In a coolly dispassionate voice, Ann Marlowe has created a mock dictionary in order to dissect her addiction to – and her eventual rejection of – heroin. Each entry, varying from the anecdotal to the analytical, describes the allure and the degradation of the drug, set against the story of her own life. Without glamorizing it, she explores the seduction of the drug and honestly reveals heroin’s temporary deep satisfaction, before finally casting the drug aside as a failed, even abusive, lover, a negligent spouse, a one-way ultimately doomed relationship. Her journey through heroin is a cerebral tale grounded in an exploration of emotional life. Throughout, her tone is ironic and searching and her alphabetical voyage provides an insight into the twilight world of drug addiction.
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Reviews
A brilliant and impressive book, all the more so because of its remarkable calm and restraint after such a terrifying experience
Her insight is a positive addition to the literature about the drug, and a telling and sophisticated examination of modern society
The little black dress of dope books...Marlowe is the most gifted druggie to pop out of Harvard since Timothy Leary.
A calm look at middle-class heroin addiction and an honest analysis of how an obsessed society mythologises it ... compelling