Customer Reviews

Long Past Stopping: A Memoir

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Most of us have had a few precious times in our past when we stayed up until dawn, over beer or coffee, and heard (or traded) a life story. Upon finishing this book, I felt like I'd just been through such a revelation.

Oren Canfield is the son of glurge-meister Jack Canfield (he of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame). But don't let that confuse you. The story of the author's bizarre childhood, non-conformist adolescence, eccentric mother, famous but absent father, and accidental descent into drug addiction is told in a straightforward, almost deadpan recounting - not really stream-of-consciousness or free-association, but definitely therapy inspired. I kept wanting to ask him "and how does that make you feel?"

Junkies learn to say and do what people expect them to say and do, and I think there is still some of that going on here. Canfield does, however, have a remarkable capacity to observe, not only his own inner process, but also the human condition. He has a keen eye for characterization and detail. It feels as if he's describing people I've met, and not just because he is. There is also humor here, often lurking just below a misleadingly calm surface. The ending is ironic if you look at it in just the right way, but I won't ruin that. There are also occasional descriptions and asides that bear a remarkable resemblance to situations in other books, though this isn't so much "plagiarism" as "inside joke."

This is most emphatically NOT the book to give to someone trying to kick a drug dependency. It IS, however, an engaging and engrossing read. Just the kind of thing to take on an airplane or to a waiting room, when you need to tune out for a few hours.

The cover is a great hook, the kid in a clown suit with a cigarette in his mouth, that's what caught my attention. It's an addiction memoir, and contains that hard-headed, repetitive, rehab and relapse cycle so familiar from other memoirs like Jerry Stahl's 'Permanent Midnight' or Anthony Keidis' 'Scar Tissue.' Oran Canfield had an unusual and frequently amusing childhood, his absent, famous father off peddling self-help schlock, and a mother who comes across as even worse. Sure, Canfield's dad was away, but being gone seems different to an actively strange mother who farmed her sons out to 1960s activists like Wavy Gravy and who survived exclusively on a diet of zucchini and broccoli cooked up once a week. Like all addiction memoirs a certain amount has been 'reconstructed' but the author is quite candid in his awkward introduction that is actually entitled 'disclaimer'. I'm gonna go so far as to say that you just can't make this stuff up, as Canfield is brutally honest about his painful internal state (and external relationships) and it wasn't until the closing pages that he made a statement I keep coming back and relating to; "Like my grandmother, I needed something louder than oil paints to stop the ----ing racket in my head."

To be very honest what got my attention about this book was the family name. And after reading the synopsis I just couldn't believe that the son of Jack Canfield had turned out to be so messed up. I had already started having my doubts about the whole self help industry :)
I hadn't read a junkie's story before but I found this one to be quiet fascinating; I do not know if it has to do with the fact that everything in the book was new to me (withdrawal symptoms, drug addiction, rehab centers.....) but nonetheless this is a very well written book that kept me interested all along.
I identified with the character introversion and non-stop inner dialogue. It was also interesting to see the new age movement through his eyes (somebody who was born into it).
I think this is a heartfelt and honest story about somebody who is still trying to figure it all out....just like the rest of us. I would like him to come up with another book I think he has potential as a writer :)

Not always pleasant, but I couldn't put it down.
Canfield bares all (if there's more I'm not sure I want to know) in this devastating recovery memoir/cautionary tale.

I never did trust all those Chicken Soup books and the author's scoop on their creator (the author's father) just reinforces my suspicion....

It sounded so interesting, that when I didn't snag an Early Reviewers copy, I put it on my Amazon wish list. And then I happened upon an advance copy at the ALA conference and started reading it while I was on the road home. (no, I wasn't driving) If real life hadn't interfered, I would have finished it in 24 hours. So I guess you could call it riveting.

Oran Canfield is self destructive, a junkie who despises
himself, everyone around him, he will do anything to sabotage his happiness
and he'll spend several hundred pages proving it to you.

Born to (but not really raised by) activist neo-hippie genetic-material-donors
(parents isn't a word I'd use) his father leaves, on his mothers
birthday, when Oran's very young, stating he's in love with someone else. His
not-much-of-a-mother then spends the next decade or so foisting off her
problem (raising a child/children she apparently doesn't really want) on other
people. Some whom she's recently met. Circus schools run by Wavy Gravy.
New age/experimental school where 'field trips' are shipping the
students off to Mexico to work as indentured servants for
several weeks.

Oran experiments with drugs and alcohol over the years, starting with
getting drunk while at an experimental school at eight years of age when none
of the staff stopped the child from swilling wine because this would be
a 'learning experience' for him. He ends up the typical junkie lying to
himself and everyone else about his addiction. Selling everything he
owns, stealing from friends and roommates.

Oran going in and out of rehab multiple times never allowing himself to
believe or accept the help offered. It's all garbage as far as he's
concerned. In once circumstance he spends his entire rehab time shooting
up in the bathroom and goes into withdrawal upon leaving rehab.

Over and over we're witness to Oran shooting himself in the foot,
blaming others for his problem, running and turning away from anyone who
tries to care or help.

I kept looking for the 'Great Tragedy'; The famous (or about to be
famous) musician brought down by drugs. The politician who might have
brought prosperity to the country. The doctor that could have cured
cancer, etc. and it's not here. Yes, losing oneself to addiction is a
tragedy and I feel bad that he's gone through it. I kept coming back to
this one thought while reading this memoir: "Why should I care?"

Beth Lisick is quoted as saying about this book: "This is the kind of
life story that begs to be told." and I have to ask 'Why?' If I wanted
to hear tales of addiction, self destruction and tragedy I could attend
any AA meeting in the world. Lots of kids who went to the same schools
as he were sent off to do manual labor, were picked on, were lonely,
were failures with women/girls. Millions have had absentee, abusive or
parents who just couldn't be bothered to care. What makes Oran
Canfield's story so much more special than anyone else's who's had a
hard life and made bad choices that I need to read a book about it?

His one claim to fame, other than having met some somewhat famous people
such as Wavy Gravy and a nameless actor in rehab, is his father wrote
Chicken Soup for the Soul. That's not enough to make his story worth publishing
over anyone else's.

I'm giving this two stars, it deserves two and a half but that's not an
option. The writing isn't bad. It flows well. It does use one literary
vehicle that annoys me a great deal and that is jumping, chapter to
chapter, from one time frame to another. Back and forth through the
entire book. I much prefer a linear story and saw no reason why this
couldn't have been written that way.

In the end I just couldn't bring myself to care about Oran or his
problems. There wasn't anything to make him special to me. He's just one
of millions who's fallen and not been able to get back up again.

I never saw or read Running with Scissors: A Memoir but the trailer was enough for my tolerance level and while I loved The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture I was more impressed with Nathan Rabin's pop culture references working through his life story than his actual life story. My experience with these "I had a lousy childhood" memoirs is decidedly limited.

Yet, I'm sick of them.

There are only so many stories I can read about quirky parents and their crazy parenting techniques. I am fresh out of bile for the hippie free education movement that gives children a choice of whether or not they want to learn as if they know what's best for themselves. I don't want to hear anything else from a bitter former child whose parents messed him up. All of our parents messed us up. If you can't make that story as funny as Portnoy's Complaint save it for your shrink.

The other story about Canfield's heroin addiction proves the point of that old saw about how junkies and addicts think they are fascinating but they are only fascinating to themselves. Canfield is much more odious than the average junkie becasue he doesn't want to get better. Sure, at the end he's cleaned up enough to write this book and go to meetings but the rest of this book is a memoir of requisite 28 day programs that he usually leaves or shoots up during. Just as everyone in his life gets exasperated with him and gives up on him, the reader is quick to follow.

Seriously, I have known way too many drug addicts (including alcoholics) in my life to have any patience with their lies and their excuses and their defensive stances. Even an addict who is clean now and just reporting on the old excuses and lies is tedious. That's not to say that there aren't good stories of junkies - Naked Lunch and The Basketball Diaries come to mind - but those stories are written by talented writers who use their addictions as material. The addiction is not the end all and the be all of the books.

With this book, it's all about addiction. So one story is about a bad childhood (boring) and the other story is about addiction (tedious and boring). The writing style isn't terrible but it only carries one so far and then we're just stuck with a stupid junkie telling us about his lousy childhood and expecting us to listen. Frankly, I have better things to do.

Long Past Stopping is a sometimes amusing, sometimes frustrating, sometimes amazing, and sometimes boring story of Oran Canfield. It is a disturbing tale of parenting gone wrong, drug addiction, self-loathing, and bizarre adventures in the extreme fringe of the art world. Adding to the drama is that Canfield's dad is the architect behind the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise. There's an irony in there that is as subtle as a freight train.
The story is told using alternating chapters which tell of his childhood and then shift gears to his later years when he gets into drugs. This is a difficult trick to pull off successfully and I don't think Canfield does, mostly because only half of his story is interesting to me. The unfathomable childhood he endures is proof enough to me (regardless of the forgiveness and the "they did the best they could" free pass he gives his parents) that his mother should've lost custody of her children long ago, if not faced prosecution for child endangerment. Long Past Stopping could have worked solely on the powerful retelling of his upbringing and the criminally negligent parenting of his mother. But we get the predictable end result of his childhood via his decent into drug abuse. Canfield tries to punch it up with some visceral details of his junkie life, but the self-deprecating humor can't save the endless relapses and tales of withdrawal and compounding mistakes. Furthermore, the criss-crossing chapters derail any momentum.
Let's be honest, few people can be more trying and less amusing than drunks or drug addicts, and reading about one only intensifies the problem. I'm not heartless, but it is hard to find a lot to like in most addicts. They strain your patience and generally let you down no matter how hard they try or how many promises they make and after a while, you just stop caring what happens to them. Maybe I am heartless...In any case, there is a wealth of druggie tales out there and once you've read one, the plot doesn't change much. I read "Christian F." when I was a teen and little has changed over the decades.
However, if reading about the pratfalls of drugs is your thing or if you want to read about how even good intentions can really screw up a child, this is as good a book as any. The truly remarkable thing is that Oran Canfield had the good fortune and support to stay alive and the sensibility and cognizance to write it down.