Long Past Stopping: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Oran Canfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009

It looked like any other medical chart, with different boxes filled in with my blood pressure and heart rate, but at the bottom, next to Diagnosis, the doctor simply wrote, Terminal Assholism.

Juggled between an endless succession of friends, relatives, anarchist boarding schools, libertarian commune dwellers, socialist rebels, and born-again circus clowns, Oran Canfield grew up viewing the inconsistencies of the world with a wary eye. The son of Jack Canfield—the motivational speaker and creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul—Oran is intensely self-conscious and reserved, but his life won't seem to leave him alone. Whether he's teaching two hundred eager self-help disciples to juggle (among them a woman with stumps for hands), dodging a series of wacky near-death experiences, delivering newspapers in satin pants on a unicycle, or experimenting with drugs in the back of a Mexican cop car at age thirteen, one thing's for sure: Oran's life is much stranger than fiction.

Eventually he finds some fleeting comfort in heroin, but the world proves dizzying whether he's stoned or sober. Playing drums in fringe bands and bouncing between rehab centers, he encounters a host of weird characters along the way: a devotee of obscure noise music who makes his own sunglasses out of cardboard, hooligan hockey players left in charge of group therapy, and the unassuming chess nerd who might be in the mob. Feeding a dope addiction that becomes more harrowing by the day, Oran sells off every possession and burns every bridge on the road to recovery.

With humor and wit, Long Past Stopping grapples with the paradoxes of a mad world and shows that feel-good nostrums go only so far. Sometimes the only way out is the hard one.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Memoirs about dysfunctional families can be funny, and this book is hilarious… [Canfield] delivers newspapers on a unicycle, wins third place in a juggling competition and experiments with drugs in a Mexican police cruiser. His descriptions are snappy and his side commentary…[makes] you laugh out loud.” (Associated Press )

“An oddly compelling and appealing account of a life truly stranger than fiction.” (Booklist )

“Thank god Oran Canfield came out of this alive and thank double-god he emerged with his sense of humor. So many weirdball characters and harrowing situations that you’d be hard-pressed to make up better ones. This is the kind of life story that begs to be told.” (Beth Lisick author of Helping Me Help Myself )

“The son of Chicken Soup for the Soul creator Jack Canfield debuts with a memoir of a peripatetic West Coast childhood and subsequent struggle with drug addiction, told in a series of humorous vignettes… The author’s deadpan irony is…brilliant…” (Kirkus Reviews )

About the Author

Oran Canfield was raised in Massachusetts, Philadelphia, New Mexico, Arizona, and the San Francisco Bay Area. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works as a musician and freelance art handler.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061450758
• ISBN-13: 978-0061450754
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #937,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Page turner, August 2, 2009

By 

Terry Crock (Massillon, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Long Past Stopping: A Memoir (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

If there was ever a page turner of a book, this is it. I was continually thinking, "Good grief, what is going to happen next to this poor kid," during his youth, or, "Good grief, can he break his addictions?" during his adulthood, and even, "Where the heck are those parents of his?" throughout the book.

Because of a irresponsible, yet famous, father and a mother who apparently was unable to care for her children herself because of her own problems, the author's childhood was a disaster that pushed him right into a disastrous young adulthood.

The story is fascinating, yet unfinished, as the author's life is apparently still in some turmoil and we do not know how, if or when it will end (the turmoil, not his life!).

Even then, this is a very interesting, entertaining, well-written, and thought provoking book.

28 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Insult to Train Wrecks, September 6, 2009

By 

David Edmiston "Dave" (So Cal) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Long Past Stopping: A Memoir (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

To call this man's story a "train wreck" is an insult to train wrecks and to wreckage of any kind: A train wreck is a one-time thing where something horrible happens and then it's over. But Oran Canfield's horror never stops and his train never stops wrecking.

I think I'm a kind person and I don't casually say unkind things about other people. But this story was appalling and I'm disgusted with everyone who played a part in raising this young man into the junkie he became. His mother and father behaved shamefully by leaving their sons to be reared by one bunch of fruitloops after another. Not that I'm a big Dr. Laura fan, but the whole time I read this story I kept hearing her advice to irresponsible women to "have your tubes tied".

So to be fair, I'll critique the book separately from the story:

______________
The Book:

"Long Past Stopping" was actually very well written. Canfield tells his story well and kept me turning the pages as quickly as possible (which means there must be something sick about me too). I have a couple gripes with the book though:

* No Dates: Nowhere in this book are we given a date to anchor this story in time. When was he born? How old is he now? Anything? It adds to the surrealism of the story that it just floats in time with no clear temporal frame of reference. There are some clues from time to time (like the president's name, or the age of Jerry Garcia's daughter, the popularity of different bands), but the reader shouldn't have to be that much of a detective.

* Flashbacks & fast-forwards: I've never been a fan of stories where every chapter jumps back and forth in time. I finally got used to it in this book, because chaos fit right in with all the drug abuse.

______________
The People:

I guess we live in a world of cliché dichotomies (good & evil, hot & cold, etc.). So maybe that means that Canfield's dad's smarmy Chicken Soup self help books are balanced out by the son's story of self loathing. I find them both to be self indulgent though. What bugs me the most though is that Jack Canfield's self help career and Oran Canfield's life of addiction, rehabs, theft, trust funds, and welfare support are both examples of complete parasites. The senior Canfield supports himself through his readers' gullibility while the younger Canfield has supported himself by stealing from his friends, by taking handouts from his family (either borrowing from his rich dad or cashing trust find checks from his grandma's estate), by collecting welfare, or by spending huge periods of time in expensive detox and rehab facilities paid for by his health insurance. So while the rest of us work to support ourselves by honest means, we're also working to support the likes of a family like this. I can't help but wonder how many other parasites like these I'm working to support.

Anyway, the story was interesting and fairly well written. I can't recommend that anyone buys this book, because I object to spending another dollar to support this family (same goes for the Chicken Soup books). If you're really interested in reading the story, maybe it would be more appropriate to borrow a copy or even steal it from someone else.

I give it two stars instead of one, because the book was mostly well written.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well written story of a hard life, October 13, 2009

By 

Sheri Fogarty (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Long Past Stopping: A Memoir (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I don't usually read autobiographies but something about this appealed to me enough to order it. It took me a long time to read it. It's very funny at the beginning but quickly turns more serious, to the point that it was very hard to read.

This is the story of Oran Canfield, son of Jack, the author, and Judith, a therapist. Reading about how his mother treated Oran and his brother was upsetting, she was controlling, narcissist and neglectful while Jack was absent, on the other side of the country.

Oran had to grow up much quicker, and with ever changing circumstances then most other kids. While dealing with his feelings of anxiety and self-loathing he eventually became addicted to drugs.

The story alternates by chapter, from his early years to his drug addicted year and it's a bit confusing at first. It's very well written and there are some wonderfully funny moments but many more, really sad ones. He does come through all of his troubles and take responsibility for his life at the end. A powerful but intense tale.