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Leaving Dirty Jersey: A Crystal Meth Memoir. James Salant
by
James Salant
With his nickname, Dirty Jersey, tattooed on the inside of his left forearm, James Salant wanted everyone to know he was a tough guy.
At the age of eighteen, after one too many run-ins with the cops for drug possession, he left his upper-middle-class home in Princeton, New Jersey, for a stint at a rehab facility in Riverside, California. Instead of getting clean, he spent
...morePaperback, 352 pages
Published
January 1st 2008
by Ebury
(first published 2007)
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I'm not gonna lie, I mostly read this because I like New Jersey (ask me about my tattoo!). It's about a tough guy who moves from New Jersey to California to be tough, which is m y life story too, but ultimately it's the story of a rich kid with rich parents who decides to be a badass on his parents' money, talking about how smart he was for scamming his parents' money, telling stories about how Oh man I w as so fucked up.
I wanted more acknowledgment of the privilege he had, and inst...more
I wanted more acknowledgment of the privilege he had, and inst...more
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As bad as you can't believe it is. How this got published is beyond me. Take out the F-bombs and you have very little to read. Most of that is repetitive.
Threaten your children with this book. "If you do meth you'll write as badly as this guy!"
Threaten your children with this book. "If you do meth you'll write as badly as this guy!"
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If you look at James Salant's author photo on the back of this book, you see a baby-faced kid, admittedly very cute, trying to look tough. Leaving Dirty Jersey is 23-year-old Salant's story of his crippling drug addiction, and his author photo is misleading. All his life, he wanted to be tough and now, with this book, all he wants to do is come clean, in more ways than one. The book is gritty and real, allowing people like me who think "getting fucked up" is drinking a few too many c...more
What I learned from this book is that there are three major compulsive behaviors exhibited by meth addicts: tweaking, rooting and sketching. I also learned that, pathos aside, meth can be as funny as crack. Lastly, I learned that if you are a suburban kid obsessed with recreating yourself a la the thug life and become a hollow and disgusting drug addict, it helps to have two rich parents back in New Jersey willing to cut any manner of check to send you to rehab. This way, you can dry out, get...more
I might be being a bit picky here. Being a dope-fiend memoir elitist and all. Yet, one would think if an author was writing their "tell-all-drug-addict-memoir," they'd at the very least have been a dope fiend longer than it took to get the book published. James Salant ran away from rehab and shot speed for a year, then wrote a book about it. Ok, sure, shooting speed sucks. Hanging out with speed freaks and ex-cons sucks. Endlessly masturbating to internet porn really has to suck. Even ...more
I am willing to admit I picked up this book strictly because of the title—as a result I deserved this punishment. Being from New Jersey it is hard to resist a narrative that tramps through familiar haunts of Princeton, but this author took page after page to paint his joyous life as a small-time drug seller and big time drug user in California. The book starts out strong enough with an series of scenes that help connect you to the rebellious narrator. However, the narrator quickly drops the emot...more
Wow, this book reminded me once again of the tediousness of using drugs and all the blasted drama. Who stole the drugs, what kind of scam are we going to work to get us more drugs? As always with drug memoirs, I question the author's incredible recall for detail. I think he might had made some of it up--at least the timeline and some of the finer points of logic. I was particularly disgusted by his discussions of his sexual practices and how women were treated. It is definitely a harrowing ...more
Update #1
In my book so far Jimmy, the main character, had gotten in trouble in New Jersey for being high and running around the city wrecklessly. His parents decided to send him to California for rehab and he went to a place called GSL. After he got out of there, he started living with a friend he had made in GSL whose name was Luke in a sober-living home. They got kicked out of there because they were getting high. Luke went to live with his girlfriend and daughter while Jimmy started...more
In my book so far Jimmy, the main character, had gotten in trouble in New Jersey for being high and running around the city wrecklessly. His parents decided to send him to California for rehab and he went to a place called GSL. After he got out of there, he started living with a friend he had made in GSL whose name was Luke in a sober-living home. They got kicked out of there because they were getting high. Luke went to live with his girlfriend and daughter while Jimmy started...more
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Robin Salant
rated it
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Teenagers, Parents of drug addictst, drug counselors, memoir-junkies
A drug memoir that -- in laying out about a year of repetitious find-drugs-take-drugs-find-more-drugs, etc., and all the petty scamming and self-denial, the making friends and losing them, the endless tweaking, sketching, highs and lows -- shows us that being a junkie is FAR less glamorous than Jim had hoped it would be.
The book doesn't end with "finding God" or even really "hitting rock bottom," which I liked. It was more that, like being a junkie, rehabbing is p...more
The book doesn't end with "finding God" or even really "hitting rock bottom," which I liked. It was more that, like being a junkie, rehabbing is p...more
Bored, tired of reading books with facts and statistics? Yes, so was I.
This book is a great, fun read. The main character Jim (the author James Salant) keeps you on the edge of your seat.
James doesnt waste your time trying to give you statistics on drugs, drug use or even how meth is produced.
This is his story of addiction, from beginning to end. Its not a pretty journey through the countryside, but rather a long walk down a dirty, dangerous back alley.
...more
This book is a great, fun read. The main character Jim (the author James Salant) keeps you on the edge of your seat.
James doesnt waste your time trying to give you statistics on drugs, drug use or even how meth is produced.
This is his story of addiction, from beginning to end. Its not a pretty journey through the countryside, but rather a long walk down a dirty, dangerous back alley.
...more
This book was pretty fascinating. I didn't know a whole lot about crystal meth given that I live on the East Coast where it isn't as much of a problem. Shout out to the gangs for keeping the meth out and the heroin in! As a social worker, I found this book really interesting. It's a first person account of addiction and the author doesn't hold back. He puts it all in there, the shocking, the embarrassing, the inspirational, all of it. I like that this book doesn't read as a warning. It's not mea...more
The book opens with Jimmy’s first encounters into drug addiction, crime, the justice system, and a self perceived “glamorous thug life” as a high schooler in Princeton New Jersey. Brought up in a middle-class family, the second son of two therapists, he was introduced to heroin at seventeen by his brother Joe. This resulted in a spell in rehab where he met a bunch of ex-convicts, and he soon fell into the thuggish, drifting lifestyle of meth addiction. It took a near death experience with his be...more
This is more of a 2.5 for me. If someone asked me for a recommendation for a book of this nature I'd definitely steer them toward Nic Sheff's Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines and to a lesser extent, We All Fall Down: Living with Addiction.
Salant is just missing some of that crucial 'flow' to his writing. A friend of mine said this and I agree wholeheartedly - Salant seems to be bragging in parts about his past and it's common sense that this isn't conducive to staying clean. I wouldn'...more
Salant is just missing some of that crucial 'flow' to his writing. A friend of mine said this and I agree wholeheartedly - Salant seems to be bragging in parts about his past and it's common sense that this isn't conducive to staying clean. I wouldn'...more
For me, reading this book was more educational than pleasurable. I wouldn't necessarily call it well-written, as many of the episodes the author recounts seem repetitive, and they don't culminate to any final climax, from what I could tell. The beginning didn't "grab my attention," and I felt that the entire thing left one with little sense of surprise, both during the reading and at the end.
However, I easily recognized the temperament and actions of a good friend of mine...more
However, I easily recognized the temperament and actions of a good friend of mine...more
A nicely done memoir about a young man who grows up in a middle class family and become addicted to meth & heroin. Somewhat bland but some good stuff. Not about recovery, really, and no angst about his addiction. It just is what it is. He does some soul searching. Really, it was just more of an escape than anything.
As an English teacher, this book gives me hope that young people can write, even if they do need an editor, which I am also guilty of, so, yes, hopeful...
As an English teacher, this book gives me hope that young people can write, even if they do need an editor, which I am also guilty of, so, yes, hopeful...
Several times while on public transportation I've been reading something gross and get nauseous and feel like passing out but then don't. One part of this book includes a graphic depiction of shooting up in his penis while getting a hand job over the sore spot. Needles bother me but this...Bleh. I was on a bus while reading it and felt really dizzy and sick.
That's totally a digression though. It's a good book, he's now an ex-junky and he writes mostly about crystal meth and heroin and his...more
That's totally a digression though. It's a good book, he's now an ex-junky and he writes mostly about crystal meth and heroin and his...more
I honestly don't know how I finished this book. I almost needed a shot of speed myself to get through it. Now, I love a good addiction memoir as much as the next gal, but this was just meandering, self-indulgent prattle that had little to no reflection or self-awareness until the epilogue, and even then I still thought the author was just another spoiled kid attempting to appear more hardened than he actually is. He attempts to give a raw and gripping account of his brief foray into the world of...more
I read this book in concert with "No Speed Limit" -- I read this first and it gave a pretty harrowing account of the author's meth dependence, and how screwed up his life became for a period of time. I was going to say that this is not your typical story of drug addiction, relapse and ultimate recovery, because the author was from a priviledged background -- but then I realized that people that write books (and get them published) about there journey are more likely than not a part of ...more
Kayla
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who is remotely interested in the lives of drug addicts & their road to recovery.
Recommended to Kayla by:
My friend Danielle
I LOVED this book. James Salant has been through some things that I thought only happened in the movies. While he brought it all on himself, his downward spiral into heroin and meth addiction are heartbreaking. The book details Salant's attempts to get clean as well as his disregard for the rules and norms of society. I was happy to learn that he did in fact get clean and has stayed that way (as of the book's release). I couldn't put the book down and was quite disappointed when I realized I had...more
I read this book while i was locked up. I loved this book. I can relate to this book in many ways. I use to have a really bad drug addiction and was in and out of rehab, just like the main character in this book.
I really enjoyed this book because it is a memoir and it is real. I also like how graphic it is. Leavin Dirty Jersey is an amaZing book and i would love to read more books by James Salant.
I really enjoyed this book because it is a memoir and it is real. I also like how graphic it is. Leavin Dirty Jersey is an amaZing book and i would love to read more books by James Salant.
Eye opener. I read this book and immediately realized how lucky i am to have 'made it' without falling into the common drug hole. I messaged every kid i knew that i felt wasnt educated enough to know the level of seriousness this drug brings with it. Praying that no one i know and love gets addicted to this horrible drug.
I read this one with my students in mind, and while I really liked it, it's completely inappropriate for school--too much adult language and content--even for a book about drug abuse. Story begins w/ a kid in Jersey who--while tripping--is arrested and charged for possession w/ intent to dist. He goes to rehab in Cali, relapses, and the book talks about his year of drug abuse. While it's marketed as a cautionary tale, Salant doesn't do much cautioning--his year on the wild side almost sounds lik...more
Meh, so far. Nothing spectacular or earth-shattering. It's a middle-of-the-road guy saying middle-of-the-road things about his middle-of-the-road life on meth in New Jersey and California. The language (ghostwritten for sure, right?) isn't trumped up, it's definitely an easy read for anyone who passed the 5th grade.
I am always fascinated by memoirs of former drug addicts or people with troubled pasts. This account was equally interesting but my complaint about it is that I felt it didn't delve deep enough into his addiction. It scratched the surface and it just seemed that it could've explored that aspect of it more.
This was one fascinating and honest book that just flew by. You have to respect how much Salant puts himself down after the fact and exposes all his weaknesses which he actually considered strengths while high. I very much recommend this book.
I learned a lot from this book about how when people become addicted to drugs, even though they try to stop their addiction they end up going back to doing drugs because is hard for them to stop since it has becomed a habbit.
This book is perfect for anyone who likes those druggie books. It gets a LITTLE boring for a quick second, but it starts off heavy and suspenseful and leaves the same way.
I felt like this was just another story about drug use. There was not much development of the main character in the beginning to understand why he turned to drugs. I did not find myself pulling for the character to get clean or really caring about the choices he made.
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