This River

March 15, 2011
Not long after publication of his highly acclaimed The Los Angeles Diaries (2003), Brown relapsed into drug abuse. Yet, again, he pulled himself out of addiction and depression. This book recounts memories of struggling with addiction to alcohol and drugs, the truth of mental illness in his family, and the tragic deaths of family members. Brown is unsparing in describing his failings: risking his youngest sons life as the boy follows him injumping from a moving car to flee an intervention; the way he provided his children with instructions in the use of heroin; his wholehearted attempts to be a good father (teaching his sons wrestling and fishing, passing on lessons learned from his father); and his sympathy for others (closely noticing an emotionally troubled student and the vulnerabilities of fellow druggies). He is also unflinching in recognizing the trouble he visited on his children with the cruel dance of his inherited addictive personality. Beautifully written, this is clear-eyed truth-telling by a man coming to terms with the best and worst in himself and others.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)