Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, Bill Clegg
Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, Bill Clegg
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Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man
A Memoir

Author: Bill Clegg

Narrator: Joshua Ferris

Unabridged: 4 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/07/2010

Synopsis

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 young mind want to disappear? Clegg makes stunningly clear the attraction of the drug that had him in its thrall, capturing in scene after scene the drama, tension, and paranoiac nightmare of a secret life -- and the exhilarating bliss that came again and again until it was eclipsed almost entirely by doom. He also explores the shape of addiction, how its pattern -- not its cause -- can be traced to the past.

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is an utterly compelling narrative -- lyrical, irresistible, harsh, honest, and beautifully written -- from which you simply cannot look away.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Debbie "DJ" on March 20, 2016

Heavy stuff, and holy f***! Okay, will try to give this a proper review. This is one hell of a ride on the dark side of crack cocaine addiction. While I usually like my addiction memoirs with a heavy heaping of recovery, this focused mostly on the addiction itself. Sometimes though, the story itself......more

Goodreads review by Glenn on February 21, 2021

Bill Clegg had it all: a glamorous, prestigious job as a literary agent; a handsome and caring indie filmmaker boyfriend; a gorgeous Manhattan apartment; a glittering social life; J. Crew catalogue model good looks... But he risked throwing it all away – along with tens of thousands of dollars – beca......more

Goodreads review by Tayari on July 04, 2010

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 fascin......more

Goodreads review by Amy on January 06, 2019

3.5 STARS This is my first Audio-book that I have listened to without also following along in an actual book. I don't really know how I feel about it. But I'm going to do my best to explain. First off, this book was actually quite difficult for me to finish. Multiple times I found myself debating whe......more

Goodreads review by George on July 03, 2023

Like many addiction memoirs, this one is impossible to put down. Just have to read a bit more! Beautifully written. It is hard to imagine how much this guy's friends went through before he found his way back. The episodic structure jumped around, but it is a miracle he could remember anything. How do......more

Quotes

PRAISE FOR PORTRAIT OF AN ADDICT AS A YOUNG MAN:
"Bill Clegg's Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man stands up to Frederick Exley's great memoir of alcoholism, A Fan's Notes . . . . But really, forget comparisons. Read the book."

—Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours

"Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is an instant classic. Anybody who knows anything about addiction will feel morally altered by this book. To an extraordinary degree, it has both beauty and truth. It goes beyond its own revelations to become a book for everybody, a work of art. I suppose we live for the magic of these things."—Andrew O'Hagan, author of Be Near Me, Winner of the Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction, 2008

"Bill Clegg's memoir is a startling, hair-raising, and compulsively readable account of one man's descent into the hell of addiction. That Clegg lived to tell his story is amazing. That he has captured the details of his experience with such beauty is even more so. Unforgettable."—Danielle Trussoni, author of the memoir Falling Through the Earth, named one of the Ten Best Books of 2006 by the New York Times

"It's a remarkable achievement when a writer can evoke the most desperate episodes of addiction with the unflinching honesty required to make such a memoir worth reading, yet somehow manage to completely transcend sleaze, sordidness, and vapid self-justification. Bill Clegg's story of a man-largely locked in hotel rooms, engaged in a desperate, heart-wrenching battle with himself--is destined to become a cult classic of writing on drug addiction."—Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting

"I devoured Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, couldn't put it down. The writing throughout is beautiful, and all the while it is reportorial and efficient and honest--a rare combination of feats!"—Elinor Lipman, author of Then She Found Me and, most recently, The Family Man

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