Customer Reviews

Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000

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I'm reading this book a bit at a time. Each part is like a little history lesson - full of specific people, places and things that I've heard a lot of stories about - usually from folks who didn't have a great deal of clarity when they were either living through them OR speaking about them.

Torgoff has that clarity and there's humor in his prose that gives it a certain kind of bop. Yes, it's a long book. Most people who write long books these days write them as if they are "afraid of going to hell" for having done so - there's no ease, things get really claustrophobic in such books. Torgoff sails through this material not so much like a man who's afraid of going to hell...but as a man who's been there.

There's a kind of ease, a kind of compassion and a sense of spaciousness to Torgoff's style in this work. The length of the book doesn't seem that long. Maybe it would SEEM LONGER if Torgoff attempted to adapt his style to the demands of the market...some kind of a weekly reader version of the lifes, legends, loves (and drugs) of the times he's telling us about. Thank GOD he didn't cave into that.

Can't Find My Way Home makes me want to listen to a hell of a lot of music, see some movies again and read more books about the myriad folks who inhabit this book.

I see this book as a definite college text for classes focusing on the the history of jazz, rock and roll, film and literature in the last sixty years of American culture.

The fact that Torgoff weaves his own story into this piece communicates to me that he's not of those people who goes around chanting phrases like "If you remember the 60's you weren't there". Torgoff indicates to the reader that he was "there" and that he managed to extricate himself from the oblivion of those times through either the grace of God, or his own luck, karma or whatever.

Thus, Torgoff's writing in this book is infused with a kind of all pervasive sharpness, like the razor edge of a hatchet, that only comes from the words of those who have lived...and survived. I have a sense that Torgoff has been swinging this blade for some time...I suspect he's cut through a great deal of his own personal reference points in order to find the patience and perseverance to not only deliver this work...but to have the humility to title the work as he has.

Bravo!!

This is a fantastic book--the history of our time, the author's insights and synthesis. It's wildly affecting and entertaining, and it's bigger than what it seems to be about. Torgoff has a touch of Balzac in him, that's for sure. He gets the joke, but he also captures the loss and pathos. I especially liked his own story--he wove it into the narrative in a really detached way that made it all the more affecting. I stayed up all night reading.

An excellent and very detailed history of drugs and its impact on our society. The book is thoroughly researched. It's entertaining and very readable. It's not only a review of the history of drugs in American society but also covers a number of individuals and the effect narcotics had on them. I found it fascinating and scary. Having lived through those turbulent times it brought back many memories.
Pictures and a summary of the cast of characters would have enhanced the book. All in all a good read.

Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000 by Martin Torgoff, is a history of drug use and abuse in America during the second half of the twentieth century. If you've ever seen the VH-1 documentary "The Drug Years," then you'll be familiar with the author--he's interviewed several times, and CFMWH really forms the structure of the documentary series.

CFMWH starts with the drug scene in the 1950s Beat Generation, where Bird Parker slowly destroys himself with heroin and Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg delve deep into marijuana. From there the Torgoff takes us into the 60's, hippies, and the Summer of Love. The 1970's discuss the club scene and the emergent drug smuggling from South America. The 80's and 90's see the rise of gangs, and the emergence of Ecstasy.

Torgoff's prose is highly readable, and CFMWH is a page turner in an odd sort of way. Torgoff's greatest achievement is one that's hard to gain when writing on a topic like illegal drug use: being evenhanded but not necessarily neutral. He's got his own story of addiction to tell, but it doesn't bleed into the narrative. Some of his characters make it; some don't. All are changed. CFMWH is an attempt to answer "what did it all mean?" We may never know, but Torgoff's book tries to guide us through the experiences of those who took the long, strange trip.

I purchased this book for my 17 year old grandson. He was thrilled and had the bok read by New Year's Eve. This was my first experience with Amazon and it was excellent. Web site easy and book sent in a timely fashion

Whether we choose to admit it or not, drugs in America have both shaped and destroyed aspects of our culture. From jazz to the Reagan administration, and later, to prescription drugs, Martin Torgoff's text gives a comprehensive overview of how drugs have impacted each era of twentieth century American history. At times exciting, and frequently tragic, this book is a wonderful guide the counterculture movement.

I was around in the 60's and 70's, and I even remember them! This is a comprehensive and detailed history of several decades of youth, sex, and rock and roll culture, and it is detailed, unmistakably accurate, and a lot of fun to great.

If you're a fan of "The Drug Years" series then you've seen the author, he is quoted extensively throughout all parts of the series, esp. the segments on the idealistic 60's and the use of hallucinigenics ---and the segment on the 70s and how kids weren't trying to change the world, they were just trying to change their heads by getting as wasted as possible. The title comes from a rather poignant song that bridges the gap between those two periods in time, with the lyrics bemoaning the fact: "well I'm wasted and I can't find my way home..." Martin Tortgoff's book, "Can't Find My Way Home," is subtitled: "America in the great stoned age, 1945-2000."

If you have been there then you know the answer. The question is: Why did we travel there in the first place. Addictions are sneaky. Sometimes we write about them, other times we fight them. Addicted movie stars are just addicts. Hard drugs have no respect for who we are.

I wanted to be interested in this book, but it became pretty boring ater a while. There is an undercurrent of romanticism that pervades the authors purpose. He claims to be neutral, yet his descriptions and conversations with many of the people slant towards idol worship. Although the author claims to be in recovery, I did not get the sense of how drugs and alcohol can ruin peoples lives. I felt that his narrative was self serving, and glorifying the wonders of drugs and experimentation. There is a price to pay. What was good was hearing his father's take on the whole down side of watching his son grow up loaded. That was interesting. I'm getting weary of the proselytizing about how epochal the 1960's, 70's and 80's were. I didn't like his picture either.