A review by amesish
Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

3.0

I *love* Breaking Bad. The show's writing proves to be far more engaging and talented than that of "Tweak" or "Beautiful Boy"--but, it's probably not fair to compare sexed-up Hollywood fiction with the gritty memoirs of a meth addict and his father.

All the more reason you should read "Tweak." For those of us without personal or secondhand experience with life-dominating addiction, "Tweak" is an eye opening journey into the white-knuckle roller coaster of self-loathing and single-mindedness that is drug dependency.

I think I was most impressed, not by Nic's horrifying treatment towards his family, his homelessness, hustling, or relapses, but by his observation that while using, he'd steal food even when he had money--because using money to buy food meant less money to buy meth and heroin. So he'd steal food, or just not eat. There's a cold rationality to that logic that illuminates the destructive power of addiction: one's reasoning and intelligence are not snuffed out by addiction, but co-opted to serve a reordered priority.