The Night of the Gun
“[A] beautiful, horrifying memoir. David Carr has summoned everything that matters about the loaded gun of substance abuse.”
Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author
One of the 2008 New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books for Nonfiction
Oprah Pick of the Best Memoirs of a Generation
A Slate Magazine Best Book in Nonfiction of the Last 25 Years
From David Carr, the “undeniably brilliant and dogged journalist” (Entertainment Weekly) and author of the instant New York Times bestseller that the Chicago Sun-Times called “a compelling tale of drug abuse, despair, and, finally, hope.”
Do we remember only the stories we can live with, the ones that make us look good in the rear-view mirror? In The Night of the Gun, David Carr redefines memoir with the revelatory story of his years as an addict and chronicles his journey from crack-house regular to regular columnist for the New York Times. Built on sixty videotaped interviews, legal and medical records, and three years of reporting, The Night of the Gun is a ferocious tale that uses the tools of journalism to fact-check the past. Carr’s investigation of his own history reveals that his odyssey through addiction, recovery, cancer, and life as a single parent was far more harrowing—and, in the end, more miraculous—than he allowed himself to remember.
Fierce, gritty, and remarkable, The Night of the Gun is “an odyssey you’ll find hard to forget” (People).
Praise