Moments of Clarity: Voices from the Front Lines of Addiction and Recovery (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: recovery meeting, New York, Jim Vance, Chit Chat (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The epiphanies in these engrossing oral histories, gathered by Lawford (Symptoms of Withdrawal), of addiction and recovery run the gamut, from bouts of raving trauma and degradation to subtle promptings from a still, small voice. Drummer Dallas Taylor's moment of clarity came when he stabbed himself in the stomach after freebasing with a homeless guy. For memoirist Susan Cheever, it was watching her daughter drink milk. For actor Richard Dreyfuss, it was realizing that the little girl who appeared to him in a vision at a cocaine-fueled orgy was his unborn daughter. Lawford (who is Peter Lawford's son and a Kennedy cousin) weights the selection of these confessionals toward entertainment-industry acquaintances who speak with a thick Hollywood accent (one of Jamie Lee Curtis's moments came when her Brazilian shaman called her on her pill-popping). For them, the 12-step recovery movement is more religion than therapy. The addicts' journeys uniformly proceed through a surrender of the will, prayer on bended knee and entry into the loving congregation of the meeting; their struggle is really a spiritual one to purge themselves of selfishness and egotism and connect with God, or whatever. Well, religions spread for a reason: these laceratingly honest stories of depravity and redemption show how the 12-step creed addresses human failings. (Jan. 1)
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Product Description

On February 17, 1986, after years of addiction and self-destruction, Christopher Kennedy Lawford reached a turning point in his life, one that would mark the beginning of his long road to recovery. In his New York Times bestselling memoir, Symptoms of Withdrawal, he chronicled his deep descent into near-fatal drug and alcohol addiction, and his subsequent hard-won journey back to sobriety, which he has maintained for more than twenty years. The Before and the After. But before and after what? What happened at that point in time to trigger the understanding within himself that he had to change? What finally forces any person to choose life over death?

The overwhelming response he received to his book impressed upon Lawford the number of people struggling to find their own way back from addiction and the need to share their stories. There was no easy way out for any of them. They all had to go through a moment of humility, vulnerability, and transformation and choose to take that first step of the journey. And each had their own intensely personal moment that signaled a Before and an After. The histories gathered here are the recollections of lives snatched back from the brink of a precipice so wide and deep it threatened to engulf them.

Every segment of society has been touched by addiction and its aftermath. Moments of Clarity collects stories from men and women, young and old, and across all barriers of celebrity, color, and class. Represented in these pages are the singer and the actress, the writer and the anchorman, the man from the movie screen and the woman who lives down the street. A myriad of different moments but all with the common understanding of where these men and women have been and where they must go. As they bravely share their stories, they shed light not only on their own experiences but also on the journey we all take as human beings, looking to make sense of our world.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061456217
• ISBN-13: 978-0061456213
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #22,156 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reached Deep Within and Touched My Soul, January 4, 2009

By	Taylored (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

"You don't understand, no one understands," an addict's mantra, which until Moments of Clarity, was very true.

Mr. Lawford and the contributors in this book fearlessly break the validity of this mantra through the strength of sharing their stories, bringing to life the realness of the disease of addiction and the holds it has on the mother, husband, teenager, employee, and celebrity, forcing them to go against what they know is the "right thing to do."

Each story truly reached deep within and touched my soul, as they not only share their hardships, but proclaim their moment of clarity, and the astonishing changes made in their lives because of that moment. They are all great examples of willingness, and almost anyone can find identification with the feelings, thoughts, adversities, and subsequent moments of clarity as we all face some form of them during our lives on a daily basis.

I would recommend this book to those who have family members suffering with this disease and need to understand the pain and hopelessness felt by those they love. To the addict who is still suffering as they will find the hope they are so desperately seeking and to those who are in recovery as they will be able to experience renewed epiphanies as I did.

Thank you to everyone who courageously contributed to these pages as I know many people will find salvation and peace of mind through your strength.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "THERE... BUT FOR THE GRACE OF G-D... GO I!", January 8, 2009

By	Rick Shaq Goldstein "Rick Shaq Goldstein" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This book is a collection of proclamations from forty-three people who had hit the bottom of the pitch-black-unforgiving-hideous-abyss... known as addiction. Some are recovering drug addicts... some are recovering alcoholics... some have eating disorders... some have a combination of addictions. Many who bare the dark side of their soul on these pages are famous... but I don't think that's worth mentioning... because that isn't the reason to read this book. Addiction strikes everyone (according to statistics there are over TWENTY-TWO-MILLION ADDICTS JUST IN AMERICA) and most of them are just ordinary people like you and me... and to be frank... people like you and me... are more important to me... than multi-multi-millionaire celebrities. I have been personally affected in my life by the humbling-non-prejudicial-monster known as addiction... when I lost for ten years... the greatest and best friend I ever had in my lifetime... to addiction. To have seen what addiction did to him... is to witness first hand... the strongest of the strong... the proudest... of the proud... a self-made street-fighting success story... not be merely knocked to his knees... but to be laid out... flat on his stomach... on a dirty hotel floor... with a gun in his hand... hiding from the world... a world... that he had dominated. What the author rightly calls "MOMENTS OF CLARITY"... I call "LYING FACE DOWN ON THE STREET OF LIFE... WITH YOUR FACE ENGULFED BY MUD AND BILE... AND BY SUMMONING EVERY LAST OUNCE OF STRENGTH AND DESIRE... TO SOMEHOW... FORCE YOUR UPPER TORSO... UP OUT OF THE MIRE... ON ONE ARM... AND THEN BY UTILIZING EVERY BIT OF FIBER... AND MORAL FORTITUDE... THAT G-D HAS LEFT IN YOUR BODY... YOU REACH UP WITH YOUR OTHER ARM... TOWARD THE SKY... TOWARD THE SUNSHINE... CRYING... I DON'T WANT TO LIVE LIKE THIS ANYMORE... I DON'T WANT TO BE AN ADDICT!"

When my "BEST-FRIEND" bravely reached his bedraggled arm to the sky... I was there. I went with him to the "MUTUAL SUPPORT GROUP MEETINGS"... and let me tell you... I learned the loving-beauty and grace... of a hug! I'll never forget the day when my best friend... a Viet Nam era veteran... was clean for about five months... and he got up to "share" his story with the other members of our "ANONYMOUS" meeting. When he was finished... and started to walk back to his seat... one of the members from the sea of our anonymous army... walked straight up to him... and put a giant loving bear hug on him... and said... **WELCOME HOME BROTHER... THE WAR IS OVER!** I had tears streaming down my cheeks... and so did they. That spiritual moment... was OVER FIFTEEN-YEARS-AGO... and yet... it was like yesterday. I wrote a poem for my friend at the beginning of his battle for recovery... that he carried around with him... and still does to this day. He gave this poem to other people who suffer. I've given it to friends... and friends of friends. I am going to include it here... because... in my opinion... that's what this book is all about.


"Now that my ladder's gone, I must lie down where all the ladders start, in the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart."

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
(Written before 1939)

***READING THESE FEW WORDS BY YEATS INSPIRED THE FOLLOWING POEM! ***


WHEN YOU'VE LOST EVERYTHING THAT IS "YOU"...
OR EVERYTHING DEAR TO YOU...
ANIMATE OR INANIMATE...

WHERE DO YOU GO? ... WHAT DO YOU DO? ...

WHO DO YOU TURN TO? ...

THE THING OR THINGS THAT MADE YOU ... YOU...

WHETHER THE WORLD SAW WHAT IT WAS,
OR IF ONLY DEEP INSIDE THE DARKEST REACHES OF YOUR SOUL,
DID IT EXIST ONLY KNOWN TO YOU...

WHEN YOU FACE DEATH OR TRY TO HOLD ON TO LIFE,
AND THE ENEMY ABOUNDS,
WHERE DO YOU GET THE RESOLVE ... THE STRENGTH TO HOLD ON?..

HOW DO YOU FIGHT BACK?...

WHERE DO YOU FIND THAT SECRET VOICE,
THAT CAN TELL YOU TO HOLD ON,
THAT CONVINCES YOU TO FIGHT BACK,
THAT MAKES YOU BELIEVE YOU DESERVE TO GO ON...

ON THAT DAY YOU TURN DISGUSTEDLY TO A MIRROR,
AFRAID TO SEE... WHAT YOU KNOW YOU'VE BECOME..

OR ON THE DAY THERE IS NO HELP "OUT THERE",
WHERE CAN YOU POSSIBLY GO?....

WHEN YOUR WORLD IS FULL OF ENEMIES AND THE WORST ONE IS YOU,
YOU MUST LOOK SILENTLY WITHIN...

YOU MUST LOOK WITH EYES UNBIASED,
LIKE A STRANGER ON A BUS...

TO SURVIVE YOU GO BACK TO YOUR SECRET PLACE OF STRENGTH,
THAT VAULT WITHIN YOU...
WHERE YOUR COURAGE AND PRIDE RESIDES...

IN THIS PLACE YOU ALONE FACE YOUR SINGULAR TRUTHS...

SOME ARE SO UGLY YOU'RE THANKFUL NO ONE ELSE CAN SEE...

OTHERS ARE SO PURE OF BEAUTY IT'S A WONDERMENT,
ALL HUMANITY CAN'T SEE...

IN HERE, IS WHERE FINAL, SINGULAR, DECISIONS, ARE MADE...

TO FIGHT BACK... GIVE UP... TO LIVE OR TO DIE...

"Where all ladders start, in the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart"


Rick Goldstein
2/28/94

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Christopher's book enlightens anyone who enjoys a spiritual journey, January 16, 2009

By	P. A. Saenz "The Patrician View" (Playa Del Rey, CA.USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Keeping to read over and over...

Enlightening and touching crossroads of life that give me hope and inspiration... Having had a moment of clarity that turned my life around
as an addict in recovery I crave more and Lawford's book packs that wakeup punch.