Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction

Honest, emotive, and informative, these are the three qualities that define David Sheff's Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction. As a young adult, I find this to be an excellent book not only for its vivid and eloquent writing style, but also because it engages the reader in the emotional journey that the author embarks on when learning about, trying to "cure," and coming to understand the long-lasting effects of his son's meth addiction. Most importantly, Sheff's story allowed me to see the world through the eyes of a parent for the first time: as a result, I have been given a first-hand illustration of a parent's unconditional love and support for his or her children.

The narratives of Sheff's sleepless nights in which he waited for Nic -his son- to come home, Sheff's futile attempts to find Nic in the streets of San Francisco, and the mutually destructive reality of drugs are the most heart-breaking, emotionally-driven, and tangible accounts of the book. In addition, Sheff's inner battle between his sense of guilt, frustration, impotence, and uncertainty provides the reader with a parent's attempt to uncover the reasons for which his son turned to drug consumption. The constant objective and subjective turmoil present in this book provides a humanistic touch to the struggles of Sheff, allowing his narrative to transcend his book's pages and reflect the lives of millions of people throughout the world.

This book does not only describe a teenager's/young adult's addiction to methamphetamines -among other drugs-, but a father's race against his son's addiction, against the inability to help his son overcome his addiction, and against the unwanted effects Nic's addiction was having on Sheff's personal life (marriage, job, health, finances, etc.). In other words, this book presents the reader with the idea that that a person's addiction -in this case Nic- expands to infect all of those around him or her, especially those to whom s/he is closest.

I would strongly recommend this book to any parent, but especially to those parents who are experiencing or have experienced the hardships of addiction. Likewise, this book can serve as a source of information for young adults, teenagers, and the general public, since it speaks of the devastating physical and emotional effects of addiction from a first-hand perspective.

This was an amazing, heartwrenching true story about a father who is dealing with his son's addiction to meth. I loved this book and feel that it is a MUST READ for every parent in America.

David Sheff was able to write the most tragic story of his life beautifully. I could feel every emotion that he went through. And boy did I learn some things. He researched the drug while living through this story and shares his research with the readers. If for no other reason that what you can learn about this drug through this book, it should be read by everyone.

Read it! Read it! Read it!

This book is very good, I'm using it for a substance abuse class I am taking and it is very helpful in understanding substance abuse. The book came in perfect condition and came on time with the shipping time I chose.

Excellent book, very well written and really hits home. Reading this book and going through addiction with our son for so many years, its nice to know we, as parents, are not alone. Hopefully, 4th time is rehab is the charm for our "beautiful boy".

The author is wonderfully expresses his pain about his loving son. I also have a daughter the same age whose drug of choice is heroin. The book opened my eyes to go to Hazeleden to joint the parents program and to go to Al-Anon.
In short I thank the author so much for being an inspiration to me.
Robert Sterling