More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction

More, Now, Again is half truth, half lies- which is more or less true for any memoir that has ever been written. Elizabeth Wurtzel fills conversations she’s had while stoned, having full-blown anxiety attacks, drugged with tranquilizers, and when she was very young with acute detail. Nobody remembers entire conversations. I continued on with the book, giving her freedom to do with her work. I came upon a particular part in the section “Relapse”, when she discusses being on Bill Maher’s show, “Politically Incorrect”. She said she was wearing a “pretty dress” and that she was “silent” and that the other guests were Gloria Allred and Al Franken. I decided to Youtube the show she was on and see it for myself.She was not wearing a pretty dress, she was wearing jeans. The guests were not Gloria Allred or Al Franken, but unknown celebrities of the time. She was not silent but actively participating in the conversation and boasting about education. Gloria Allred was never a guest on his show, though Al Franken was, seven years later. Which made me even more suspect about everything else she wrote about in the book. What else did she lie about? Look, I won’t disrespect her- she passed away several months ago from a terrible battle with cancer and she has lived a very challenging life. Her first book, Prozac Nation, was a ground-breaking success that changed the way we talk about mental illness. The way we understand it, even. I cannot and I won’t attempt to discredit her story.All I can say is, when you read memoirs, take conversations with a grain of salt. All of those long-winded conversations that sound beautiful and powerful, in all likelihood, never happened. When her therapist supposedly called her mother “crazy”, that was probably her using her artistic freedom to impose that on her therapist. No psychiatric professional, especially in a reputable institution like Silver Hill Hospital, would call another person “crazy”. Especially someone they never met.I recommend this book only because it tells the rest of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s story. It explains how terrible addiction is. It shows how much she tried to stay away from drugs. And how beautiful of a person she was, and how damaged she was. Do keep in mind, though, that a lot of this work is fiction. It’s fiction used to explain the real parts of her life. And there is real value. And she will be missed.Elizabeth Wurtzel was a true icon of the 90’s. She changed a lot of people’s lives. She introduced me to the memoir. She helped me to understand another person’s perspective on depression, and as a teenager, it was the most real and poignant perspective on depression I had ever experienced from someone else. And I related to it. I am thankful for her work. And I am thankful for her life.

I miss Elizabeth. She made significant contributions to the conversations on mental illness and addiction. Someone this articulate committing to a book-length narrative describing addiction serves those with the same affliction who aren’t able to communicate so thoroughly and specifically or don’t have the platform. Elizabeth had so many books left to write- her happy ending marriage, her experiences living near the trade center on September 11, the discovery that she’d been lied to for a lifetime about the identity of her biological father and the realization that it was someone she knew and had a relationship with, someone whose adopted daughter she played with growing up, someone who had been at her wedding before she knew he was her father. He was a renowned civil rights photographer and had another daughter. The story should be told. Hopefully, a biographer will pick up where Elizabeth left off and tell the comprehensive history of a literary voice from interviews with the people who knew her, since the only perspective we’ve ever had is Elizabeth’s. More, Now, Again is insight into the tangled roots of addiction and the challenges of treatment. Also, important evidence of the way addiction doesn’t discriminate demographically or socioeconomically, in spite of the stereotypes and racial constitution of the prison drug offender population.

3.4/5 - Elizabeth Wurtzel Is An Entertainingly Awful PersonWish it was more like the author said, “It is all cocaine, all the time,” but the book could lose 100 repetitive pages at the end about the recovery house that seems more like a pre-hipster flophouse. The true last 50 pgs seem rushed to write off her recovery as randomly religious.The first few hundred pages are as Pez-poppable as her Ritalin: self-exile to anonymous FL, a semi-crush on Timothy McVeigh, bungled TV interviews, self-pitying shoplifting. Even when the author of Prozac Nation—aka the OG Karen, the quintessential Gen Xer—comes off as self-righteous and snobby HERE, it’s entertaining. The writing can be so scattered and angry and essayist, but it suits her state of mind amidst piecing together her other book, B!tch.Nonetheless, if we knew her IRL, she’d be insufferable because nobody tells her no. I wish we knew what would’ve happened if someone pushed back on her/addiction ONCE. Everyone is somehow endlessly sympathetic or enabling for a girl who begrudges her friend for missing her birthday party—even though it’s because she almost died on the way there, not that Wurtzel ever visits her in the hospital. Too busy sleeping with married me and lying to her editors for months on end. A prime example of how unlikable characters can still be interesting.

I admired Wurtzel and loved Prozac Nation having suffered depression since I was 12 and been on all manner of antidepressants and also having had a long history of drug addictions I thought this book would be me from another perspective but this book is so full of grandiose rich girl spoiled brat me me me me me mess it's made me hate her. It's written years after her phase of drug addiction to speed like drugs (amphetamines Ritalin cocaine) I've had problems with Ritalin cocaine and speed myself but I don't identify at all with anything she says it's written by a spoiled wants for nothing has too much money girl aware she's " special" and puts down everyone else she's ever met friends colleagues family other addicts she has no compassion no awareness it's not normal to be able to live in a $540 a night hotel for as long as you like and it's not her portraying her drugged out self in this way it's all through the therapy which she scoffs at - example she says the nurses tell her " don't worry everyone does rehab 8 or 9 times you'll get out and do coke again" and uses $15000 rehab to pick up men and "look sexy" goes on endlessly about her heaving crying fits to get her own way and ways she got one over on her doctors. I've met a lot of addicts and not a single one was like her in this book she is not your typical junkie she constantly says " yes but I AM special" and it makes you despise her and want to slap her like a little girl having a tantrum because that's what she is a spoiled little girl whose fame insulates her and allows her to live a life where she rhInks she is better than everyone and gets away with it because she has royalty checks coming in and never has to worry about her rent or being homeless. It's poorly researched for a writer who tells us she's spent three years researching the book she's writing whilst on drugs - it states no one ever got clean without AA or NA - false may people grow out of drugs and stop on their own. Writing about rehab as a luxury spa where everyone uses and it's a big joke is i think disrespectful to all the ex addicts nurses doctors and counsellors the further into the book I got the more I think she has never spoken to another addict who isn't a spoiled rich kid in her life she doesn't take sobriety seriously and shows no desire to grow up and stop taking everyone for granted this is a memoir of a spoiled rich kid not of a drug addict as it's laid out to be. She writes about hating herself but nothing she says she did or does match that it's as if she's added in " it's because I have low self esteem" because her publisher told her to. Pages of putting on nail varnish in rehab and flashing her navel ring at the doctors and her "withdrawal" is being put to sleep with Thorazine a tranquilliser for four days and spoon fed she has never woken up sweating shaking puling wanting to die all she experiences are people waiting on her and treating her like a princess which she demands and gets it's so far removed from the reality of drug addiction it's a Hollywood version of an addict. She gets caught shoplifting cries and the police tell her it's not a big deal she'll pay a fine and go home. Her hotel security knock her door down because she won't answer the door she's sat snorting lines they look at her and say "oh sorry" and walk away. Does this sound like real life?? She brags and boasts about having piles of drugs all over her apartments and hotel rooms all the time and the staff " don't say anything" she goes to book launches and offers all the staff coke and does lines in front of her bosses who "don't say anything" does that sound like real life?Don't read it if you are an addict or want to read how someone else got help to help yourself you won't identify with anything here it'll just make you hate privileged rich kids even more.

I really enjoyed this book. I hadn't read Prozac Nation but knew about the subject matter and was perhaps swayed by the 'self indulgent whining' reviews. But I thought I would give this book a run out and I'm glad I did. I'm not sure if her rants are supposed to be funny but she does indeed make them hilarious.One thing though that got me thinking, was when I read the acknowledgements after reading the book, she admits that when she first went into rehab and met the great characters there, her editor 'knew this would make a great book', and she should 'keep notes'. Does this mean throughout her rehab she was working, when she insists all the way through she just slept and wasn't capable of working?Also in the acknowledgements she thanks her friends, strangely enough not the same names as the friends she has referred to throughout the book. If this is meant to be a truthfull, soul searching tale then why does she use false names?Nevertheless, this was a great read. Wurtzel has had an amazing life and I am amazed she can remember any of it. She is also lucky that all her health problems, addictions and angsts are also her cash cow. Most of us aren't that lucky.....

Originally borrowed a friend’s copy and then had to purchase my own it was so good. Wurtzel is all at once a smartass, tragic and relatable. Incredibly well written and totally compelling.

Amazing book. But shame the author is not very nice to her fans.

This book by Elizabeth Wurtzel was one of the best on this particular subject, addiction, that I have read so far. The author does not mince words, instead, she lays it all on the line, brutally honest and at times, disturbing. The fact that her primary addiction seemed to be prescription drugs, at least for a while, was one of the reasons I purchased this book. This addiction to prescription drugs has become a problem of mammoth proportions, spanning all age groups, and it scares me, makes me wonder where this will end, or will it? The more information we get, the more personal stories of people who have travelled the same road as Wurtzel that can be shared, all of it can only help, teach us, guide us and enlighten us as to what we can do. I highly recommend this book, More, Now, Again; A Memoir of Addiction, to every person.