I thought I'd get away without reading this but it's come up as the selection for the bookclub and it has come highly recommended by a number of people so, I'm going to give it a shot.

From amazon.com:

rey is pretender to the throne of the aggressive, digressive, cocky Kings David: Eggers and Foster Wallace. Pre-pub comparisons to those writers spring not from Frey's writing but from his attitude: as a recent advance profile put it, the 33-year-old former drug dealer and screenwriter "wants to be the greatest literary writer of his generation." While the Davids have their faults, their work is unquestionably literary. Frey's work is more mirrored surface than depth, but this superficiality has its attractions. With a combination of upper-middle-class entitlement, street credibility garnered by astronomical drug intake and PowerPoint-like sentence fragments and clipped dialogue, Frey proffers a book that is deeply flawed, too long, a trial of even the most na‹ve reader's credulousness-yet its posturings hit a nerve. This is not a new story: boy from a nice, if a little chilly, family gets into trouble early with alcohol and drugs and stays there. Pieces begins as Frey arrives at Hazelden, which claims to be the most successful treatment center in the world, though its success rate is a mere 17%. There are flashbacks to the binges that led to rehab and digressions into the history of other patients: a mobster, a boxer, a former college administrator, and Lilly, his forbidden love interest, a classic fallen princess, former prostitute and crack addict. What sets Pieces apart from other memoirs about 12-stepping is Frey's resistance to the concept of a higher power. The book is sure to draw criticism from the recovery community, which is, in a sense, Frey's great gimmick. He is someone whose problems seem to stem from being uncomfortable with authority, and who resists it to the end, surviving despite the odds against him. The prose is repetitive to the point of being exasperating, but the story, with its forays into the consciousness of an addict, is correspondingly difficult to put down.

This wasn't my first choice for a book to read next but with all the talk, the recommendations and the fact that it was the next selection for the bookclub, I thought I'd give it a chance.

I'm really glad I did. Regardless of whether this is a memoir or purely literary or a little of both, the bottom line is that it is a poignant and intense view into addiction and the struggles of getting clean.

Though not exactly a "light read" it does leave a positive message - hold on. Hold on and all will be ok.

The only thing I wasn't particularly fond of was the style - the lack of quotations. In some bits it was quite obvious as to who was saying what but in other instances, it was quite confusing. Sure, it adds to the feeling of confusion and helplessness, but I would have liked to have those distinctions.

RELEASE NOTES:

This is being released at the Burnaby Bookcrossing Meetup at the Bread Garden, Metrotown Mall.

Caught at the burnaby meet-up, my first official catch and quite enjoyed meeting everyone. Oddly enough had stopped in a bookstore earlier today and saw this book, so I figure it was meant to be.

Soooo. I finished the book and I do have to say wow. Just a little one, but still, it's there.
I have to agree with themarina that the lack of quotations could become annoying at times but with that aside I could definetly recommend this book.
To know that it may not all be true does put a bit of a crimp in the story, real life, I could believe the unbelievable, but fiction? Sometimes it seemed to far fetch.
Must say that I am glad I never discovered drugs, or alcohol in his capacity, but it had the effect on me of that 80's commercial, egg and fry pan, this is your brain on drugs. I think with one of my nephews getting close to 13 that it might be a book that could educate him.
I think if the opportunity arises I would like to release this one into the wild.