Dopefiend's Redemption

by Jim Gilbert

Jim Gilbert got his PhD in social work in 1995. Few who knew him as a high school dropout struggling with addiction, alcoholism and incarceration would have predicted this outcome. In Dopefiend's Redemption , Jim writes about his good fortune-with the support of friends, family and the social safety net, he was able to change his life. As a social worker in the South Bronx, he met Kalief, an African-American youth of limitless potential but without the supports that had made Jim's redemption possible. Jim shines a light on white privilege and generational shift, the sharp contrasts between the life of a first-generation son of Polish immigrants growing up in the 1940s and an African-American teenager coming of age in the 2000s. For Kalief's generation there is no safety net, and social networks have been shredded by vicious policies. Suicide was the only way out in Kalief's mind. In his grief over the loss of this exceptional young man, Jim turned to writing and found his own riveting story. His book teaches us how the complexities of our society form our lives and our possibilities; and he offers a clear picture of how our path toward a just society can succeed.

170 pages, Paperback

Published August 28, 2020

About the author

Jim Gilbert has been by turns an indie bookseller, corporate barista, and freelance writer. (Other career misadventures include librarian, editor, and newspaper courier.) His fiction is anthologized in Stories from the Blue Moon Café (2002) and Climbing Mt. Cheaha: Emerging Alabama Writers (2004); his nonfiction has appeared in the Oxford American (online edition) and in the Mobile (AL) Register. He lives in Birmingham AL.

Reviews

[Jane De vries · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book because I know the author. It is amazing how he endured all that he did and came out on top.

I like the word redemption because, as the cover indicates, you can travel through a dark tunnel and still find the light.

The light in this case involves the role models he had throughout his life—people he could trust and who could provide guidance and encouragement.

I believe that there are angels who walk here on earth. By another name, we can refer to them as "mentors."