NY Times columnist to speak on dark memoir
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By PATRICK McARDLE Herald Staff - Published: September 13, 2008
MANCHESTER — David Carr, who will be appearing at the Northshire Bookstore on Saturday, is bringing something unusual to the arena of true memoirs with his book, "The Night of the Gun."
The book tells the story of the years when Carr, a columnist for the New York Times, was addicted to drugs and alcohol. Carr deals openly with jobs lost, family and friends he disappointed and rehabilitation centers he attended and, also, of course, the gun.
The book's full title is "The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own" and its title is based on the event that inspired it.
Carr had no romantic notion of his history of addiction and in particular remembered a story from 1987 when a friend was forced to point a gun at him because of his cocaine and alcohol fueled hostility.
When Carr talked to the friend almost 20 years later, a startling fact emerged: It was Carr not his friend who was holding the gun. He decided to research his own history like he would any other story, basing it on official documents like police reports and medical histories and recorded interviews with more than 50 people from his past.
"It was a profoundly embarrassing exercise but it brought with it no small number of epiphanies. I was wrong about a lot of things. In the novelized version of my life, I was basically a good guy who took a couple of wrong turns and ended up in the ditch. In the reported version, I was a person who saw the sign that said dangerous curves ahead and floored it, heedlessly mowing down all sorts of people at every turn," Carr wrote.
In an e-mail interview, Carr said researching and writing the book was easier than living behind a book that dealt so honestly with a life that descended into some pretty dark places.
"I sent the book to almost everyone who was involved in the story in a substantial way and I think the person who was least prepared to have it come out was me. I wrote it as if I were writing about another person, which I sort of was, but now I'm both 'that guy' and 'this guy,'" he said. While Carr said his story is both an "odd, dark story" and against-all-odds hopeful, he has heard from many people who identify with it deeply.
"The seriousness and sincerity people demonstrate toward me and the story that I wrote is something that I wasn't ready for, but find deeply thrilling," he said.
Carr said readers have enjoyed the "mystery/quest" aspect of the book, following the story to see how Carr got through his darkest times and ended up in a better place. The book has also attracted a number of people in recovery although Carr said he wouldn't recommend it to people who were newly sober.
"(I hope people come away from the book understanding) that there really is no such thing as a hopeless case, because if there was, I would have defined it. People never gave up on me even after I gave up on myself and all of that lifting and tugging ended up in a kind of slow-moving miracle," he said.
In the book, Carr said he had read several memoirs from people who wrote about their addiction and concluded that there was no way those people could have clearly remembered all the details in their books from a time when they were withdrawing from drugs or alcohol. On Wednesday, however, he said he didn't judge other memoirs or author's powers of recall.
"I did this book in this way because I am a reporter, journalism generally adds heft and texture to any nonfiction narrative and I'm proud of what popped out. But I'm not a literary critic or author when I sit down to read a book. I expect to learn things, be entertained, and yeah, not being lied to would be swell, too," he said.
During his free appearance at the Northshire Bookstore on Saturday at 7 p.m., Carr, who describes himself as "a crappy reader of (his) own work, said he will try to speak about the "literary and moral issues raised by this book … in a straightforward and engaging way" and warned that he sometime has trouble being serious despite the book's subject matter.
"In general, the book argues that the truth does not reside in any single person, but rather in the space between people and I try to hew to that principle when I tour on the book," Carr said.
Contact Patrick McArdle at patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com.
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