REVIEWS

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KIRKUS REVIEW

A lawyer and life coach recounts years of drug addiction and how he found sobriety.

In his debut memoir, Long describes his lifelong struggle to stay sober after decades of substance abuse, and how he embraced metaphysical beliefs. Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Long's obsessions started at a young age, he says: "I discover sex for the first time when I'm thirteen. After that, my motive is to find the dope, get the girl, get her drunk or high, and take advantage of the easy lay." Due in part to drinking and drug use, he says, he struggled in college. He later married a woman he describes as "my sex machine," with whom he had two sons. The deteriorating marriage ended in divorce, with substance abuse as a contributing factor..." 

"...The author eventually ended up in Alcoholics Anonymous; he worked through the steps and realized that he "could use God." This led him to immerse himself in developing his spirituality, rejecting common religions for deep meditation and magic, which he calls "real witchcraft." 

Overall, the author relates a story that may inspire some readers to get the help that they need. At times, though, his spiritual search, as he recounts it here, led him into dangerous situations; at one point, he says that he allowed a "metaphysical healer" named "John of God" do an operation on his ailing eye with a butter knife. The book is also deeply unsettling in other ways; for example, he tells of smoking crack with his 15-year-old son, and comments that, when he was using, he had "No thought of the children." These instances may be particularly upsetting for anyone who's endured child endangerment. Other scenes also depict harmful domestic situations, as when Long tells of a fight with his third wife over drugs, during which he crashed their car, breaking her hip and fracturing vertebrae in her neck..."

An often disquieting story of recovery.-Kirkus Review

INDIE READER REVIEW

"...John T. Long narrates a history of drug and alcohol abuse that spanned most of his adult life. After a stint in rehab, Long developed an interest in self-help and New Age spirituality that helped him maintain his sobriety."

"Attorney, life coach, and former addict John T. Long presents a memoir, self-help guide hybrid exploring how metaphysical spirituality (along with Alcoholics Anonymous) helped him on his recovery journey. The book spans Long's teenage years through recent history, beginning in the 1970s when he first started experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and also engaged in the first of a long series of codependent and abusive relationships with women. He moves through a number of jobs and marriages over the years as his substance abuse problem escalated and ultimately reached a climax with a crack addiction and a car crash in which he severely (and intentionally) injured his then-wife. After a stint in rehab, Long then began attending AA meetings, while also studying the works of gurus like Marianne Williamson and William (Wayne) Dyer. He also recounts being cured of the aftereffects of a stroke by faith healer John of God (who has since been accused of sexual abuse by over 600 women)."