Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir

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Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir

3.57 of 5 stars 3.57 · rating details · 1,419 ratings · 257 reviews

Bill Clegg had a thriving business as a literary agent, a supportive partner, trusting colleagues, and loving friends when he walked away from his world and embarked on a two-month crack binge. He had been released from rehab nine months earlier, and his relapse would cost him his home, his money, his career, and very nearly his life.

What is it that leads an exceptional yo...more

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published June 7th 2010 by Little, Brown and Company (first published January 1st 2010)

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Jun 24, 2011 Wendy S. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Sure I read it (hence two stars), and I read it quickly because 1) I'm addicted to books about screw ups, AND 2) I'm constantly looking for something that will make me feel differently about this particular disease. This "memoir" makes me sick. I don't care about Bill Clegg's self-indulgent childhood issues. In fact, they bore me. He comes across as an insecure, egotistical name-dropper who clearly has a long way to go if in fact he is still "recovering." Much like all books about addiction, my...more

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May 30, 2010 Claire rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: guys-read, grownup-books, memoir, first-person-narrator-all-ages

Stellar writing, excellent editing; deserves 5 stars.
This memoir is a roller coaster ride the reader takes with Bill Clegg as he remembers episodes pursuing various intoxicating experiences. An unflinching account- Clegg does not spare himself as he tells of the road he traveled with his addiction. This is not easy reading, the highs and desperate lows are so vivid.
Some call this a cautionary tale. I don't know. I think some would read the descriptions and say, 'I'd like to feel high like that...more

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Aug 22, 2010 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sept-oct-2010

In this chilling debut, Clegg has written a serious and compelling, if somewhat detached, addition to the subgenre of "addiction memoirs." Clegg's tight, elegant prose, earnest tone, and meticulous attention to detail call up a fairy tale world brutally transformed into a monstrous hell. While the New York Times Book Review and the Times considered the book tedious and clich

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Nov 15, 2012 christa rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first time Bill Clegg tries smoking crack he’s in an apartment in New York City with an upstanding citizen from his hometown, a handsome silver-haired lawyer who is older than even his father. And, whoa, is this a good time. Clegg describes it as a new surge of energy, a perfect oblivion, a kind of peace, kinetic, sexual and euphoric, a hurricane, a warm tender caress.

The naughty, drug fueled, paranoia and urination fascination memoir Portrait of a Young Man as an Addictis the literary agent...more The first time Bill Clegg tries smoking crack he’s in an apartment in New York City with an upstanding citizen from his hometown, a handsome silver-haired lawyer who is older than even his father. And, whoa, is this a good time. Clegg describes it as a new surge of energy, a perfect oblivion, a kind of peace, kinetic, sexual and euphoric, a hurricane, a warm tender caress.

The naughty, drug fueled, paranoia and urination fascination memoir Portrait of a Young Man as an Addict is the literary agent’s story about the time he went on a two-month crack bender that resulted in losing his business, his boyfriend, lots of weight, his home and the $70,000 he had in his bank account. It’s a repetitive cat-and-mouse capade during which Clegg bounces from nice hotel to nice hotel to seedy corners to both chase a high and outrun the people who are trying to help him -- including his boyfriend Noah, a saintly enabler slash filmmaker, and the faceless men dressed in JC Penney’s-ware who Clegg believes are tailing him.

In between these horrible ideas, Clegg also writes about growing up and his pee problems. It’s an obsession that finds him standing over toilets for an hour at a time. He fears the sting of release, and this always ends with him whizzing all over the walls with a nob that has become bloodied from pinching. It’s here that he shows the first skills that he will use as, at first, a functioning addict. He plots out ways to appear as though he is a functional pisser, when actually he has specific bathrooms and outdoor spaces that he prefers, where he can perform the complicated rub and jump choreography that he requires to dribble.

Clegg is indiscriminate about the wheres and with-whom of his addiction, regularly spotting a certain look, darkened eyes, on a stranger’s face and asking, “Do you party?” before inviting the cab driver or whoever back to a hotel for some sex, drugs and crack rock (‘n’ roll). He’s got something over a lot of crack addicts in that he’s got a lot of money in the bank which means he can always hole up in a place that is nice enough to deliver bottles of Kettle One directly to his room. Instead of getting to the point of selling his body, he tends to be the one tossing bills on the nightstand. There is a sort of petulant rich kid on extended vacation-ness to his addiction, a catch-me-if-you-can snickered over his shoulder as he tries to avoid the inevitability of death or rehab. Bret Easton Ellis might have written this character, although it’s Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City that Clegg draws his own comparison to.

His rock bottom comes when he has finally made the aesthetic shift from someone with the chic structure of a gay Kennedy to someone who is basically told that “this hotel doesn’t serve your kind.”

None of this money, prettiness or support system diminishes the fact that this is a guy with a major problemo, who is willing to let crack take precedent over his lover, his family and the single most important literary event of his young career. At the apex of the story, he’s in possession of enough crack to wipe himself out a dozen times over. And because this book exists, as does a follow up and he still shows up on Page Six once in awhile, the assumption is that the final act of intervention worked.

Although, in this memoir at least, it’s hard to say why. There isn’t a single moment when he looks in the mirror and thinks: “Dude. This has to stop. You’re a complete mess.”

Most addiction memoirs are pretty similar. Addiction doesn’t really manifest itself in new ways that challenge a reader’s imagination. It’s all painful, it’s all impossible, it’s all sneaky and filled with tender non-addicts who love so hard and then suddenly just can’t anymore. Addiction memoirs are formulaic, just like a lot of genres. But this one is extra ugly and extra desperate and more than a little loathsome. And it’s just so well written with these crazy-visual details and an almost poetic, but not in that overwrought way.

There was a scene in the final chapters when my face began to shake involuntarily and my eyes filled with tears and I felt like someone had misplaced the couch and accidentally set it on my chest. I’m not sure why, but it just socked me right then and there and I had to remove myself from the story so I didn’t totally lose my mind. So, wow. Not sure how that happened.

Also fun fact: Noah is actually a pseudonym. And, as filmmakers do, he's made one about a foreign filmmaker and his drug and sex addict boyfriend. Cannot. Wait. To see it. I'm dying to get into that guy's noggin.
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Jun 07, 2012 Cheryl/Aradanryl rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, drug-abuse, cocaine, non-fiction, biography, mental-illness, relationships

I always feel awkward rating and reviewing these kind of books since in a sense, it feels a little like rating their life instead of rating a book. I am not sure I ever want to stop feeling that way though.

Although this book probably is a fairly accurate picture of the extreme emotions and self-justification/delusion that is integral to the lives of rich young and charming addicts, I didn't like the book. It left me irritated at a gifted, privileged, self-absorbed and immature young man who is c...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-biography

Harrowing, with a can't-look-away-oh-god-I-want-to-look-away quality that fairly pulls the reader through the pages. I know crack addicts but haven't read any accounts of the addiction from the inside, and I found Clegg to be adept at giving a sense of what serious substance abuse must be like for the user. The rampant paranoia, the way the drug extends and collapses time, the peaks of the highs versus the plunges into the blackest of lows—he nails all of this with an unflinching eye, and withou...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Brittany rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs-biographies

"It doesn't feel the least bit wrong in those first seconds after exhaling the familiar smoke, no more than a reunion with an old friend, a returning to the most incredible conversation I've ever had, one that got interrupted seven months ago and, now that it's started up again, hasn't skipped a beat. But it's more than just a conversation, it's the best sex. The most delicious meal, the most engrossing book-it's like returning to all of these at once, coming home, and the primary feeling I have...more

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Dec 23, 2010 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars

I admit that I am a sucker for stories about addiction. You could even say I am addicted to them. (groan!) But now I know what I want for my last "meal" ----and it is a nice chunk of crack. Really, it sounds like something that everyone should experience once in a lifetime but can't for obvious reasons. To paraphrase the poet, it sounds like . . ." all we know of heaven and all we need to know of hell. . "

Bill Clegg is a literary agent in NYC and he was living the dream. He appears on his book...more I admit that I am a sucker for stories about addiction. You could even say I am addicted to them. (groan!) But now I know what I want for my last "meal" ----and it is a nice chunk of crack. Really, it sounds like something that everyone should experience once in a lifetime but can't for obvious reasons. To paraphrase the poet, it sounds like . . ." all we know of heaven and all we need to know of hell. . "

Bill Clegg is a literary agent in NYC and he was living the dream. He appears on his book jacket as model-handsome. At the time of the memoir he was living with his partner, Noah, a seemingly flawless mate, in an incredible apartment given to them by Noah's wealthy grandmother. He and a friend had just started their own literary agency and he has a large group of friends and family and clients. I won't give away the whole story because it is rather suspenseful writing, even though you are practically told from the start that the house of cards is all going to fall.

What makes it such compelling reading even when you know where it is headed, are the details----missing airplane flights: check in for the flight and then take a cab back to an airport hotel to smoke some crack, planning to get back in time to catch the flight; the paranoia of thinking that every taxi cab driver is working for the DEA; meandering down a street with exclusive shops to find a leather shop which can make extra holes in his belt before his pants fall down; the ease with which these repeated drug transactions are made. The latter is particularly fascinating. He made calls sometimes once or twice a night to get more drugs, and then would run out to find an ATM wherever he was so that he could take out $300 at a time, to pay for the drugs at each installment.

My only quibble is with the style of the modern day memoir, used here. Why do we have to jump back and forth in time so much? He is five; then college; current day; drug days; then back to six, then drug days. Because I read so quickly, at each transition I had to ask myself, who are these guys with him, his grade school friends or his crack companions? It is dizzying.

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Aug 28, 2010 C(h)ristine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I first read an excerpt from this drug-addiction memoir in New York Magazine earlier this summer. While I've had my fill of drug-addiction memoirs (and memoirs about nervous breakdowns, in case you care) and thus find any craving of such subject matter more than quenched, I found myself totally enthralled by the text, and in particular, Bill Clegg's voice. Plus, the guy was a wildly successful literary agent, an insider, whose decline was marked by an addiction to crack. I wanted more. I put my...more I first read an excerpt from this drug-addiction memoir in New York Magazine earlier this summer. While I've had my fill of drug-addiction memoirs (and memoirs about nervous breakdowns, in case you care) and thus find any craving of such subject matter more than quenched, I found myself totally enthralled by the text, and in particular, Bill Clegg's voice. Plus, the guy was a wildly successful literary agent, an insider, whose decline was marked by an addiction to crack. I wanted more. I put my waitlist for the book at the library. More than two months later, the book became available to me.

The book isn't about recovery--it's about addiction told in a most unfiltered, unblinking narrative. There's a craft essay on Brevity by Kerry Cohen that emphasizes the importance and necessity to "sit with your flawed, imperfect self, silence your internal judge, and allow yourself to write toward meaning." Bill Clegg does just that, and his book is an example of how I need to write with such brutal honesty.

The other craft element I found valuable was the structure of this memoir. The book flips back and forth between the main timeline of Clegg's addiction, and snippets of childhood, aptly written in third person. There is no overt connection between the two narratives, and yet there is connection between the shame in his childhood and the shame that drives him to self-destruction in his adulthood. The structure of this memoir is duly noted in my mind.

Also, for the record, this is the first book I've read since Vonnegut's Sirens of Titans--for some reason, I haven't been able to finish a book since Vonnegut. I have tried and tried to read other books, resulting in a stack of books on my nightstand, all with bookmarks at some halfway mark. This book? I began and finished this book in one day/night.

If I could give this book 3.5 stars, I would. But there's no 1/2 option. Thus, the 4 stars.

First few lines:
"I can't leave and there isn't enough.

Mark is at full tilt, barking hear-it-here-first wisdom from the edge of his black vinyl sofa. He looks like a translator for the deaf moving at triple speed--hands flapping, arms and shoulders jerking. His legs move, too, but only to fold and refold at regular intervals beneath his tall, skeletal frame. The leg crossing is the only thing about mark with any order. The rest is a riot of sudden movements and spasms--he's a marionette at the mercy of a brutal puppeteer. His eyes, like mine, are dull black marbles."(less)

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Jul 04, 2010 Tayari Jones rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was pretty engaging. There is a train-wrecky appeal and Clegg is pretty good with phrase. (I especially liked it when he described a woman's accent as "tricky.")

I would have liked it better if he had really reflected on the way his race/class kept him out of jail. While I was really fascinated by the idea that there are secret crack addicts everywhere, Clegg could have been omre reflective about the fact that addicts who can't check into Manhattan hotels to get high and order vodka for...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, memoir, addiction

I knew about Bill Clegg as a high powered literary agent (Nicole Krauss and Diane Keaton are two of his many notable clients; Keaton dedicated her own memoirs to him) before I knew of him as a crack addict. Indeed in this memoir he is both. He actually has a follow-up coming out this month and a review of it is what prompted me to read this first... I'd long since meant to pick it up but hadn't yet. In any case, this is a harrowing, paranoid tale of a multi-month bender. I truly cannot comprehen...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Alexis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

This is the disturbing story of literary agent Bill Clegg's complete fall into drug addiction. I agree with Susan Juby's review about the fetishization of crack smoking throughout the book- there are long passages about crack smoking and every detail of the process. In fact, I'm not quite sure how the author managed to write this without a relapse. Apparently he wrote it while he was in rehab, so that might have been part of the process.

The book is extremely graphic and disturbing. I read it all...more

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Jul 14, 2010 Jim Morrissey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 22, 2010 Brielle Charmasson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In this compelling story about a man’s journey through hell, Bill Clegg invites the reader into a whole new world, one that is almost impossible to crawl out of. Each and every page connects you more and more into the story, making you feel as if you are addicted to abusing drugs just as much as Clegg is. His creative use of diction, detail, and syntax allows you to feel every emotion, every inhale, and every drink Clegg endures. This raw text exposes his most embarrassing experiences and left...more

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May 15, 2012 Adam Dunn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: glbt

When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Many things came to me while reading this book and I had to stop reading several times to just sit and think. The main one is reflected in the quote above, how did he go through this again? How was he able to get past the shame and guilt of this time in his life to be able to write it down and then to be able to share it with others? I spent a lot of the book marvelling at that.

"Nothing but death can keep me from it"...more When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Many things came to me while reading this book and I had to stop reading several times to just sit and think. The main one is reflected in the quote above, how did he go through this again? How was he able to get past the shame and guilt of this time in his life to be able to write it down and then to be able to share it with others? I spent a lot of the book marvelling at that.

"Nothing but death can keep me from it" Clegg says in the book, and who among us hasn't felt that feeling, in some way. I related to the thrill of going out and getting high with friends and of being a rebel and doing something grown up and being in control of something at a time when you feel you have no control of anything. But there is that time when the music stops and you look around and you're the only one left dancing. At some point it becomes about you, your addiction, your life, your goals and hopes and the other, the absence of those things, which was perfectly chronicled in this book.

He talks about shame. The scene with the partner in the bed broke my heart into pieces. How can you stand to go back there, to actually acknowledge that happened, and ever be able to look yourself in the mirror again? But Clegg mentions these emotions evolving as he worked through them "into something less self-concerned" which I had another A HA! moment at that. To be able to see the past and process it and learn from it, not as a victim, not as all about you, but that there is what was, and also there is what will be. Mind blown.

Another passage that stuck with me was where Clegg attempts to forgive the actions of his father by putting himself in his place. Did he think through his actions, or "did he simply believe that whatever was broken could be fixed by force, that something bent could be hammered straight?" And again we move on the bigger picture, that whatever the motivation of his father was, there is what was and what will be.

There is no prize, once you get to the realization that you have been through things, that people may have been trying their best but that you were done wrong, there is no medal at that point, no easy fix to say "This is the cause of my problems!" Because what comes next?

And eventually, hopefully, you get to the realization that I did, after many tears, though this book. That Bill Clegg did. That there is what was, there is what will be, and that that is okay.

That I...

am okay. (less)

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Aug 27, 2011 Raz added it

Finished it in two days because I really wanted to know what was wrong with him. I love reading about suburban kids that become rich and turn into crackheads. Bill is good at keeping secrets, Bill didnt get enough love and attention. The book is in account of his crack binges. and then going back to his childhood. Small little things he remembers that follow him for the rest of his life. you read this book and you are like "HOW THE FUCK did you spend $70,000 a month on crack, vodka, hotel rooms,...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Kit Fox rated it 3 of 5 stars

Claustrophobic and downright panic attack-inducing, this book had me worried that I was about to run out and relapse on crack cocaine, and I've never even done crack cocaine. For me the biggest question this book left me with, though, was simply why anyone stuck around this guy while all of this was going on? I mean, he didn't just shirk his responsibilities and abuse people's trust whilst embarking on a multi-thousand dollar crack binge, he was downright monstrous to his boyfriend; a boyfriend,...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Mina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was okay…he can write….I guess. But it’s nothing new to be honest. I am a sucker for this kind of drug/addiction abuse story, fiction or non-fiction.

I truly cannot relate to the writer in any way and I have no sympathy to him at all. It just feels like a very indulgent kind of thing. He’s obviously a very privileged man, white and reasonably smart. And the story itself goes on somehow tediously…to sum it up: it was bad, and then it was really bad, and then everything went downhill till boom!...more

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Jul 30, 2010 Mary added it

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Nov 25, 2012 Jazmine Green rated it 3 of 5 stars

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is a memoir by Bill Clegg. Bill is the Owner of a thriving business in New York, a book-publishing agency. However, as he gets sucked deeper into addiction his business begins to fall a part, his long time relationship with his boyfriend, Noah, crumbles and the rest of his life gets shattered to pieces. This memoir was very well written in my opinion, therefore making it interesting to read. However, I do feel that it was a bit confusing at times and I found...more Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is a memoir by Bill Clegg. Bill is the Owner of a thriving business in New York, a book-publishing agency. However, as he gets sucked deeper into addiction his business begins to fall a part, his long time relationship with his boyfriend, Noah, crumbles and the rest of his life gets shattered to pieces. This memoir was very well written in my opinion, therefore making it interesting to read. However, I do feel that it was a bit confusing at times and I found myself questioning the time period in many parts of the book. For these points I feel that this book deserved three stars because although it isn’t my favorite, it isn’t my least favorite either.
The writing style was terrific through out the whole book. It flowed very well and with Clegg’s use of detail when describing things, it was very easy for you to visualize what was around him or what things looked like. These sentences are one of the many in the book that exemplify descriptive writing; “Little-guy cords- usually navy blue, sometimes green- bunch at his feet. Fruit of the Looms wrinkle just below his knees… He knows it’s going to sting- like bits of glass trying to push out- but just wants it over with. He shuffles in front of the bowl.” His intriguing way of writing really captivates your attention and allows you to want to keep on reading. I found this to be a very influential positive point of the book
Despite his great writing skills, the sequence of events or the anecdote seemed to be a bit flawed and confusing. At first it is evident that Clegg is going back and forth about re-counting his childhood and then his present day life. And at first it is very interesting and it adds a bit of alteration, making it interesting. However, Somewhere around the middle of the book he begins talking about the time before his crack addiction and then after and before again and then back to his current present day addiction. It was highly confusing and in all honesty I don’t really know what time period the book left off in the end. If Clegg would have kept everything consistent or at leas evident that he was revisiting the past or visiting the future, then the book would have been a whole lot better. However, this point did largely affect it negatively.
Overall, Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man wasn’t a horrible book, but it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read. Therefore I stand by my rating of three stars. I would only recommend this book to someone who is prepared to pay very close attention and maybe re-read the book a few times in order to really understand it, because the fact that it is confusing is really the only problem I had with it. Other then that, the book is very well written and interesting.

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Oct 11, 2012 Risa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is a memoir written by Bill Clegg about his struggle with crack addiction. It is Clegg's first novel and is a short, quick read and immediately engaging.

In flashbacks, Clegg chronicles his childhood struggles and his over-bearing father. He addresses his casual drug use in high school and college, which leads to a full-blown crack addiction in adulthood.

Clegg is a literary agent who lives in New York City. This memoir is about his last crack binge that cost h...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Shawna rated it 2 of 5 stars

When am I going to learn that all of these addiction dramas follow the same narrative arc, "And then I got high, and then I got high, and then I got high." This one was particularly infurating because Clegg managed to spend his way through a fortune, paying for fancy hotel rooms, room service vodka, and tons of crack cocaine. He jettisoned his successful literary agency, and yet once he has recovered he still managed to land a job and a client with so much faith in him that she abandoned her cur...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Howard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Orginally posted on my blog howdiva.wordpress.com

Reading Bill Clegg’s “Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man” is an experience akin to scrolling through someone’s Tumblr posts. Both are disjointed, confusing, transgressively personal — and ultimately poignant.

“Portraits” is the tale of New York literary agent Bill Clegg’s harrowing fall into crack addiction. Billed as a memoir, the book details his addiction and the patterns in his life that might have attributed to it. It covers, with harrowing...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Neil Mudde rated it 2 of 5 stars

Being familiar with " the program" I found this book a story about a very privileged person, who has money to burn, does not mind dropping names in order to get his story out.
He obviously has connections in the publishing world to get his book out, as well it is a story about a person who happens to be white, hence is not treated the same as persons of different races in the same situation.
Jails are overflowing by non white persons, because in many cases different rules apply.
I wish him a long a...more

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Apr 02, 2010 Kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I read the sentence, "At the very center of things and at the farthest edge," I was hooked. How many of us have felt this way? This isn't your typical "how I overcame my drug addiction memoir." Bill Clegg explains in detail his descent into crack madness and his overwhelming guilt in letting his family, friends and basically, everyone he knows down. Except, unlike most, he is addicted to crack and doesn't care about making amends or the consequences or losing his life. It doesn't matter. On...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Luke Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't know what's so compelling about watching someone spiral down into the rock-bottom depths of human weakness, but this book is exactly that. A talented literary agent develops a taste for crack and succumbs to the drug's frenzied and paranoid allure. This is his story.

Rare is the hopeless addict who can elucidate his thoughts and point to specific moments in life that cause him to want to destroy himself. But Bill Clegg, with a front-row seat to his own dramatic descent, allows us to peer...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very unnerving, and dichotomous, read. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw a brief review and decided to pick the book up.

Half of the book narrates from the first-person during the toughest parts of a complete spiral into crack-addiction madness. It is told very matter-of-factly through that chronology, although the styles do change depending on the mood of the narrator when referencing the time. This is never moreso true than during the "Last Door" chapter as things come crashing down. It...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Shannon Ferguson rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a well-written and engaging account of a regular guy battling a crack addiction. Time wasn't completely linear from chapter to chapter, and I can imagine that that's what it might be like for someone with multiple periods of intense drug use peppered throughout several years of his life. I was particularly into some of the more gritty details (buying drugs, the ins and outs of paraphernalia, figuring out where/when to use) that are often left out of other drug books (because they become...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Margaret Carmel rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really liked the poetic language the book was written in. It made this terrible way of life sound almost beautiful, in a terrible way. I did find it a little bit repetitive though. Although I do acknowledge that the repetitive structure shows how addiction is an endless cycle, it did get old to read him moving from hotel to hotel, geting money, calling his dealer, having sex, getting paranoid, and leaving to start all over again. Also I am personally not really clear on how he got into all of...more

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Jan 14, 2011 Fvck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011

A grippingly horrifying and unrepentantly sexy memoir of addiction. Clegg seems/seemed like a truly horrible human being with absolutely no regard for those who care anything about him; yet reading many parts of this book had me aching to live his Glamorous Life ("It ain't much") of flashy literary parties, hot yuppie boyfriends, and bleary-beautiful late nights in $500/night boutique hotels. Indeed, I REALLY appreciated that he didn't turn this into a tale of repentance, recovery, treacly senti...more

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About Bill Clegg

Bill Clegg had a thriving business as a literary agent, representing a growing list of writers. He had a supportive partner, trusting colleagues, and loving friends when he walked away from his world and embarked on a two month crack binge. He had been released from rehab nine months earlier, and his relapse would cost him his home, his money, his career, and very nearly his life.

What is it that l...more

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title link	preview: Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir
avg rating	preview: Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir Goodreads rating: 3.57 (1419 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6929931-portrait-of-an-addict-as-a-young-man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344265003l/6929931.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6929931-portrait-of-an-addict-as-a-young-man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir by Bill Clegg[/url]

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir

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