Broken

For whatever reason, reading and learning about drug addiction is fascinating to me. I am a huge fan of Intervention because it is so rich in information since you see teh addicts first-hand account. Who knows why. I think it's just crazy to get inside their mind and see their lives become consumed with a subtance. It rules their lives. It's just crazy for me to conceive that happening.

For that reason, I was a sucker to pick up the memoir Broken by William Cope Moyers when it was in a sale bin. I just finished reading it, and it wasn't too terrible of a read. He is a recovering crack addict and alcoholic, basically jumping from one drug to the next from his teenage years and even into his marriage with children. He would skip out of work days on end, binging on crack in a dirty crackhouse in the city and forgetting about his family. I can't even imagine being that tied to something so artificial that it would pry me from people that I love. Addiction is a powerful thing.

The book wasn't that bad, not too hard to get through, but redundant at times. I felt like it went on a little bit longer than it should, but it did have some really powerful scenes in there that really made you think about addiction and the control it takes over someone. I wanted to read it because I've never read or seen anything about crack addiction from an addict's mind, so this gave me a small window into the world of it. Josh Kilmer-Purcell wrote a memoir where his lover was a crack addict, but that was from an outside perspective. Now that is one dirty substance no one should ever touch. I'll always remember when Purcell talks about his eyes raging like a rabid animal. He had this rage and energy that scared him. That's frightening.

Moyers talked a lot about having daddy issues--dealing with the impact of his father's success and he felt like he could never measure up. He was one of President Johnson's right-hand men; now he really is a powerful guy in the world. He felt like he never deserved anything handed to him. I bet that could slowly destroy you, but I don't know. Never been there. Never known anyone who really dealt with that. Doesn't mean it's not true.

The memoir had a lot of journals and letters, texts from the actual experience. If I ever wrote a memoir (and published it), I would do the same thing. I think it adds layers, real layers, from the actual account. It doesn't get more raw than that.

One thing I really enjoy is the picture on the cover. It's a picture taken for a magazine of his successful family, and he is trying to climb out the window. He said he always felt that he needed to escape, even as a child, and I think that idea really ties into the whole theme of his memoir. Really intelligent insertion there.

Has anyone read the book? What did you think of it? Or any comments on crack or addiction?