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The most helpful favorable review
The most helpful critical review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent work!
This is an excellent book on a difficult subject. Ms. Maran has performed all of us an importance service by truly listening and writing about the teenagers in this book & by sharing her own experiences. This work gets behind and beyond the statistics and media news reports. By the end of the book the reader will care deeply about the fate of these individuals and have...
Published on October 20, 2003 by Bryce Carter, Ph.D.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Honest but flawed
Read this book, but take the author's theories with a grain of salt. The accounts of the teens' experiences are well worth reading, and the author makes some trenchant observations as well. She usefully distinguishes between drug use and drug abuse, which far too few commentators do. However, she relies on too few and too biased sources for information about the "teen...
Published on January 24, 2005 by A reader
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent work!, October 20, 2003
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
This is an excellent book on a difficult subject. Ms. Maran has performed all of us an importance service by truly listening and writing about the teenagers in this book & by sharing her own experiences. This work gets behind and beyond the statistics and media news reports. By the end of the book the reader will care deeply about the fate of these individuals and have come to a deeper understanding of their hopes, fears, and motivations. It is all too easy to remain distant & detached from this problem. Ms. Maran's writing is immediate, intense, and very personal. I would recommend this book to all parents, teachers, and mental health professionals.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Dramatic insights into the teenage drug problem, October 10, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
If one has interest in America's vast drug problem,and particularly in its impact on one's own family, "Dirty" is a book for your immediate attention. Author Meredith Maran begins her report:"This is a book about why teenagers use drugs, what we're doing about it, why nothing seems to be working, and what we might do to solve--or at least look honestly at--the problem."
To gather the vital information, Maran virtually lived for two years with three afflicted teenagers, their families, teachers and counselors, and also called on her own experience as a parent of a teenage addict now "emerged from the tempest of his adolescence." What she witnessed, what she learned and what she advises is thoughtfully portrayed in this extremely valuable book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A great read!, October 10, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
I'm neither a mother nor a drug treatment professional, but I couldn't put DIRTY down! Maran does an amazing job of combining the intimate, gripping stories of four teenagers--one of them, her own son, Jesse--with an indisputable analysis of our nation's flaws, and how they contribute to our teenagers' distress. I was rooting for Mike, Tristan, and Zalika as I stayed up all night reading DIRTY; I started reading it again the next day! Highly recommended for any reading, thinking person.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A Book for Parents, Educators, and Adolescents, September 30, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
Being the mother of a child who is addicted to drugs has been the most painful journey imaginable. In my search for answers, I have run the gamut from counselors to drug rehabs to other parents living this nightmare. I wish Dirty had been available to me five years ago. Meredith Maran writes about the three kids in this book as a non judgmental observer who brings very human stories to life, as well as some ground breaking ideas about what we ALL can do to stem this epidemic. The stories of the main characters (who Maran chose from 3 different treatment modalities) are so compelling, and told with love, affection, and concern so often absent in the lives of kids like Mike, Zalika, and Tristan. Often kids like those portrayed have disconnected from family.
Maran makes us recognize the humanity and value of these children
Even if you are not directly impacted by teenage drug addiction, you will find Dirty a great read.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
DIRTY is an essential read!, December 26, 2003
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
As a mother of an 18 year old son who has used for most of his teen years, I found this book captivating. It was at times difficult to read as it hit so close to heart and home. Being on this journey with my son has been the most difficult period of my life.
This book is so important because it points out the frightning statistics for our troubled youth and how it affects our whole society. In addition, it addresses the importance of re-thinking our priorities. We need to show our children that they are our most valuable priority. Meredith Maran provides good insight as to what we can do to overcome this battle.
Even if your child isn't using (or if you don't have children), this book points out just how our teens are affecting you and your child. It is crucial America deal with this epidemic! This book a must read.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Dirty, December 15, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
Working in the field of adolescent substance abuse for the last 13 years, in residential, outpatient and Drug Court, I appreciated this book for its candor and accuracy. I work with the same type of client population which Meredith so carefully documented. Meredith captured perfectly this "new adolescent world." I loved the honesty in Part 3: "Does Any of (this treatment) Work?" and Part 4 "How Can We Get Kids Off Drugs?" which I have made required reading for my staff. There are no easy answers to this very complicated societial, familial, peer and individual problem and bless Meredith for not trying to provide glib solutions. This is a must read for anyone working in this field.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliantly intertwined case studies and facts, October 22, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
I wish more books were like this one. This isn't just a tale of teens out of control. And it isn't just an essay on teen drug abuse and rehabilitation. The author weaves both of these together to create a book that holds the reader's interest all the way through. The pacing and the segues are handled very deftly.For someone who remembers my own teen drug use as harmless fun, this book has been a real eye-opener. Things really have changed. Maran illustrates that well, and makes many suggestions as to the new changes that have to occur if we hope to save young people from the kind of personal [turmoil] each of the teens in this book went through.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A Provocative Page-Turner, October 18, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
I read a review of this book in Vanity Fair that said "Dirty hits a vein" and that pretty much says it all. The book is a page-turner--Maran makes you root for the 3 kids she writes about till you're on the edge of your seat, wondering what'll happen to them next. Her writing is beautiful, but you hardly notice it because the story is so compelling. The points she makes by telling the kids' stories come through, but you don't feel you're being preached to. Rather, you feel you're on the wild ride Maran went on with these kids, and as she did, you come to love and respect them in the process. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good read, parent or not!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
"Dirty" A compelling story and a call to personal action, December 4, 2003
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
As a social services professional, former educator, and parent, I've had my fill of simplistic "solutions" offered by career policicians and professional opportunists to the complex and systemic problems related to drug use and abuse by adolescents.Ms. Maran weaves the stories of three struggling teenagers in with social science, research, insights, and her own personal experiences in a way that will convince readers that we're all responsible for part of the problem and all capable of participating in a search for solutions. I hesitate to suggest anything is a "must read" or "must see," but if you care about our children or our American society, you need to read this book and experience the sense of urgency and purpose that may come to you at its end. If you read this book you'll reach the conclusions that: 1. We're failing our children as a nation; 2. There's nevertheless hope; and 3. You can do something to make a difference. Along the way, you'll feel your own bewilderment, anger, frustration, hope, and disappointment - and you'll understand all those emotions from the point of view of the kids, families and caretakers caught up in drug abuse.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Don't be in denial, November 13, 2003
This review is from: Dirty: A Search for Answers Inside America's Teenage Drug Epidemic (Hardcover)
I taught for over 30 years and sadly found too many parents, teachers, and others interacting with teens to be clueless about today's adolescents. Anyone who cares about teens, especially those who think "It could never happen to my kids" or what I've heard so often "I don't have kids like THAT in my class" I strongly recommend Meredith Maran's book DIRTY. It is a very powerful read that offers a realistic view of far too many of our young people. Nancy Rubin
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