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Special Praise for Dopefiend: A Father’s Journey from Addiction to Redemption
“In this brilliant memoir, Tim Elhajj illuminates what the long, hard road looks
like for those of us who are in recovery or those of us who love someone in
recovery. The daily effort, the scores of setbacks weathered, and small triumphs
hard-earned that, in time, move us into a deep, intimate, authentic relationship to
ourselves, to others, and to the world—one that we thought we’d never have; one
that might not be what another might choose but that is what we require. I will
keep this book near; I will give it to friends; I will cherish it always.”
Louise DeSalvo
Author of Writing as a Way of Healing
“Tim Elhajj tells the story of his tenuous relationship with his son and his recovery
from the heroin addiction he acquired during his childhood in a Pennsylvania
steel town. While Dopefiend follows the twelve steps of a recovery program, these
steps serve as the frame that hold together a sequence of masterly told vignettes.
In one heartrending incident, Elhajj stands in line during a dismal Christmas to
receive an already wrapped and donated toy for his son. Elhajj doesn’t know his
son’s address. Sentiment is such a dangerous ground for most writers since it easily
falls into sappiness; yet, Elhajj instinctively finds the right balance in telling his
often gut-wrenching tale. Dopefiend should be put on the same shelf as William
Burroughs’s Junkie and Nick Flynn’s Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.”
Matt Briggs
Author of The Remains of River Names and Shoot the Buffalo
“This is an extremely moving and powerful memoir. Elhajj doesn’t linger on the
ugliness of addiction itself, but focuses on the solution and the hard road that as
addicts and alcoholics we must all travel if we choose to turn our lives around.
Elhajj is a fine writer and brave soul with a tremendous heart. His story is one of
staggering loss and seemingly insurmountable struggles, but in the end he leaves
us victorious, with the greatest message of all—one of hope and redemption.”
James Brown
Author of This River and The Los Angeles Diaries
“I recommend Tim Elhajj’s Dopefiend to anyone interested in chemical
dependency and recovery from it. The book’s subtitle, A Father’s Journey from
Addiction to Redemption, more accurately sums up its content. Like Franz
Wright or Mary Karr, Elhajj lets the vivid details contained in his punchy prose
make his points for him, without editorializing or preaching. The lean story that
results gets right to the point: it’s possible for an addict to change, with time and
grace, from an inept and disconnected father to exactly the kind of example and
confidante a son needs when the son has become an adult.”
Fr. Jim Harbaugh, SJ
Author of A 12-Step Approach to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
“This is a real book, about a person, who becomes a real person. The biggest
mistake any of us can make in life is to make the outside world real and the
inside one not. The author made this mistake. For too many years he believed
the delusions his drug world provided him and never came close to discovering
his true nature. Confusing pleasure for happiness he nearly destroyed himself.
You don’t have to be doing drugs to miss life. You can search for happiness in
a million ways and not find it. As the author teaches us, it’s what we stop doing
that transforms our life. If you have ever wondered what goes on in that cocoon
where the caterpillar turns into a butterfly, read this book.”
Robert Smith, LCSW
Addiction Specialist and Interventionist
“I love this book! From the first page, I was swept up into the story and the
narrator’s progress from a Lower East Side homeless shelter to rehab and beyond.
Most stories of addiction focus on the addiction side of the story and say
little about what the actual work of recovery looks like. Dopefiend is a riveting
portrayal of the recovery side of the equation. Both funny and poignant, this
book belongs on the shelf beside the very best of recovery memoirs, such as
Knapp’s Drinking: A Love Story and Karr’s Lit.”
Theo Pauline Nestor
Author of How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed
DOPEFIEND
DOPEFIEND
A FATHER’S
JOURNEY FROM
