Date: May 12, 2025
Author: Lara Love Hardin
Genre: Nonfiction/ Autobiography
As I read along, I am understanding this story to contain the positive message that addicts can and do recover.
I’m curious if Mz. Hardin had to go back into recovery to stay clean or if she found a different way that worked for her. She didn’t really talk about being in recovery much except in the begin when she told of meeting the dude that she would later smoke the heroine with, that in turn got her into trouble with the law.
I’m thinking maybe? But the writing was unclear on this point.
I will say though that she tells this tale in a way people who’ve faced addiction can partially sympathize with, which makes part of the story relatable to their own. The part about addiction and incarceration and the struggles to break free of the recidivism rate? They very likely will relate to that part. The part about becoming a successful author and lunching with Oprah? Not so much.
As many of you may know or read in my previous writings that I too am intimately familiar with the disease of addiction. I love that Mz. Love Hardin started her story when she was young, her first addiction: escape. She wrote of first achieving this through reading. I too can remember doing the same. I couldn’t run away in my physical body, but in my mind? I was leagues far and away across the sea.
Addendum: May 14, 2025: after discussing in book club and further reflection, I wonder if this book’s inspiration went something like this. Lara’s publicist, voice loud and full of panic: “Lara, that old newspaper headline with the giant mugshot? The one that revealed your sordid past to the world? It’s about to hit the press as a tell-all of your secret life! This is bad. This is really bad. We need to get ahead of this before **it hits the fan. Here’s how we put this fire out before it’s even sparked. I need you to write a memoir and give your side of the story. And hurry! The story hits the press very soon and we needed this book written yesterday!”
Lara’s response: “Crikey! I’m on it!”
And there came to be the book.
Maybe I’m wrong. If so, I am offering my amends now.