Review of The Last Stop
Posted: 28 Jul 2022, 17:15
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Last Stop" by Patricia Street.]
David first felt the euphoria of drugs when a machinery accident landed him in the hospital with a foot injury at age 15. The Last Stop, a memoir by Patricia Street, chronicles David's journey through addiction until his death at age 39. The story is told through David's own words: his emails, Facebook posts, short stories, and letters from jail. It is narrated through the experience of his mother, who threads the bits and pieces of David’s life together with her experiences and perspective. In the introduction she gives a haunting disclaimer: “If you or a loved one is caught in the throes of addiction, please seek support and treatment, or it will suck the life out of you”.
The book can be difficult to read or follow for a number of reasons. It can be triggering for anyone who has experience with drug addiction. I found the voice in this book to be unique because most of it is told through the words of the addict himself, who is a chronic liar and narcissist. In addition, Neither Patricia Street nor David are clearly experienced writers (though David aspired to write the next great American Novel), and the use of initials to hide identities can cause confusion about what is going on, especially towards the beginning of the book before getting used to this convention. The book is laced with profanities, as it reflects the way Street and David naturally speak.
The book has two parts. The first is Street piecing together letters that David has written, and the second is David’s writings that he meant to be published. I found the first part to be clear and informative while also keeping my interest. One part, for example, shows a letter David wrote to his mother from jail with promises that he has to get clean this time, but also a letter to another person (acquired by Street after David’s death) from the same time that throws his commitment into doubt. These letters are tied together with Street’s narrative that detail the arrests, incidents, and people in David’s life. Street does a very good job giving exact dates and clear explanations that set up each of David’s letters so the reader can follow his story.
The second part takes up about the last 20% of the book. I worried the second part would be terribly boring (I didn’t want to read a bunch of bad essays from a narcissist) but found that even though the writing style did seem like high school level, it was readable and the content helped me to understand what was going on inside David’s mind. Street, while narrating David’s letters to other people, is able to describe drinking, drugs and sex very matter-of-fact, but David is much more descriptive of drug acquisition, use, and lifestyle- including sex. David was very into philosophy, and did a fairly good job of creating stories that demonstrate his abstract thinking and experiences. It was fascinating to read David's stories which center a character clearly based on himself, a “free-thinking”, womanizing liar that he seems to present as a sympathetic character.
The title “The Last Stop” I assume refers to the analogy Street uses of addiction being the “crazy drug train” that ultimately took David’s life. I agree that reading this book is like watching a train wreck. Despite how raw the writing is, I didn’t want to stop reading. This book is not meant to be pure entertainment but the events are crazy enough to be consistently interesting. I rated the book 3 out of 4 stars because, though it will be particularly useful to a person who has a loved one struggling with addiction, it is also an experience that might help anyone better understand not just the addict, but the lives touched by the addict. I will always recommend stories that do a good job helping people understand different perspectives, especially marginalized ones. This story does not have a happy ending or even a sympathetic protagonist, but it definitely left me thinking and better understanding.
******
The Last Stop
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
David first felt the euphoria of drugs when a machinery accident landed him in the hospital with a foot injury at age 15. The Last Stop, a memoir by Patricia Street, chronicles David's journey through addiction until his death at age 39. The story is told through David's own words: his emails, Facebook posts, short stories, and letters from jail. It is narrated through the experience of his mother, who threads the bits and pieces of David’s life together with her experiences and perspective. In the introduction she gives a haunting disclaimer: “If you or a loved one is caught in the throes of addiction, please seek support and treatment, or it will suck the life out of you”.
The book can be difficult to read or follow for a number of reasons. It can be triggering for anyone who has experience with drug addiction. I found the voice in this book to be unique because most of it is told through the words of the addict himself, who is a chronic liar and narcissist. In addition, Neither Patricia Street nor David are clearly experienced writers (though David aspired to write the next great American Novel), and the use of initials to hide identities can cause confusion about what is going on, especially towards the beginning of the book before getting used to this convention. The book is laced with profanities, as it reflects the way Street and David naturally speak.
The book has two parts. The first is Street piecing together letters that David has written, and the second is David’s writings that he meant to be published. I found the first part to be clear and informative while also keeping my interest. One part, for example, shows a letter David wrote to his mother from jail with promises that he has to get clean this time, but also a letter to another person (acquired by Street after David’s death) from the same time that throws his commitment into doubt. These letters are tied together with Street’s narrative that detail the arrests, incidents, and people in David’s life. Street does a very good job giving exact dates and clear explanations that set up each of David’s letters so the reader can follow his story.
The second part takes up about the last 20% of the book. I worried the second part would be terribly boring (I didn’t want to read a bunch of bad essays from a narcissist) but found that even though the writing style did seem like high school level, it was readable and the content helped me to understand what was going on inside David’s mind. Street, while narrating David’s letters to other people, is able to describe drinking, drugs and sex very matter-of-fact, but David is much more descriptive of drug acquisition, use, and lifestyle- including sex. David was very into philosophy, and did a fairly good job of creating stories that demonstrate his abstract thinking and experiences. It was fascinating to read David's stories which center a character clearly based on himself, a “free-thinking”, womanizing liar that he seems to present as a sympathetic character.
The title “The Last Stop” I assume refers to the analogy Street uses of addiction being the “crazy drug train” that ultimately took David’s life. I agree that reading this book is like watching a train wreck. Despite how raw the writing is, I didn’t want to stop reading. This book is not meant to be pure entertainment but the events are crazy enough to be consistently interesting. I rated the book 3 out of 4 stars because, though it will be particularly useful to a person who has a loved one struggling with addiction, it is also an experience that might help anyone better understand not just the addict, but the lives touched by the addict. I will always recommend stories that do a good job helping people understand different perspectives, especially marginalized ones. This story does not have a happy ending or even a sympathetic protagonist, but it definitely left me thinking and better understanding.
******
The Last Stop
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon