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The Book of Drugs

by Mike Doughty
Da Capo. Feb. 2012. c.256p. ISBN 9780306818776. pap. $16. MUSIC
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Doughty, the former lead singer of Soul Coughing and now a solo act, writes his soul-baring memoir. After describing his childhood in painfully honest yet balanced terms, he chronicles his career through the lens of a creative, self-deprecating, desperate musician plagued by feelings of inadequacy. He starts with his gig as the doorman of New York's Knitting Factory and the genesis of Soul Coughing. In direct, bald vignettes, Doughty discusses his bandmates, who melded musically but had a dysfunctional relationship throughout their seven-year career; girlfriends; a trip to Cambodia; and, above all, his musical life as experienced through the opaque veil of drugs—first weed then heroin, ecstasy, alcohol, and a few lesser addictions. In the last quarter of the book, Doughty tells of his struggle to achieve normalcy, first with antidepressants for bipolar disorder and then his day-by-day triumphs over drug addiction through sheer willpower and his 12-step colleagues.
VERDICT Much more than a musician's autobiography, this is a tale about the resurgence of the human spirit; Doughty captures a little bit of all of us in his journey. Recommended.
Reviewed by Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle , Dec 01, 2011
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