Thank you to Prometheus Publishing for sending me an advanced reading copy - ebook to read and review.
TITLE: Monstruous Obsession
AUTHOR: James L. Baker
GENRE: Memoir
RATING 5 stars
I read A LOT of memoirs on addiction and this one brought so much emotion to me. Firstly, this book focused on the family and what happened to each member as they slowly realized that they had a full blown addict in their family unit. Everyone dealt with it in their own ways and it was interesting to read how Mackie instinctively knew how to manipulate each member of his family, particularly his dad.
In fact the author (Mackie's dad) freely admits that he made many mistakes and had many shortcomings.
His HUGE dislike of his former wife played a significant role here, even after years of divorce they still hated each other and even the fact that their beloved son was an addict, did nothing to bring them together for a higher cause.
The author does discuss the concept of addiction being a gene which, in turn, can be transmitted from one family member to another. This is important because Baker is a doctor and admitted, on more than one occasion, how he knew nothing about addiction himself which, sadly, is common with many medical professionals. It will turn out to be a huge problem for Baker as he tries to play catch up by learning anything and everything he could about addiction, simultaneously trying to get his son some medical help (rehab). The learning curve was steep.
Yet, despite what Baker learned about the cycle of drug addiction, he often failed to see it in his son and often was defiant while sticking with his old ideas, by believing that there was a miracle medical cure out there that would fix it all for the better. If only....
The writing is very raw and honest- which I appreciated - no sugar coating here. It was/is very brave to write this book, it must have brought up so much. This was an important read for those who want to know how addiction touches everything in its path.
The ups and downs of addiction are palpable here and how family members and friends reacted to Mackie is quite interesting, although we can never forget that Mackie was beloved despite all of it, as it should be.
We do get an overview of 12 step programs, rebabs and various drugs that are prescribed to the addict in order to make weaning much easier.
This is a hard book to read and must have been a much, much harder book to write, but Baker wrote it.
This is a great read, if you can say that about a book dealing with a tough subject.
RIP Mackie, I hope you found serenity.
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