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Love Is the Drug: A Novel [Hardcover]

Sarahbeth Purcell (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)


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Book Description

February 3, 2004

Wonderfully empathic, smartly comic, and wickedly insightful, this captivating debut novel maps the progress of an unforgettable young woman endeavoring to mend a broken heart and find salvation.


"Hello, my name is Tyler Tracer and I am falling apart. I am twenty-four years old, and I have no ability whatsoever to choose an occupation or a hair color."


Meet Tyler, the singularly irresistible and straight-talking heroine of Sarahbeth Purcell's touching first novel. An incurable romantic, Tyler's chief obsessions include music, list-making -- and David, the man who broke her heart. Despite an exhaustively detailed list of reasons for why she should just forget about David once and for all -- including (but by no means limited to) chronic illness, terminal self-absorption, and geographical inaccessibility -- Tyler remains hopelessly hooked on him. Hence the wild ride she embarks upon in the wake of her father's death, a ride that takes her from her hometown in Tennessee to sunny Los Angeles, all in hopes of saving David from his ominous take on life.

This hilarious and dark cross-country expedition finds our young heroine negotiating the universally perilous terrain of sex, love, and relationships with uncommon verve, wit, and more than a little recklessness. Along the way, Tyler discovers, among other things, the uniquely redemptive powers of roadkill, the fact that enduring love tends to blossom in the most unexpected and unlikeliest places, and, above all, that nothing can stop her from making her own rules and mapping out her own life. Not even herself.

A joyous triumph of a debut to which readers will respond with a sense of instant recognition, Sarahbeth Purcell's Love Is the Drug spins a story of bold living and loving that crackles with energy and innovation.



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A masochistic, narcissistic 24-year-old struggles with addiction, the end of a dysfunctional love affair and the failing health of her father in Purcell's rocky debut. Chick-lit conventions-a chattering first-person narrator with a troubled love life and a fondness for lists-can't quite support a story that begins with a suicide attempt ("I am lying on the side of an abandoned road in the gravel next to the car, with my arm slashed from a broken Pabst beer bottle, and I'm waiting to die"). After that grim prologue, Purcell traces the events leading up to it. Nashville native Tyler Tracer had a beautiful long-distance relationship with David, a middle-aged L.A. musician, but now that they're living together, David treats her horribly. She loves him, and she loves the sex-but the pain is killing her. So she splits, arriving back in Tennessee in time to see her beloved father die; distraught, she then embarks on a road trip toward self-actualization. Tyler's voice is raw and desperate-and therefore sometimes grating-but she's an able narrator, so it's disappointing that Purcell makes Tyler such a "slave to lists," which, in their bullet-pointed brevity, substitute for more graceful characterization ("Top Ten Shitty Occupations I Have Held for More Than Thirty Seconds"; "Top Ten Reasons Why I Let Men Treat Me Like Shit"). Tyler's a passionate girl ("I will write stories until the day I die and live in between the sentences and paragraphs"), but her story feels forced, especially the happily-ever-after part, which comes-believe it or not-thanks to a kind rock star and a sacrificial armadillo.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

"I am a slave to lists," says 24-year-old Taylor, whose hilarious "Top Tens" punctuate her careening, first-person narrative. There are the "Reasons I Cannot Leave David," when she falls for her emotionally vacant 40-year-old boyfriend, followed closely by the "Reasons I Cannot Be with David," when he breaks up with her. After her father dies of cancer, Taylor finds the "Top Ten Things I Want to Do in Life," an old list on which her father had written, "What are you waiting for?" Rootless and grieving, Taylor heads out on a wild road trip, hoping to work her way through the list and heal her heart in the process. Purcell's first novel is an edgy exploration of graphic sex, alcoholism, romance, and the borders between adventure, fun, and self-respect. The novel's rambling structure and melodramatic cynicism detract from moments of deep, affecting truth. But readers, especially those who recognize the '80s and early '90s cultural references, will connect with Taylor's wicked humor and her yearning to move beyond the "poison" of family burdens and her own shortcomings. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Atria; 1 edition (February 3, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743476158
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743476157
  • Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sarahbeth Purcell's debut novel, LOVE IS THE DRUG, was released by Atria/Simon and Schuster in hardback in 2004 and paperback in April 2005, with congratulatory reviews from publisher's bible "Booklist" and comparisons by other esteemed authors to Chuck Palahniuk (author of FIGHT CLUB, DIARY, and LULLABY, among others).

THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG was her second published work, released in stores Nationwide by Simon and Schuster / Washington Square Press, April 11, 2006 as well as for download on ebook format via Simon and Schuster's website.

Purcell is a native of Nashville, Tennessee, where she resides with her partner, musician Billy Mercer, their two cats, and their daughter (on the way, due in early 2012.) Stay tuned for many more projects in the works from Sarahbeth!

 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
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2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than I thought, September 5, 2005
By 
Sammy A. (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love Is the Drug: A Novel (Hardcover)
I bought this book almost a year ago and had a little trouble getting into it. I picked it up again on my way to the beach thinking it was good fluff for beach reading, but found myself crying my eyes out on my towel. I think a lot of women, and people in general, will relate to being in love with someone who's lukewarm in return so the beginning of the book captured me in that sense. When she returns to her parents' home and describes her relationship with her father, I found it to be complex and not "pat." Her father is an alcoholic and she hates him and loves him, and the writer captured well the complexity of that relationship and her feelings. Her flawed father saved her in a sense and gave her direction (but her own direction...you'll know what I mean when you read the book). His note to her and the armadillo chapters were the parts that had me bawling! I would definitely recommend this book.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars I want to read more of Purcell, because her voice sounds like tears, April 18, 2009
By 
B. A Varkentine (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Love Is the Drug: A Novel (Hardcover)
I devoured this book like it was candy until I got to the happy ending, after which I felt like I feel when I eat too much candy. It's not the happy ending I mind, of course, but I don't want books that lie to me to get there, and it feels like this one does.

Still, the writer transcends the "Nick Hornby with girl parts" box into which she might have fallen; voice is more important to me than plot in most cases anyway.

But having come to identify with and care for Tyler I wanted, if not needed, to believe in her redemption. Because through the stories of the redeemed I hope to find paths I myself might tread.

Tyler suffers before her happy ending, but she doesn't work for it; so she doesn't earn it. She seems, indeed, be trading one unlikely road to happiness for an even less-likely one.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very witty and well written, but a little slow., June 24, 2008
The writing in this book was fun and full of interesting insight and metaphors. But the plot was pretty shallow and repetative and boring. I kept waiting for some BIG thing to happen and nothing ever really did. Just small blips then a "big" ending that left me underwhelmed. Good book, worth the read, but don't get your hopes up to high.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I'm in a Rite Aid in the Valley and Peter Cetera is playing. Read the first page
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Top Teh, Lord Blah Blah Blah, Tyler Tracer, Burbank Airport, James Tracer, Belle Meade, Long Island, Top Ter, Trivial Pursuit, Yoko Ono
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