of reading this first instead of Prozac Nation or Bitch. You should probably read one of those first. Nonetheless this was voyeuristically fascinating & there are some insane things in here, like when she gets to the point where she's doing piles of coke & practically living at her publishing company's midtown offices & one of the assistants picks up her drug deliveries from the lobby. When she goes to rehab it gets boring, esp. if you've already read a lot of reha...more
Someone here on "Goodreads" named Catherine wrote that "I don't freaking give a damn that she appeared whiny and self-absorbed to everyone else; the nature of depression and addiction lends itself to introspection that is hard to avoid." Thank you, Catherine. F***ing brilliant.
I couldn't figure out how to defend this writing that I have loved for years while at the same time admitting that it, at times, is "whiny" and "self-absorbed". It may be whiny and self-absorbed but it is sooooo real and...more
I couldn't figure out how to defend this writing that I have loved for years while at the same time admitting that it, at times, is "whiny" and "self-absorbed". It may be whiny and self-absorbed but it is sooooo real and...more
i had been interested in reading this for more than a year, after hearing that Elizabeth Wurtzel got sober in AA after writing Prozac Nation, but I decided to buy it when I started taking Adderall. Wurtzel's story begins when she is prescribed Ritalin to treat "treatment resistent depression" like I was, and I was very interested to read about her experience, especially because taking this new medication makes me feel a little embarrassed and nervous, as someone in recovery. The good news is tha...more
Jun 17, 2011
victoria
added it
Let me DEFEND my wurtzel girl here kids.
I think that her publishers had a lot to do with this book being a redemption story when all was said and done.
Being that BITCH was such a....well....coked up little wander through Wurtzel's rathering refreshing Bad Girl take on the big scary F word---maybe her long-suffering friend & agent Lydia just didn't want another nightmare book tour--wurtzel missing her connection to Sweden and ending up buying expensive scarves and alchohol in Iceland instead,...more
I think that her publishers had a lot to do with this book being a redemption story when all was said and done.
Being that BITCH was such a....well....coked up little wander through Wurtzel's rathering refreshing Bad Girl take on the big scary F word---maybe her long-suffering friend & agent Lydia just didn't want another nightmare book tour--wurtzel missing her connection to Sweden and ending up buying expensive scarves and alchohol in Iceland instead,...more
It's hard to say what I think of this book. I like it, certainly, but it's not the kind of thing that lends itself to "like" and "good." It's terrifically effective. Reading Wurtzel's description of what her life of addiction was like while she wrote Bitch makes me feel like I don't want to read Bitch -- however good it may be. I think I'd spend the book pondering Wurtzel in her succession of Florida apartments, or in her publisher's office, snorting an eightball of coke a day and going out of h...more
I get the impression that most of the people who hate this book have little or no experience with addiction. Yes, of course, Wurtzel comes across as self destructive. That's the point. You think people decide one day that a drug addiction would make their life better?
It is really, REALLY hard to watch someone you care about make extremely bad, extremely stupid choices over and over and over. Wurtzel lets you get into her head while she's making these extremely bad choices. I think the idea is t...more
It is really, REALLY hard to watch someone you care about make extremely bad, extremely stupid choices over and over and over. Wurtzel lets you get into her head while she's making these extremely bad choices. I think the idea is t...more
Mar 08, 2012
Jalyssa Elliott
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone who wants to read about the TRUE nature of addiction from the addict's point of view.
I'm not finished and I may be biased but I'm adding my two cents anyway.
I see a lot of complaining about Elizabeth Wurtzel being a self indulgent, whining writer who writes too many memoirs. Let me be objective in this and not take into consideration Bitch or Prozac Nation. Had I never read those books I would have still fallen in love with this book. Why? Why even though she whines, blames others for her emotional issues, prattles on in a non-linear way that doesn't seem to be exactly heading...more
I see a lot of complaining about Elizabeth Wurtzel being a self indulgent, whining writer who writes too many memoirs. Let me be objective in this and not take into consideration Bitch or Prozac Nation. Had I never read those books I would have still fallen in love with this book. Why? Why even though she whines, blames others for her emotional issues, prattles on in a non-linear way that doesn't seem to be exactly heading...more
Jan 07, 2009
BookActivist
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
no one
Shelves:
just-couldn-t-finish
I'm almost done with this book, and well I HATE IT. It' horribly written. She drags ON AND ON about something little. Written as though she is bragging about how her life was.
Well it's been almost 7 months now since I've started this book and well I'm still in the spot I was when I wrote the first page of this review. I would NOT recommend this book to ANYONE. She is a HORRIBLE writter.
Well it's been almost 7 months now since I've started this book and well I'm still in the spot I was when I wrote the first page of this review. I would NOT recommend this book to ANYONE. She is a HORRIBLE writter.
I absolutely hated this book! I finished it because I hate starting books and never finishing them. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. In this book, she's whiny and blames everyone else for her problems and NEVER takes responsibility for herself and her own actions. I think that's one reason why I hate the book so much. It doesn't seem fitting to call it a "memoir".
This book kind of makes me sick. The author is so self involved and fucked up and it totally sucks me in. Interesting documentation on addiction, but really more like a theraputic diary written and left lying out for someone to find and take pity on the author- and maybe should have been kept that way. I will finish it though.
Well, I've been reading Wurtzel since the mid-90s, and she was always a hot train-wreck girl. I still remember her showing up on the chat show Jon Stewart had back c. 1995 in a much-too-short skirt, all crazed eyes and bitchy-funny stories. And of course I was wildly entranced by the notorious cover photos for "Bitch". So I was expecting great things here--- over-the-top meltdown tales. Alas, though--- far too much about addiction and not enough train-wreck depravity--- i.e., no hot over-the-top...more
Dec 01, 2009
Kara
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
memoirs,
guilty-pleasure
Another winner in the very guilty pleasure category. Poor Elizabeth gets addicted to Ritilin now. Sigh. Stuck in Florida - for some reason -she is so bored she starts hacking up and snorting her ADD meds like half the population of bored, dumb 18 year old boys across the heartland. But she is a 35 year old best selling author who has, presumably, by the nature of her books, has been through mounds of therapy and been to Harvard (which I always found hard to believe). So why so dumb and unenlight...more
I have been reading this book on and off for several months now, I am not a slow reader by any means. It's just that Elizabeth's writing is so...redundant. Some of her facts, stories or information that she uses to illustrate or support her point have been told in her previous book or her current writings. Her thoughts are fast and random and sometimes this is hard to digest. She is a smart girl for sure and in touch with her emotions better than I would imagine a junkie to be but still...it's t...more
I love how unapologetically difficult she is. Especially when she is using, but even when she is sober, she's so smart and so selfish and so funny and so insecure, it's wonderful to watch her slowly get it, slowly wake up to her own life. I wish we all could so lucidly describe our own moments of self-awareness. We might learn a lot from each other. And ourselves.
I also have a soft spot for Wurtzel because of Bitch, and secondarily because of Prozac Nation, and because of my nostalgia for the 90...more
I also have a soft spot for Wurtzel because of Bitch, and secondarily because of Prozac Nation, and because of my nostalgia for the 90...more
LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!! READ IT, READ IT, READ IT!
Grow up and get a grip elizabeth wurtzel.
This book made me dizzy for many reasons. Being inside the head of a drug addict can be terrifying and difficult most of the time. In a way, it made me realize how a productive, intelligent, and talented person can become a chronic liar and heavily dependent on drugs.
I appreciate her honesty, but I hated the fact that she is able to sustain the habit by the royalties she received as a writer. Though I see her prowess with words, it pained me to read how someone so beautiful can destruct her own...more
I appreciate her honesty, but I hated the fact that she is able to sustain the habit by the royalties she received as a writer. Though I see her prowess with words, it pained me to read how someone so beautiful can destruct her own...more
I never really thought to read Elizabeth Wurtzel, I don't know why. But then today something prompted me to click on this piece she wrote for New York Magazine, and it was sad, and lovely, and marvelous, and I only thought I'd maybe skim it but I read every word, wonderingly, and I can't wait can't wait to read her now.
Which book is the best? Is this one good? It has the highest average star rating, but we all know that means nothing.
Which book is the best? Is this one good? It has the highest average star rating, but we all know that means nothing.
Although our main character "Liz", in this memoir is every bit as self-absorbed and disagreeable as the "Liz" in that other paean to the self, "Eat, Pray, Love", her humanity is front and center on every page and as a reader I was feeling what she felt and generally understanding the sometimes reasonable, sometimes ridiculous points of view she held on the book's action.
This is some bravado writing, well-executed and detailed to the point of obsession. It is a tour of a human spirit in free fall...more
This is some bravado writing, well-executed and detailed to the point of obsession. It is a tour of a human spirit in free fall...more
For some laughable anocdotes that I had expected, I knew I would have to give this three stars at least. But I expected more from her insights shedding some light on the link between mental health/illness and drug addiction as someone who was going through those and bridged two. Also, the drug treatment industry's very limited and one dimensional realities, which can hardly save and rather ruin. I did not find that much here.
Her narrative for herself in interpreting what she was doing to hersel...more
Her narrative for herself in interpreting what she was doing to hersel...more
Lots of self-centered whining. Reminds you what happens to people when they are coddled. I have this fantasy that I could take a woman like this, and drop her on a deserted island, where she'd have to fight to survive. Suddenly- all of these 'issues', the drugs, the eating, the gluten-free bullshit (not necessarily from this book) would magically disappear. With no one to kiss her ass, or listen to her incessant whining, she'd simply have to 'man-up' and do what had to be done, and wouldn't have...more
As I continue to read this book, I remember why I spent time at Borders years ago to read this book. I love Elizabeth's way with memoirs. She is not afraid to speak about her depression, now addiction. She can pull me into the book, and I love it. I don't get the chance to have friends that live in Manhattan, be a professional writer crashing at hotels or at the publishers to write my book, gladly not in a 15,000 dollar program, but she is in a world I aspire to be in. And she tells us honestly...more
I have always had problems with people, with the whole human race. Is it because I'm scared to be hurt or because humans are often unfriendly, selfish and offending? I try so hard to be friendly and gentle, but don't seem to get this back very often. I'm very sensitive, which means that little things in life count and that I think too much about random things. I really wish to be more relaxed and laid back!
Anyway, why am I telling this? I have read a section in Wurtzel's book that I really liked...more
Anyway, why am I telling this? I have read a section in Wurtzel's book that I really liked...more
From the first time I read the back cover of this book, I was hooked. Wurtzel's description of Ritalin as "sugar...the sweetness in the days that have none" mirrored ver batim my own experience with the drug. As a recovering addict, it was impossible not to be moved by Wurtzel's brutally honest and totally real account of her experience with the true nature of addiction - both the pain and the redemption. Yet I wouldn't be altogether surprised if to the average reader Wurtzel is seen as a self-a...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Brought up Jewish, Wurtzel's parents divorced when she was young. As described in Prozac Nation, Wurtzel's depression began at the ages of ten to twelve. She attended Ramaz for high school and was described as an over-achiever by her teachers, who expected her to become a nationally famous writer. While an undergraduate at Harvard College, she wrote for The Harvard Crimson and the Dallas Morning N...more
More about Elizabeth Wurtzel...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“For all of my life I have needed more.”
—
65 people liked it
“I can see that I imagine all kinds of rejection that never happens. I can see that I beg and plead for love that is freely offered because I somehow believe that if I don't ask for it, everyone will forget about me: I will be a little kid sent off to sleep-away camp whose parents forget to meet her at the bus when she comes back in August. Or else I think people are nice to me only to be nice to me, that they feel sorry for me because I am such a loser- as if anyone could possibly be that generous.”
—
54 people liked it
More quotes…
