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A review by meggie82461
Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16 by Moshe Kasher
4.0
4.5 Stars ✨
This is a really solid addiction memoir, and I would know- I’m somewhat of a connoisseur. I liked the writing a lot; the author is also a stand-up comedian, so unsurprisingly, it is super entertaining and funny. It’s also heartbreaking.
Mark AKA Moshe is a young Jewish kid living a pretty unique experience. Both of his parents are deaf but he is hearing. They split up when he’s pretty young, so he moves with his mother and brother from NYC to Oakland. He does spend random summers with his Chassidic dad back in Jersey, but primarily, the story unfolds in Oakland, which is great, because Oakland in the 90s is basically a character. There’s the West Coast rappers (pre-Tupac), the transition as the city experiences its inaugural white flight. The arbitrarily delineated neighborhoods, and the school districts with their IEPs. But most of all, this story is about a lost young boy and his equally lost friends. The story does a good job of maintaining Moshe’s accountability while also making the reader think hard, not only about how society allowed a literal child to become an addict, but also why it was so hard for him to shake the label of “bad kid.”
I hate critiquing a book like this because it’s like… critiquing someone’s life, ya know? So, disclaimer: I’m so impressed with this author. It’s hard to get clean at any age, but to do it as a teenager? That’s fucking HARD. And he lived plenty before he got clean to fill a whole book. Crazy, huh? That being said… the fact he got sober so young made it so the story didn’t have that grit, the desperation that lots of other addiction memoirs have. To be clear, I’m super glad for him that his rock bottom wasn’t turning tricks in a storage unit. That being said, the lack of a big climax like that (no pun intended) kept this from being 5 full stars.
Still, it’s very worth reading and I’m glad I borrowed it- I would recommend to anyone looking for a good addiction story, especially on KU
This is a really solid addiction memoir, and I would know- I’m somewhat of a connoisseur. I liked the writing a lot; the author is also a stand-up comedian, so unsurprisingly, it is super entertaining and funny. It’s also heartbreaking.
Mark AKA Moshe is a young Jewish kid living a pretty unique experience. Both of his parents are deaf but he is hearing. They split up when he’s pretty young, so he moves with his mother and brother from NYC to Oakland. He does spend random summers with his Chassidic dad back in Jersey, but primarily, the story unfolds in Oakland, which is great, because Oakland in the 90s is basically a character. There’s the West Coast rappers (pre-Tupac), the transition as the city experiences its inaugural white flight. The arbitrarily delineated neighborhoods, and the school districts with their IEPs. But most of all, this story is about a lost young boy and his equally lost friends. The story does a good job of maintaining Moshe’s accountability while also making the reader think hard, not only about how society allowed a literal child to become an addict, but also why it was so hard for him to shake the label of “bad kid.”
I hate critiquing a book like this because it’s like… critiquing someone’s life, ya know? So, disclaimer: I’m so impressed with this author. It’s hard to get clean at any age, but to do it as a teenager? That’s fucking HARD. And he lived plenty before he got clean to fill a whole book. Crazy, huh? That being said… the fact he got sober so young made it so the story didn’t have that grit, the desperation that lots of other addiction memoirs have. To be clear, I’m super glad for him that his rock bottom wasn’t turning tricks in a storage unit. That being said, the lack of a big climax like that (no pun intended) kept this from being 5 full stars.
Still, it’s very worth reading and I’m glad I borrowed it- I would recommend to anyone looking for a good addiction story, especially on KU