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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I know better than to read books about addiction because I make a living in this world, but this book was a double whammy: the author knows nothing about addiction except what she lived through with her ex-husband “one time at band camp,” and her family is so privileged that she has no idea how privileged they are.
The book is a well-written story of Peter, and it’s a sad story, but it’s only about Peter, and it’s an incomplete telling of his story anyway. The author is trying to get to the bottom of her ex’s death, but it’s a whitewash job in an attempt to tell a story of his horribly hard life as a lawyer and how hard the lives of white-collar workers are.
Life is hard...for everyone. And addiction is a disease, which the author doesn’t seem to realize.
The book is a well-written story of Peter, and it’s a sad story, but it’s only about Peter, and it’s an incomplete telling of his story anyway. The author is trying to get to the bottom of her ex’s death, but it’s a whitewash job in an attempt to tell a story of his horribly hard life as a lawyer and how hard the lives of white-collar workers are.
Life is hard...for everyone. And addiction is a disease, which the author doesn’t seem to realize.
To be honest, I'd probably rate this book higher if it hadn't been so intensely triggering. Zimmerman chronicles her ex-husband's spiral towards his death and how inexplicable she found it at the time. It's a personal story interspersed with occasional statistics and theories from psychologists or scientists. Zimmerman is a fluid and engaging writer. The story is one of personal tragedy for her and it's clear she's still working through it.
Yet, the central question she is struggling with exposes her bias. She wonders how someone like her ex-husband: rich, white, professionally successful, and with a loving family could possibly end up addicted. How could this happen to someone who was, quote unquote, successful? The pinnacle of social power? She's unflinching in describing herself as someone with blinders. She never even considered addiction even as she witnessed his meltdown. That was an issue for 'other people.' I'm sure that there are many people who share her bias for whom this book could be a helpful wake up call. But I come from a different background, and I struggled to do the mental gymnastics needed to imagine being so sheltered that I would miss some of these signs. The avenues she chooses to research for her writing also show bias. I agree that the question of why seemingly successful people feel the need to self-medicate is a useful one to explore. But her 'kids these days with their anti-depressants and their pot' concerns felt off the mark to me. Overall, this book left me with mixed feelings. The quality of the writing may warrant a higher star rating than I gave it.
Yet, the central question she is struggling with exposes her bias. She wonders how someone like her ex-husband: rich, white, professionally successful, and with a loving family could possibly end up addicted. How could this happen to someone who was, quote unquote, successful? The pinnacle of social power? She's unflinching in describing herself as someone with blinders. She never even considered addiction even as she witnessed his meltdown. That was an issue for 'other people.' I'm sure that there are many people who share her bias for whom this book could be a helpful wake up call. But I come from a different background, and I struggled to do the mental gymnastics needed to imagine being so sheltered that I would miss some of these signs. The avenues she chooses to research for her writing also show bias. I agree that the question of why seemingly successful people feel the need to self-medicate is a useful one to explore. But her 'kids these days with their anti-depressants and their pot' concerns felt off the mark to me. Overall, this book left me with mixed feelings. The quality of the writing may warrant a higher star rating than I gave it.
I’d round this up to a 4.5 if I could - this book was intense, sad, and deeply illuminating. I have been fortunate to have next to no experience with drug addiction, and I feel like the author did an incredible job of sharing her experience with her ex-husband’s drug addiction while pairing that sharing with concrete data on drug use and addiction in America. It’s scary to think how dependent my generation is on drug use to get by and to feel okay, and I hope something shifts in our society’s operation so that this doesn’t become the everyday norm.
fast-paced
3.5 Stars. In the memoir Smacked, Eileen Zimmerman recounts the shock of finding out about her ex-husband’s secret life as a drug addict. Over time, she and her children begin to notice that her ex-husband Peter, a wealthy lawyer, has changed. Peter is constantly acting odd, has lost a ton of weight, and is always sick. He claims it is due to an autoimmune disease and stress from work. While he was addicted to work, he was also secretly addicted to cocaine, opioids, and methamphetamine.
I found the story of Eileen’s life with her ex-husband and children to be extremely interesting, and I wanted even more details. Eileen describes how they met and the time leading up to their wedding, but then skips ahead to them getting divorced, and skips ahead a bit more after that to when the drug problem has began. The memoir is fairly short, and by Part 3 I felt like it went away from her story and read more like a research paper, quoting facts and information on substance abuse and mental health. As a memoir, I would have liked it even more if it was just a focus on her family, versus a significant portion of the book on facts and statistics regarding addiction in the corporate world, millennials, and the upcoming Generation Z.
I found the story of Eileen’s life with her ex-husband and children to be extremely interesting, and I wanted even more details. Eileen describes how they met and the time leading up to their wedding, but then skips ahead to them getting divorced, and skips ahead a bit more after that to when the drug problem has began. The memoir is fairly short, and by Part 3 I felt like it went away from her story and read more like a research paper, quoting facts and information on substance abuse and mental health. As a memoir, I would have liked it even more if it was just a focus on her family, versus a significant portion of the book on facts and statistics regarding addiction in the corporate world, millennials, and the upcoming Generation Z.
While Eilene and Peter’s marriage has ended, they have stayed in each others lives. When her son tells her house sick his dad was, Eilene drops by to check in on him, only to find him dead. Eilene had seen his health failing over the past, but he always had an excuse for his poor health. Little did she know, Peter was an addict. This book is the story of finding her ex husband dead, and attempting to find out what had truly been going on with him for so long.
Addiction is such a hard disease, especially for the loved ones of the addicted. This was a beautifully written story of a hidden addiction, and how it continues to harm Peter’s loved ones. It’s so crazy to learn how common it is for people in certain careers to fall into drugs, alcohol, and other addictions. Eilene was truly open and honest about every step of her journey after Peter’s death, which was fascinating and also heartbreaking. I highly recommend this one, especially on audio!
Addiction is such a hard disease, especially for the loved ones of the addicted. This was a beautifully written story of a hidden addiction, and how it continues to harm Peter’s loved ones. It’s so crazy to learn how common it is for people in certain careers to fall into drugs, alcohol, and other addictions. Eilene was truly open and honest about every step of her journey after Peter’s death, which was fascinating and also heartbreaking. I highly recommend this one, especially on audio!
Memoir - 5 stars. But I'm not sure I needed the research paper stats on white collar law stuff. 3 stars for that. Interesting, but it also seemed a little bit...out of place? I liked it more when she leaned into the personal.
Gifted by @randomhouse | Smacked is a perfect balance of journalism and memoir. The book opens with a bang- at the behest of her children, a woman goes to her ex-husbands house for a wellness check and finds him dead on the floor. Not a spoiler- this is the story of how a man went from a family man and a chemist to a lawyer and addict. I found this to be very readable, and the author does a good job considering what it means about her and her biases that despite noticing his symptoms, she never even considered that he might be an addict. She did a good bit of research in writing this and shares some, but I thought it flowed and for the most part it didn’t interrupt her story. 4 stars from me!
For more reviews and book talk, visit me at http://www.tbretc.com/.
For more reviews and book talk, visit me at http://www.tbretc.com/.
I started this book yesterday. I opened it and thought “ok this will take me a while because it’s based on a true story and I feel like it will be cut and dry so I’ll be reading slowly.” Next thing you know it’s 2am & I’m 50 pages from the end. This was so difficult to read. Such an insight into the world of addiction. I think this is one everyone needs to read because it’s painfully prevalent right now. I was near tears multiple times not only for Eilene but for her two children that had to navigate their teenage years first with a father crippled (unknowingly at the time to the family) with addiction, to mourning his death. Just truly necessary for this to be out right now.