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The Light Years
The Light Years is a joyous and defiant coming-of-age memoir set during one of the most turbulent times in American history
Chris Rush was born into a prosperous, fiercely Roman Catholic, New Jersey family. But underneath the gleaming mid-century house, the flawless hostess mom, and the thriving businessman dad ran an unspoken tension that, amid the upheaval of the late 1960s, was destined to fracture their precarious facade.
His older sister Donna introduces him to the charismatic Valentine, who places a tab of acid on twelve-year-old Rush's tongue, proclaiming: "This is sacrament. You are one of us now."
After an unceremonious ejection from an experimental art school, Rush heads to Tuscon to make a major drug purchase and, still barely a teenager, disappears into the nascent American counterculture. Stitching together a ragged assemblage of lowlifes, prophets, and fellow wanderers, he seeks kinship in the communes of the west. His adolescence is spent looking for knowledge, for the divine, for home. Given what Rush confronts on his travels--from ordinary heartbreak to unimaginable violence--it is a miracle he is still alive.
The Light Years is a prayer for vanished friends, an odyssey signposted with broken and extraordinary people. It transcends one boy's story to perfectly illustrate the slow slide from the optimism of the 1960s into the darker and more sinister 1970s. This is a riveting, heart-stopping journey of discovery and reconciliation, as Rush faces his lost childhood and, finally, himself.
Chris Rush was born into a prosperous, fiercely Roman Catholic, New Jersey family. But underneath the gleaming mid-century house, the flawless hostess mom, and the thriving businessman dad ran an unspoken tension that, amid the upheaval of the late 1960s, was destined to fracture their precarious facade.
His older sister Donna introduces him to the charismatic Valentine, who places a tab of acid on twelve-year-old Rush's tongue, proclaiming: "This is sacrament. You are one of us now."
After an unceremonious ejection from an experimental art school, Rush heads to Tuscon to make a major drug purchase and, still barely a teenager, disappears into the nascent American counterculture. Stitching together a ragged assemblage of lowlifes, prophets, and fellow wanderers, he seeks kinship in the communes of the west. His adolescence is spent looking for knowledge, for the divine, for home. Given what Rush confronts on his travels--from ordinary heartbreak to unimaginable violence--it is a miracle he is still alive.
The Light Years is a prayer for vanished friends, an odyssey signposted with broken and extraordinary people. It transcends one boy's story to perfectly illustrate the slow slide from the optimism of the 1960s into the darker and more sinister 1970s. This is a riveting, heart-stopping journey of discovery and reconciliation, as Rush faces his lost childhood and, finally, himself.
372 pages, Hardcover
First published April 2, 2019
90 people are currently reading
6671 people want to read
About the author
Chris Rush
1 book103 followersChris Rush is an award-winning artist and designer whose work is held in numerous museum collections. The Light Years is his first book.
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May 23, 2019
I want to start of by saying that I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
5 stars! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ WOW!
Honestly, I am really picky when it comes to memoirs. I enjoy them, but personally, the more real, raw, down to earth, and deep they are, the better they are. Nobody wants to read a memoir full of a perfect life. At least I don’t. I can truly say that Chris Rush’s memoir is the absolute BEST memoir I have read to date! That being said, I have only read about a dozen or so memoirs, but none of them come close to competing! Reviewing memoirs is strange. It’s not like it is a fiction story that you can offer advice on how the author “should have, would have, or could have”. The genre is full of the author’s LIFE and life experiences. How can you pull those apart and judge or critique them? You simply can’t. So For me, I just go by my own personal taste, and whether or not the book “moved” me per-say. And this one certainly did! I am a recovering drug addict, with almost three years clean (on July 21st, 2019), so I can profoundly relate to the struggles Chris went through in regards to drugs and emotions and family life/relationships. Though my situation was very different in many aspects, the underlying loneliness, need to escape reality, and depression is spot on identical!
Thanks for the incredible read! I feel like a better person for having read this book! Any book that makes me feel like that afterwards is definitely a 5-star book in my eyes! I hope you come out with more books in the future Mr. Rush! Personally, I would hugely appreciate a book dedicated to addiction and the mental illnesses (dual diagnosis) that accompany most people with them! It is ALWAYS awesome to read a book about such things coming from a fellow addict versus the typical “text-book” account of the same thing. Not only is it more relatable, but people trust it more because they believe that you truly understand them. “Text-book” accounts might understand the surface level issues, but until you’ve been in our shoes, there’s no way you could possibly understand and/or identify with the rawness and depth of the disease of addiction. Sorry, now I’m just blabbing. I guess you could say I am pretty passionate about the subject. And I am so happy, proud, and in awe of you for not only sharing your story publicly, but for doing so with complete honesty, bluntness, truth and ease! Thank you again!
Lastly, anyone who reads this that may be struggling with addiction, please feel free to message me anytime. You are not alone! There is help! It works if you work it, so work it, you’re worth it!
5 stars! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ WOW!
Honestly, I am really picky when it comes to memoirs. I enjoy them, but personally, the more real, raw, down to earth, and deep they are, the better they are. Nobody wants to read a memoir full of a perfect life. At least I don’t. I can truly say that Chris Rush’s memoir is the absolute BEST memoir I have read to date! That being said, I have only read about a dozen or so memoirs, but none of them come close to competing! Reviewing memoirs is strange. It’s not like it is a fiction story that you can offer advice on how the author “should have, would have, or could have”. The genre is full of the author’s LIFE and life experiences. How can you pull those apart and judge or critique them? You simply can’t. So For me, I just go by my own personal taste, and whether or not the book “moved” me per-say. And this one certainly did! I am a recovering drug addict, with almost three years clean (on July 21st, 2019), so I can profoundly relate to the struggles Chris went through in regards to drugs and emotions and family life/relationships. Though my situation was very different in many aspects, the underlying loneliness, need to escape reality, and depression is spot on identical!
Thanks for the incredible read! I feel like a better person for having read this book! Any book that makes me feel like that afterwards is definitely a 5-star book in my eyes! I hope you come out with more books in the future Mr. Rush! Personally, I would hugely appreciate a book dedicated to addiction and the mental illnesses (dual diagnosis) that accompany most people with them! It is ALWAYS awesome to read a book about such things coming from a fellow addict versus the typical “text-book” account of the same thing. Not only is it more relatable, but people trust it more because they believe that you truly understand them. “Text-book” accounts might understand the surface level issues, but until you’ve been in our shoes, there’s no way you could possibly understand and/or identify with the rawness and depth of the disease of addiction. Sorry, now I’m just blabbing. I guess you could say I am pretty passionate about the subject. And I am so happy, proud, and in awe of you for not only sharing your story publicly, but for doing so with complete honesty, bluntness, truth and ease! Thank you again!
Lastly, anyone who reads this that may be struggling with addiction, please feel free to message me anytime. You are not alone! There is help! It works if you work it, so work it, you’re worth it!
August 3, 2019
Every now and then a memoir appears that makes anyone who has experienced parenthood wonder What the Hell? How did this person survive, and how could parents allow their child to disappear into the unknown? The events in Chris Rush's personal history take place almost 50 years ago, and given the bifurcated nature of the home he grew up in, one can only wonder at his resilience in becoming the respected, honored artist he has evolved into. Chris is the middle child of seven of a successful contractor and his complicated wife whose fiercely Catholic lives include raucous parties attended by members of the diocese of Trenton. The father's work mostly involves construction of churches, but it is his alcoholism that drives the family. Each of the seven goes in a wayward direction, seemingly without any reaction from the parents.
But this is Chris's story, and his life of deeper and deeper involvement into the drug culture of the seventies, his being cast adrift while still in his teens and while he is coming to grips with his own sexuality, tells more about his character than that of those loathsome parents. He actually professes love for those two, and more understanding and acceptance than they are possibly entitled to. As he says toward the end Life Shapes a Face, makes it what it is. It is worthwhile to take a peek at his website and see the beautifully unsettling examples of the art he has created.
But this is Chris's story, and his life of deeper and deeper involvement into the drug culture of the seventies, his being cast adrift while still in his teens and while he is coming to grips with his own sexuality, tells more about his character than that of those loathsome parents. He actually professes love for those two, and more understanding and acceptance than they are possibly entitled to. As he says toward the end Life Shapes a Face, makes it what it is. It is worthwhile to take a peek at his website and see the beautifully unsettling examples of the art he has created.
June 5, 2019
Thoughts soon.
August 1, 2018
Thinking I would just read the first few pages while waiting for the bus, I knew I had gone down the rabbit hole when I finished nearly fifteen pages in less than an hour and nearly missed my stop for home.
A journey of wild times, unbelievable twists & turns, hitchhiking, drugs, near-death experiences and self-discovery that is hypnotic & full of emotion. Told at near lightning pace, every page will leave you in some form of suspense; daring you to read the next page, while leaving you in a state of wonder of how Chris managed to live to tell the tale that lead him home.
A journey of wild times, unbelievable twists & turns, hitchhiking, drugs, near-death experiences and self-discovery that is hypnotic & full of emotion. Told at near lightning pace, every page will leave you in some form of suspense; daring you to read the next page, while leaving you in a state of wonder of how Chris managed to live to tell the tale that lead him home.
Read
April 11, 2020
May 23, 2019
When I first saw the Goodreads Giveaways listing for The Light Years, Chris Rush's memoir of growing up in let's-just-say-unusual circumstances, I was under the impression that this book was going to be akin to A Million Little Pieces, minus the pathological lying. You know the sort: horrible depravity, shady characters everywhere, life-threatening overdoses aplenty, and of course, jail stints full of institutional abuse and shower rape scenes.
It was nothing like that at all.
Although there were a few moments of the expectedly serious types of darkness: drug overdose; violence and its long aftermath; grownups who had decidedly unseemly intentions toward him in this era of "free love"; homophobia – the harder-hitting pathos came, unexpectedly, from more ordinary moments. My heartstrings were pulled tautest during the most relatable hardships of young Chris's life: finding one's place as the "different" kid in his school and family; too-frequent moves from place to place; craving the love and approval of the adults around him, especially his adoring sister, his distracted mother, and his frighteningly disapproving father; trying to sort out his sexual orientation, not to mention his entire spiritual disposition, against his love of the structure, rituals, and comfort of his Catholic upbringing; and of course, navigating the fraught course of young love. The only difference was that Chris was going through all of this while tripping absolute balls, and dealing enough drugs to amass several incarcerated lifetimes worth of Class A felonies.
As with many people whose primary drug of choice was LSD, Chris and those around him were, to varying degrees, spiritual seekers, who believed in the drug's power to open and enhance their minds and their hearts. Even after Chris began partaking of less "pure" drugs, most detrimentally cocaine, he still exuded a sense of goodness and innocence: even the high-level dealer for whom he moved product seemed to believe that they were doing people a vital service by providing them with the means to cope with the negativity and banality of every day life and reach a more exalted state of being.
It was unexpected to find, in a narrative completely steeped in the middle of drug culture, that most of the people around Chris had good intentions, or at least not cruel ones. The book blurb talked about the end of the optimism of the 1960s and the slow slide into the "darker" 1970s. I am only a little bit younger than Chris, but honestly, compared to the events and the motivations of people today, the 1970s not only don't feel "dark" to me, but rather a damn utopia by comparison. I don't know if my take on the times then and now significantly slanted my opinion of The Late Years, but I found so much goodness and hope, love and optimism within its pages, that my overall takeaway is a feeling of upliftedness, the power of caring and kindness and engagement to buoy us above adversity, something so incredibly lacking in our lives today. Maybe if his formative years has been 40 years later, Chris wouldn't have survived.
And finally, I'd be leaving out something important if I failed to mention the setting, so dominated by desert landscapes, that serves to emphasize an important practical dichotomy: sometimes, that which is spectacularly beautiful can be harsh and unforgiving, but the converse is also true.
N.B. Author Chris Rush is today a celebrated artist in a variety of media. Although it was an agonizing exercise in self-deprivation, I forced myself to refrain from Googling him before finishing his book; I wanted to know everything I could about him before viewing his art for the first time. I'm glad I did; it forced me to really look at his work in a way we rarely do at art.
3.75 stars.
I received an advance uncorrected proof / TK edition of this book at no cost via Goodreads Giveaways but was otherwise not compensated for my review.
It was nothing like that at all.
Although there were a few moments of the expectedly serious types of darkness: drug overdose; violence and its long aftermath; grownups who had decidedly unseemly intentions toward him in this era of "free love"; homophobia – the harder-hitting pathos came, unexpectedly, from more ordinary moments. My heartstrings were pulled tautest during the most relatable hardships of young Chris's life: finding one's place as the "different" kid in his school and family; too-frequent moves from place to place; craving the love and approval of the adults around him, especially his adoring sister, his distracted mother, and his frighteningly disapproving father; trying to sort out his sexual orientation, not to mention his entire spiritual disposition, against his love of the structure, rituals, and comfort of his Catholic upbringing; and of course, navigating the fraught course of young love. The only difference was that Chris was going through all of this while tripping absolute balls, and dealing enough drugs to amass several incarcerated lifetimes worth of Class A felonies.
As with many people whose primary drug of choice was LSD, Chris and those around him were, to varying degrees, spiritual seekers, who believed in the drug's power to open and enhance their minds and their hearts. Even after Chris began partaking of less "pure" drugs, most detrimentally cocaine, he still exuded a sense of goodness and innocence: even the high-level dealer for whom he moved product seemed to believe that they were doing people a vital service by providing them with the means to cope with the negativity and banality of every day life and reach a more exalted state of being.
It was unexpected to find, in a narrative completely steeped in the middle of drug culture, that most of the people around Chris had good intentions, or at least not cruel ones. The book blurb talked about the end of the optimism of the 1960s and the slow slide into the "darker" 1970s. I am only a little bit younger than Chris, but honestly, compared to the events and the motivations of people today, the 1970s not only don't feel "dark" to me, but rather a damn utopia by comparison. I don't know if my take on the times then and now significantly slanted my opinion of The Late Years, but I found so much goodness and hope, love and optimism within its pages, that my overall takeaway is a feeling of upliftedness, the power of caring and kindness and engagement to buoy us above adversity, something so incredibly lacking in our lives today. Maybe if his formative years has been 40 years later, Chris wouldn't have survived.
And finally, I'd be leaving out something important if I failed to mention the setting, so dominated by desert landscapes, that serves to emphasize an important practical dichotomy: sometimes, that which is spectacularly beautiful can be harsh and unforgiving, but the converse is also true.
N.B. Author Chris Rush is today a celebrated artist in a variety of media. Although it was an agonizing exercise in self-deprivation, I forced myself to refrain from Googling him before finishing his book; I wanted to know everything I could about him before viewing his art for the first time. I'm glad I did; it forced me to really look at his work in a way we rarely do at art.
3.75 stars.
I received an advance uncorrected proof / TK edition of this book at no cost via Goodreads Giveaways but was otherwise not compensated for my review.
March 25, 2019
***An early edition of this book was given to me for review. I'd like to thank the author and publishing company for this opportunity. All opinions, however, are my own.***
Typically, I'd write my own back-cover-type synopsis here, but I think the one on this book's page does it well enough alone. The bulk of the synopsis is below:
I'm shocked to learn that this is a debut novel. I'm even more shocked to learn that the author decided to debut with a memoir of all things. Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone chooses to tell it before people know their name. Memoirs are not typically what I reach for, but for some reason I always love the ones I pick up anyway, no matter how dry they seem. That being said, this book was not dry for a second. Rush's trials and experiences were so vivid and eccentric that I sometimes found myself doubting the truth within the pages. However, it is important to remember that what actually happened and what someone perceives to have happened are equally true, and this book, I think, is a beautiful example of this. This book will cause you to examine and reexamine every scene, and try to put yourselves in the shoes of someone with experiences that seem out of this world in today's standards.
It is difficult to rate this book because it makes me feel like I'm putting a rating on Rush's life. His emotions and experiences are valid, and ratings have no place there. Instead my rating is solely on how these experiences are conveyed. Rush penned a page-turner. He built tension and manipulated his story so expertly. The only reason a star was taken away, was purely my fault. A lot of the experiences aware lost on me, simply because I don't think I'm the target audience for this novel. There is heavy drug usage throughout the novel. Rush does a pretty good job of explaining what this all fells like for people who have no idea, but there were simply moments that I couldn't fathom, and I save 5 stars for all-time favorite books of mine. This is still a very solid read, and likely a five-star book for you. I recommend you try it!
Typically, I'd write my own back-cover-type synopsis here, but I think the one on this book's page does it well enough alone. The bulk of the synopsis is below:
Chris Rush was born into a prosperous, fiercely Roman Catholic, New Jersey family. But underneath the gleaming mid-century house, the flawless hostess mom, and the thriving businessman dad ran an unspoken tension that, amid the upheaval of the late 1960s, was destined to fracture their precarious facade.
His older sister Donna introduces him to the charismatic Valentine, who places a tab of acid on twelve-year-old Rush's tongue, proclaiming: "This is sacrament. You are one of us now."
After an unceremonious ejection from an experimental art school, Rush heads to Tuscon to make a major drug purchase and, still barely a teenager, disappears into the nascent American counterculture. Stitching together a ragged assemblage of lowlifes, prophets, and fellow wanderers, he seeks kinship in the communes of the west. His adolescence is spent looking for knowledge, for the divine, for home. Given what Rush confronts on his travels--from ordinary heartbreak to unimaginable violence--it is a miracle he is still alive.
I'm shocked to learn that this is a debut novel. I'm even more shocked to learn that the author decided to debut with a memoir of all things. Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone chooses to tell it before people know their name. Memoirs are not typically what I reach for, but for some reason I always love the ones I pick up anyway, no matter how dry they seem. That being said, this book was not dry for a second. Rush's trials and experiences were so vivid and eccentric that I sometimes found myself doubting the truth within the pages. However, it is important to remember that what actually happened and what someone perceives to have happened are equally true, and this book, I think, is a beautiful example of this. This book will cause you to examine and reexamine every scene, and try to put yourselves in the shoes of someone with experiences that seem out of this world in today's standards.
It is difficult to rate this book because it makes me feel like I'm putting a rating on Rush's life. His emotions and experiences are valid, and ratings have no place there. Instead my rating is solely on how these experiences are conveyed. Rush penned a page-turner. He built tension and manipulated his story so expertly. The only reason a star was taken away, was purely my fault. A lot of the experiences aware lost on me, simply because I don't think I'm the target audience for this novel. There is heavy drug usage throughout the novel. Rush does a pretty good job of explaining what this all fells like for people who have no idea, but there were simply moments that I couldn't fathom, and I save 5 stars for all-time favorite books of mine. This is still a very solid read, and likely a five-star book for you. I recommend you try it!
October 20, 2019
Two big obstacles kept me from enjoying this book.
The author writes like a lifestyle columnist with a somewhat amusing style and spare sentences that are supposed to force the reader to think deeply about what they've just read. (See highlights for a few examples.) Oddly, I really disliked the minimalist sentences in this book but was riveted by the style in Charles Bowden's book Down by the River.
The other problem was the author's use of quotation marks from "conversations" that were held more than 40 years before the book was published. The author was essentially in a narcotic stupor from ages 12 to 19 and yet he presents details of events and conversations as if they're a verbatim recitation. He does reference letters and photos as refreshers but there's no way he catalogued everything detailed in the book. It's like watching a movie that's "based on a true story." What's the truth?
The book itself moves along well enough but I couldn't escape the feeling I'd read two other books that touched on the subject of illicit drugs in a better way: the aforementioned Down by the River (by Charles Bowden) and Doctor Dealer (by Mark Bowden).
The author writes like a lifestyle columnist with a somewhat amusing style and spare sentences that are supposed to force the reader to think deeply about what they've just read. (See highlights for a few examples.) Oddly, I really disliked the minimalist sentences in this book but was riveted by the style in Charles Bowden's book Down by the River.
The other problem was the author's use of quotation marks from "conversations" that were held more than 40 years before the book was published. The author was essentially in a narcotic stupor from ages 12 to 19 and yet he presents details of events and conversations as if they're a verbatim recitation. He does reference letters and photos as refreshers but there's no way he catalogued everything detailed in the book. It's like watching a movie that's "based on a true story." What's the truth?
The book itself moves along well enough but I couldn't escape the feeling I'd read two other books that touched on the subject of illicit drugs in a better way: the aforementioned Down by the River (by Charles Bowden) and Doctor Dealer (by Mark Bowden).
February 19, 2019
I’ve really gotten on board the memoir train this past month and The Light Years sealed the deal for me - I’m officially a fan of memoirs now! I used to never read them. This particular memoir is written by artist Chris Rush, who came of age in the 1960s/1970s, leaving his Catholic, privileged upbringing in New Jersey to submerge himself in the counterculture of hippies, experimentation, LSD, and the American West. This is a person with some truly wild experiences. The heart of Rush’s story, however, is his desire to belong, to feel accepted by the people he loves, as he reckons with his sexuality.
Despite the fact that Rush experiences adversity, drugs, and the outdoors in ways that many of us never will, he writes so elegantly about universal truths concerning familial strife, loneliness, heartbreak, longing. My heart broke for Chris a million times over and I couldn’t put the book down because I couldn’t take not knowing if he would be okay or not.
I think what really made me feel so endeared to this book was the theme of searching for belonging. It’s a journey we can all relate to, and Rush’s journey to find a sense of belonging demonstrates that it’s not just in a physical sense that we search for it...it’s found in God, drugs, knowledge, art, other people. And sometimes that can be a good thing, and sometimes it can be a bad thing. I think this will end up being a favorite read of 2019 for me. Thank you FSG for sending this my way - it will be out April 2nd!
Despite the fact that Rush experiences adversity, drugs, and the outdoors in ways that many of us never will, he writes so elegantly about universal truths concerning familial strife, loneliness, heartbreak, longing. My heart broke for Chris a million times over and I couldn’t put the book down because I couldn’t take not knowing if he would be okay or not.
I think what really made me feel so endeared to this book was the theme of searching for belonging. It’s a journey we can all relate to, and Rush’s journey to find a sense of belonging demonstrates that it’s not just in a physical sense that we search for it...it’s found in God, drugs, knowledge, art, other people. And sometimes that can be a good thing, and sometimes it can be a bad thing. I think this will end up being a favorite read of 2019 for me. Thank you FSG for sending this my way - it will be out April 2nd!
July 24, 2019
Brutal. As a mom it’s very difficult to read at times. I had to remind myself periodically that he was clearly alive to write the memoir, walking away from disaster time and again. Horrible parents or a sign of the times or both...gah!
Read
May 26, 2019DNF @ pg. 90.
Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book. Chris Rush tells the story of his drug days in the late 60's with a razor-sharp wit and keen insight. It's nothing personal, but after awhile Rush's tales of drugs, road trips, and more drugs became a bit tedious and too self indulgent for my taste. Certain passages are quite nicely written, but overall I just didn't find this book engrossing enough to continue it.
Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book. Chris Rush tells the story of his drug days in the late 60's with a razor-sharp wit and keen insight. It's nothing personal, but after awhile Rush's tales of drugs, road trips, and more drugs became a bit tedious and too self indulgent for my taste. Certain passages are quite nicely written, but overall I just didn't find this book engrossing enough to continue it.
November 15, 2018
HOLY MOLY. Chris Rush must have several guardian angels (and guardian aliens) looking over him. A staggering & lucid recollection of one heck of an adolescence spent under the influence of everything under the sun. Vivid, introspective, trippy, fantastic.
November 6, 2018
This book is absolutely incredible. It's hard to describe. Just read it. Definitely in my top five.
January 10, 2020
My overall impression is that this is a cross between the movie Blow and Into the Wild (except unlike the latter, Rush lives to tell the tale).
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, family life often resembled World War III, especially when it came to arguments over music, clothing, and hair styles. Chris Rush could add being flamboyantly gay to the list of things that made his ultra Irish Catholic father hate him so much that he literally tried to kill him in a drunken rage. His father and mother have their own issues that lurk behind the their Kennedy-esque facade (both began life as working-class poor, and became upper middle class).
To keep him away from the house, Rush was sent first, to monastery boarding school somewhere in New Jersey in hopes that he would become a priest, and then later to an art school known as a haven for troubled rich kids. When neither of these worked out, Rush's mother sent her son to Marin County to live with his sister. Unbeknownst to them, their beautiful talented daughter -- a graduate of the Barbizon School of Modeling -- was a runner for one of the country's largest drug rings, and had been supplying her little brother with product to sell at art school the whole time.
That's when Rush got deeper into the business. While the sister and her boyfriend/husband end up back in New Jersey (after the birth of a child), Rush hitched aimlessly around the country, and often spent months at a time camped in woods. By 1976 or so, he more deeply into substance abuse as marijuana and LSD gave way to cocaine and heroin as the nation's drugs of choice.
Needless to say, it all has to get even worse before it can get better. All in all I found this book to be pretty hard to put down, but will not give away the harrowing situations the author finds himself in.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, family life often resembled World War III, especially when it came to arguments over music, clothing, and hair styles. Chris Rush could add being flamboyantly gay to the list of things that made his ultra Irish Catholic father hate him so much that he literally tried to kill him in a drunken rage. His father and mother have their own issues that lurk behind the their Kennedy-esque facade (both began life as working-class poor, and became upper middle class).
To keep him away from the house, Rush was sent first, to monastery boarding school somewhere in New Jersey in hopes that he would become a priest, and then later to an art school known as a haven for troubled rich kids. When neither of these worked out, Rush's mother sent her son to Marin County to live with his sister. Unbeknownst to them, their beautiful talented daughter -- a graduate of the Barbizon School of Modeling -- was a runner for one of the country's largest drug rings, and had been supplying her little brother with product to sell at art school the whole time.
That's when Rush got deeper into the business. While the sister and her boyfriend/husband end up back in New Jersey (after the birth of a child), Rush hitched aimlessly around the country, and often spent months at a time camped in woods. By 1976 or so, he more deeply into substance abuse as marijuana and LSD gave way to cocaine and heroin as the nation's drugs of choice.
Needless to say, it all has to get even worse before it can get better. All in all I found this book to be pretty hard to put down, but will not give away the harrowing situations the author finds himself in.
July 10, 2019
Thank you to Goodreads First impressions and the publisher, Farrar Straus and Giroux for an advanced reader's copy of this book and to Sue Jackson of Book by Book blog who motivated me to pick up this book. When I received this book, I could not figure out why I entered the drawing for this book, as I am not a fan of memoir and I particularly do not like addiction memoirs. But....while Chris Rush did an amazing amount of drugs and as a nurse, I knew some of what was coming, I kept turning the pages. Because...this is really the story of a kid who did not fit in with the rest of his family. He is a few years older than I am and his father could not and would not accept this son. The family drama is mostly fueled by the father's alcoholism and the parents were the last bastion of child rearing by benign (or not benign) neglect. The dealing of drugs from the family basement for years was insane to me, as was the fact that Chris became the major drug dealer in every school he attended or had a close friend attend. All in all, I am glad he survived and glad I read this book.
July 24, 2019
Wow. This is a helluva memoir. I've read lots of addiction memoirs and this is somehow more than that. He lived a truly harrowing life (and the fact he can still speak to his mother is...well let's just say he's a better person than I am). The writing is gorgeous and the reflections on the 70s, the changing drug culture, and religion are all amazing. A great listen on audiobook. I hope he's working on another book.
June 29, 2024
there were so many times while reading I was thinking “damn could this kids life get any worse” and then the next chapter…. it usually did.
September 13, 2018
**I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway**
I devoured this book. On the back cover of the book is a review from Nick Flynn that says, "Brace yourself: to enter The Light Years you must be willing to be changed." I was absolutely not prepared to begin this journey. To start off with, I am sad to say, I had never heard of Chris Rush. I didn't read too much about what would be in this memoir and I was not expecting an emotional journey. Not only was the story intriguing, the writing just sucked me right in. As an adolescent in the 1960's and 1970's Chris to me just seems lost. He's searching for who he is as a person, as well as for someone to just love him. He finds himself in unexpected places and people. I don't want to give too much away so I don't spoil this book for anyone else but it's definitely a must read. Chris Rush brought the story to life for me. I felt like I was there with him. I felt the pain and the longing and the love. My only issue is that I feel like it ended too soon. I want more. I want to know what happened next.
I devoured this book. On the back cover of the book is a review from Nick Flynn that says, "Brace yourself: to enter The Light Years you must be willing to be changed." I was absolutely not prepared to begin this journey. To start off with, I am sad to say, I had never heard of Chris Rush. I didn't read too much about what would be in this memoir and I was not expecting an emotional journey. Not only was the story intriguing, the writing just sucked me right in. As an adolescent in the 1960's and 1970's Chris to me just seems lost. He's searching for who he is as a person, as well as for someone to just love him. He finds himself in unexpected places and people. I don't want to give too much away so I don't spoil this book for anyone else but it's definitely a must read. Chris Rush brought the story to life for me. I felt like I was there with him. I felt the pain and the longing and the love. My only issue is that I feel like it ended too soon. I want more. I want to know what happened next.
January 23, 2019
This is the memoir of an artist's crazy childhood in the heyday of the hippy era. Each chapter was an almost unbelievable adventure. The guy had LSD before alcohol, lived alone on a mountain, hitchhiked and was assaulted, fell under the spell of a UFO guru, and on and on. The story was interesting and it had some moments that felt authentic, but most of it just felt like "then this crazy thing happened to me." There is a bit of redemption at the end but it was very short, almost like an after-note. For a first time writer, it's pretty solid. The hijinks just got a little old. Thank you to goodreads for the free copy.
February 26, 2021
I haven’t had a book hangover like this in a long time. Even though I would not want to live in Mr. Rush’s world, I keep revisiting it in my mind, happy knowing that he survived all the frightful experiences, a little jealous of the life lived dangerously.
July 23, 2020
Chris Rush is now an established artist but he used to be a drugged out teenage drifter. "The Light Years" is his recollection of his youth in exile. Forced from home and school for being queer, Chris finds kinship with drug dealers and other societal outsiders. He lives off the profits of drug sales, while eagerly consuming many of his wares. He bounces from one spiritual path to another, never quite finding the answer he seeks. It is a harrowing tale, but also astounding how a young man can learn to survive bashers, bears and his own family and still come out human. My teen angst pales in comparison.
July 6, 2020
“Wow, you’ve had a really weird life”
Understatement of the year!!!!!
Chris Rush writes the most hilarious, heartbreaking memoir of family
dysfunction, sisterly love and a childhood that seems unimaginable. Drug hazed years, cross country road trips, dangerous encounters & woeful neglect amounts to one of the whackiest memoirs I’ve EVER read. Such vivid writing and captivating storytelling. Story dragged a tiny bit but still highly recommended.
Understatement of the year!!!!!
Chris Rush writes the most hilarious, heartbreaking memoir of family
dysfunction, sisterly love and a childhood that seems unimaginable. Drug hazed years, cross country road trips, dangerous encounters & woeful neglect amounts to one of the whackiest memoirs I’ve EVER read. Such vivid writing and captivating storytelling. Story dragged a tiny bit but still highly recommended.
February 27, 2021
Happily devoured this book in one sitting!
March 8, 2023
A trip. I identified with some parts of this since I was 18-25 in the late 60's early 70's, when 'the drug scene' emerged. My experiences were no where as in depth as the author's, however. Thank goodness. Very good book about a young life in that time.
February 19, 2023
It is difficult for me to put into words why I like The Light Years so much. Suffice it to say that several times I had to remind myself this is autobiographical and not fiction. Chris Rush’s wrote a captivating, harsh, and real account of a boy trying to find answers in a mixed-up, mind-altering world as he reached adulthood. He is the boy, student, son, brother and friend who slipped through the cracks and raised himself through frustrating circumstances. Ugh, my words aren’t enough, just read his.
June 26, 2023
Another memoir that I’ll be thinking about for days 🥲 I’m so thankful for people willing to share their stories that are so far from anything I will ever know
March 17, 2019
Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. This is the memoir of the artist Chris Rush that starts at age 11 and takes him through his young adult years. This covers the gamet of topic, sexuality, religion and drugs. As I read this book I ran through many emotions. Lots of laughter and many thoughtful moments throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. It might have been the book that got me out of my rut.
April 9, 2019
Love, loved it.
Read
October 18, 2025A psychedelic fever dream of a memoir. The writing is addictive and I found myself burning through chapters.
Im in awe of Chris’ resilience and everything he’s gone through. What a life lived.
Im in awe of Chris’ resilience and everything he’s gone through. What a life lived.
April 15, 2019
Heart wrenching story of a gay teenager in 1970s whose parents were too homophobic and self-involved to accept him, and instead let him wander in the wilderness--literally and figurally--for years. I wish Rush had written more about how he turned his life around after nearly killing himself with drugs (not by suicide attempts, but slow steady annihilation of his body--which, of course, a different kind of suicide). In spite of fits and starts at the beginning of the book (a lot of short anecdotal material that makes for choppy reading), Rush hits his stride midway and writes a gripping and luminous account that propelled me back to those "bad old days" of the 1970s drug culture.
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