What I seek in a memoir is the chance to step into a life unlike my own. A good writer with an interesting life story can make me feel as if I know a world that is totally different from my own. Steve Martin succeeds in writing this type of memoir. Yes, this book is about addiction. But it is more than that. It's about Asian history, collecting and art. It also does not follow the story arc I expected which makes it all the more a story of one man's life.


I received this book as a first-reads win from goodreads. (It's a great program. Check it out.)