false 2509481 3 <b>Do we remember only the stories we can live with? </b>The ones that make us look good in the rear view mirror? In <I>The Night of the Gun</i>, David Carr redefines memoir with the revelatory story of his years as an addict and chronicles his journey from crack-house regular to regular columnist for <I>The New York Times</i>. Built on sixty videotaped interviews, legal and medical records, and three years of reporting, The Night of the Gun is a ferocious tale that uses the tools of journalism to fact-check the past. Carr's investigation of his own history reveals that his odyssey through addiction, recovery, cancer, and life as a single parent was far more harrowing -- and, in the end, more miraculous -- than he allowed himself to remember. Over the course of the book, he digs his way through a past that continues to evolve as he reports it.<blockquote><P>That long-ago night he was so out of his mind that his best friend had to pull a gun on him to make him go away? A visit to the friend twenty years later reveals that Carr was pointing the gun.<P>His lucrative side business as a cocaine dealer? Not all that lucrative, as it turned out, and filled with peril.<P>His belief that after his twins were born, he quickly sobered up to become a parent? Nice story, if he could prove it.<P>The notion that he was an easy choice as a custodial parent once he finally was sober? His lawyer pulls out the old file and gently explains it was a little more complicated than that.</blockquote><P>In one sense, the story of <I>The Night of the Gun</i> is a common one -- a white-boy misdemeanant lands in a ditch and is restored to sanity through the love of his family, a God of his understanding, and a support group that will go unnamed. But when the whole truth is told, it does not end there. After fourteen years -- or was it thirteen? -- Carr tried an experiment in social drinking. Double jeopardy turned out to be a game he did not play well. As a reporter and columnist at the nation's best newspaper, he prospered, but gained no more adeptness at mood-altering substances. He set out to become a nice suburban alcoholic and succeeded all too well, including two more arrests, one that included a night in jail wearing a tuxedo.<P>Ferocious and eloquent, courageous and bitingly funny, <I>The Night of the Gun</i> unravels the ways memory helps us not only create our lives, but survive them. 2516852 5 8 2008 The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own. total:704|5:93|4:270|3:237|2:80|1:24| 704 2440 1551 228 4 6 true false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 10:24:37 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 10:27:15 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 2 false false Tue Jan 27 00:05:56 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 16:33:58 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 3 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 22 12:38:21 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 22 12:42:02 -0700 2008
Something haunting in that line, and relevant to anyone regardless of whether they share Carr's story of self-destruction and recovery.

...more...]]> 1 2 false false Wed Sep 17 13:45:24 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 17 13:45:24 -0700 2008 2 5 true false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 29 10:36:21 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 29 10:37:44 -0700 2008 not even once more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 12:55:09 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 20:23:46 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 17:57:13 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 13 17:39:59 -0700 2008 Okay, I am crawling closer and closer to the end (I don't have as much time to read as I used to.) I hate to say it but I am now enjoying this book a...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Aug 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 20:54:46 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 20:58:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 17 05:22:58 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 23 05:58:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 31 11:28:03 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 08 06:20:54 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 29 20:50:10 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 20:50:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 15:19:35 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 15:19:50 -0800 2009 "Carr takes as a given that our memories are suspect, compromised by the understandable desire to make a coherent story from shapeless experience, to cast ourselves in the role of hero (or dashing villain), and to inject...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 11:14:44 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 11:15:04 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 02 15:34:22 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 15:35:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Nov 29 10:39:50 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 29 10:42:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 21:32:55 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 21:47:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jul 27 18:50:16 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 19:33:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 10 11:34:51 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 11:34:59 -0700 2009
Of course, such books are so...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:59:55 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:59:55 -0800 2009 Addiction memoirs are about the last thing most book critics want to read; even the good ones usually—and necessarily—follow a narrative pattern determined by the drugs themselves. All reviewers agreed that David Carr manages to break the mold by injecting his contemporary reporter persona into the ...

more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 13 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 12 20:49:21 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 21:35:00 -0800 2008 Good in Theory, Poor in Practice

For the most part, I thoroughly enjoy stories and memoirs about addiction and climbing out of the deepest holes. The author, David Carr, made a journalistic memoir about his past in drugs and alcohol, which became this book. There are some interesting stor...more...]]>