How To Stop Time: The Memoir of a Heroin Addict - Softcover

Marlowe, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860498213 ISBN 13: 9781860498213

Publisher: Virago, 2002

Synopsis

In a coolly dispassionate voice, Ann Marlowe has created a mock dictionary in order to dissect her addiction to - and her eventual rejection of - heroin. Each entry, varying from the anecdotal to the analytical, describes the allure and the degradation of the drug, set against the story of her own life. Without glamorizing it, she explores the seduction of the drug and honestly reveals heroin's temporary deep satisfaction, before finally casting the drug aside as a failed, even abusive, lover, a negligent spouse, a one-way ultimately doomed relationship. Her journey through heroin is a cerebral tale grounded in an exploration of emotional life. Throughout, her tone is ironic and searching and her alphabetical voyage provides an insight into the twilight world of drug addiction.

About this title

Review:

A brilliant and impressive book, all the more so because of its remarkable calm and restraint after such a terrifying experience (Penelope Fitzgerald)

Her insight is a positive addition to the literature about the drug, and a telling and sophisticated examination of modern society (THE LIST)

A calm look at middle-class heroin addiction and an honest analysis of how an obsessed society mythologises it ... compelling (IRISH TIMES)

The little black dress of dope books...Marlowe is the most gifted druggie to pop out of Harvard since Timothy Leary. (Jerry Stahl)

Book Description:

* An ultra-cool examination of the allure and degradation of the world of heroin with its effect on contemporary society by a New York ex-junkie journalist

About this edition

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1860498213
• ISBN 13: 9781860498213
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304