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I Romanced the Stone
When you think of a crack-head, what kind of picture comes to mind? A stupid teenager, with little, or no education? A prostitute? A smack-talking, ghetto-born African-American? Or, maybe, a misfit Caucasion dropout, from a broken home, with an alcoholic, abusive, absentee father? Crack-heads are street-walking, panhandling, hustling, poorly dressed, teeth missing, gaunt, thin, useless, and dangerous looking kinds of people, that you'd never invite over to dinner, right? Well, guess again, because the author of these memoirs is an educated, articulate and thoughtful, formerly successful family and businessman, a grandfather, who owns expensive suits, always knows how to appear well groomed, and knows which fork is used when, at the gourmet banquets of the upper middle class. "I Romanced the Stone" observes, discusses, and exposes fundamental tendencies of addiction in our society, and weaves these general themes throughout the personal story of the author's journey. The reader comes to understand that drug addiction is not some exclusive disease of the poor, or the uneducated, or the social castaways of our world; it is an insatiable and insidious ghost, shadowing anyone, of any walk of life, from any economic or social environment. It can appear as a false god, "the good life", and then devour you as "the grim reaper" is revealed bewilderingly to you, as your new slave master. The book tells how the author was rehabilitated, cured, and had his life and soul spared, through love and help from family, and most significantly, through a powerful spiritual experience. It is an inspiring, yet fearsomely awesome story, sending a message of hope, and advisement.
144 pages, Paperback
First published July 26, 2006
17 people want to read
About the author
Marvin D. Wilson
4 books33 followersAbout The Author
Marvin Wilson has had several professional careers, including: Hippie Rock and Roll musician, nightclub entertainer, construction contractor, Buddhist minister, network marketer, motivational speaker, sales trainer, and adult education teacher.
Marvin considers his life to be a spiritual journey, and each of life’s experiences, whether troublesome or pleasurable, to be lessons. Teachings from God. Throughout his entire adult life, he has been journal keeper, a reflective writer about these lessons, and the attendant wisdom and understanding gained through experiencing them.
Marvin has recently published his newest novel, titled "Beware the Devil's Hug,"
and is currently writing a sequel to his last novel, 'Owen Fiddler', as well as two other books.
Marvin Wilson has had several professional careers, including: Hippie Rock and Roll musician, nightclub entertainer, construction contractor, Buddhist minister, network marketer, motivational speaker, sales trainer, and adult education teacher.
Marvin considers his life to be a spiritual journey, and each of life’s experiences, whether troublesome or pleasurable, to be lessons. Teachings from God. Throughout his entire adult life, he has been journal keeper, a reflective writer about these lessons, and the attendant wisdom and understanding gained through experiencing them.
Marvin has recently published his newest novel, titled "Beware the Devil's Hug,"
and is currently writing a sequel to his last novel, 'Owen Fiddler', as well as two other books.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 5, 2010
Up until now I have refrained from rating drug memoirs...this one...I just can't.
This book plunges so far past useless and deep into the realm of harmful it's unbelievable. While reading it, at various points I ranged from believing he flat-out made the whole thing up so he could sell a book (after all, he does say on his website that it was always his fantasy that there be secret cameras on his life, so he would be the center of everyone's attention "the lead role in a drama of epic importance") to thinking he's obviously just a self-important, arrogant jerk. (Like when he touts his goodness for not sleeping with this one particular prostitute...but another prostitute he does pick up even though "she's short, kinda pudgy and not very attractive in daylight, but good enough in his messed up state of mind." Good to know that short, overweight, less than attractive people AREN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU sober. Asshole.) Oh...and yeah...he's married while he's diddlin' the hookers. Awesome. Clearly, a saint in the making.
By the end of the book, I was past those ideas...arrogance, liar...and so into blind, sputtering rage that I can barely type.
He uses this book as a political platform to bash conservatives and Christians, equates the consumption of fatty foods and caffeine with crack and LSD. All the while telling a story of what a great guy he is, despite the prostitutes, crack, etc.
What REALLY gets me...is his story of coming clean. His rehab...from addiction to crack...in less than 10 weeks. And not only did his rehab take less than ten weeks...IT WAS LESS THAN 10 WEEKS FROM CRACK USE TO BOOK WRITING! His memoir of "sobriety" is having been sober less than three months. (Assuming of course, that he ever actually used crack.) And yet, he positively sneers at people who have been sober for 30 years, who stand up and say that it's still a daily struggle. His "scientific" drug rehab information is based pretty much entirely on information from scientology websites (i.e. crack being stored in fat cells to be rereleased into the body years later).
But all of this...ALL of this...is nothing compared to one seemingly unobtrusive line at the end of the book. He has been for some paragraphs proclaiming the amazingness of his spiritual enlightenment and how he and Jesus have become real good pals and he chats with God (who drops all the important stuff He's doing to answer a question from Marvin) and then he says on page 110 (of my copy):
that he wouldn't recommend the path he took for the faint of heart.
For the faint of heart.
So, boys and girls, if you want to prove that you're brave and strong and can beat any substance...if you want to prove that you're NOT faint of heart crack is a GREAT way to do it!
Throughout all of this...he NEVER stops stroking his own ego. Even while going on and on and on at the end of the book about the need for people to get over their addiction to the "self" he happily proclaims "I am confident that I am well on the way to being just what the doctor ordered for my wayward brothers and sisters, still wandering through the satanic realms..." Messiah complex anyone?
People who are praising this book need to take a serious look at other drug memoirs out there...read the books by people who aren't out to crow about their own amazing wonderfulness cloaked in a pathetically transparent veil of caring about what happens to anyone else. IF (and that's a big if) he's really in on the drug fight, it's just so he gets to be the hero in the story of epic importance.
FOLLOW UP: On a closer look at this book, and quick web-search, it turns out his publishing company is basically a glorified self-publisher (which explains the weird, unfinished look of the cover). Trust me, there is a VERY GOOD REASON real publishers turned this book down.
This book does not "destroy" or "explode" any stereotypes.
This book does not prove that crack is a drug of all ages and classes. Basic statistics show us that crack is a drug predominantly used (or at least begun) by the young and the very poor. One successful man in his 50s who used (or claimed to use) crack and got addicted does not prove anything except that he has a lot less brainpower than most people of his demographic.
Stereotypes and statistics are not the same thing. That's why you feel safe in Nordstrom and not in a dark alley in Harlem. It is possible you will be shot and robbed by a drug-dealer in a high-end department store, but it's a heck of a lot less likely.
This book plunges so far past useless and deep into the realm of harmful it's unbelievable. While reading it, at various points I ranged from believing he flat-out made the whole thing up so he could sell a book (after all, he does say on his website that it was always his fantasy that there be secret cameras on his life, so he would be the center of everyone's attention "the lead role in a drama of epic importance") to thinking he's obviously just a self-important, arrogant jerk. (Like when he touts his goodness for not sleeping with this one particular prostitute...but another prostitute he does pick up even though "she's short, kinda pudgy and not very attractive in daylight, but good enough in his messed up state of mind." Good to know that short, overweight, less than attractive people AREN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU sober. Asshole.) Oh...and yeah...he's married while he's diddlin' the hookers. Awesome. Clearly, a saint in the making.
By the end of the book, I was past those ideas...arrogance, liar...and so into blind, sputtering rage that I can barely type.
He uses this book as a political platform to bash conservatives and Christians, equates the consumption of fatty foods and caffeine with crack and LSD. All the while telling a story of what a great guy he is, despite the prostitutes, crack, etc.
What REALLY gets me...is his story of coming clean. His rehab...from addiction to crack...in less than 10 weeks. And not only did his rehab take less than ten weeks...IT WAS LESS THAN 10 WEEKS FROM CRACK USE TO BOOK WRITING! His memoir of "sobriety" is having been sober less than three months. (Assuming of course, that he ever actually used crack.) And yet, he positively sneers at people who have been sober for 30 years, who stand up and say that it's still a daily struggle. His "scientific" drug rehab information is based pretty much entirely on information from scientology websites (i.e. crack being stored in fat cells to be rereleased into the body years later).
But all of this...ALL of this...is nothing compared to one seemingly unobtrusive line at the end of the book. He has been for some paragraphs proclaiming the amazingness of his spiritual enlightenment and how he and Jesus have become real good pals and he chats with God (who drops all the important stuff He's doing to answer a question from Marvin) and then he says on page 110 (of my copy):
that he wouldn't recommend the path he took for the faint of heart.
For the faint of heart.
So, boys and girls, if you want to prove that you're brave and strong and can beat any substance...if you want to prove that you're NOT faint of heart crack is a GREAT way to do it!
Throughout all of this...he NEVER stops stroking his own ego. Even while going on and on and on at the end of the book about the need for people to get over their addiction to the "self" he happily proclaims "I am confident that I am well on the way to being just what the doctor ordered for my wayward brothers and sisters, still wandering through the satanic realms..." Messiah complex anyone?
People who are praising this book need to take a serious look at other drug memoirs out there...read the books by people who aren't out to crow about their own amazing wonderfulness cloaked in a pathetically transparent veil of caring about what happens to anyone else. IF (and that's a big if) he's really in on the drug fight, it's just so he gets to be the hero in the story of epic importance.
FOLLOW UP: On a closer look at this book, and quick web-search, it turns out his publishing company is basically a glorified self-publisher (which explains the weird, unfinished look of the cover). Trust me, there is a VERY GOOD REASON real publishers turned this book down.
This book does not "destroy" or "explode" any stereotypes.
This book does not prove that crack is a drug of all ages and classes. Basic statistics show us that crack is a drug predominantly used (or at least begun) by the young and the very poor. One successful man in his 50s who used (or claimed to use) crack and got addicted does not prove anything except that he has a lot less brainpower than most people of his demographic.
Stereotypes and statistics are not the same thing. That's why you feel safe in Nordstrom and not in a dark alley in Harlem. It is possible you will be shot and robbed by a drug-dealer in a high-end department store, but it's a heck of a lot less likely.
March 3, 2011
I started I Romanced the Stone by Marvin D. Wilson, then put it down. This book was not for me. Chapter One is a How-to on crack cocaine. Chapter Two is a condemnation of my generation, those of us who grew up in the “hippie” era, except I knew no one Marvin described. It made me angry that he lumped all of that generation into drugs, free love, and tuning out.
Then a couple of weeks later, I started over from the beginning. I still felt the same after those first two chapters. But I kept reading.
Marvin is very open about his failures and the spiral downward his life took because of drugs. He not only hit bottom, he began to dig a hole and just kept digging. Deeper. Until he lost everything. His home, his job, his family. And yet his family did not abandon him.
When he was not willing or able to save himself, his family saved him. And he began to see that his life was worth saving. That he could come back from devastation and drugs, with the help of his wife and family, a spiritual recovery program, and God.
Lest you think Marvin had never been taught to turn to God, he says in his bio that he is the son of a Christian minister. But crack cocaine was more powerful than what he’d been taught, more powerful than his love for his wife, more powerful than Marvin himself.
Marvin writes his life. Not mine. I came to see that this is his memoir, his experiences, his words. They are powerful words. He went into the depths of Hell and came out with hope and a future.
Marvin D. Wilson stood up and told his story, a dark tale of drugs and a bright hope of redemption. I admire Marvin for writing this book and sharing his story with others. It’s a dark story, but it has a bright ending, one which others may find inspiring and life changing. There is not rating system for books like there is for movies, but I recommend it for adults, not children or teenagers, unless you feel they are sinking and need a rope to grab hold of, a true story of someone who survived.
Then a couple of weeks later, I started over from the beginning. I still felt the same after those first two chapters. But I kept reading.
Marvin is very open about his failures and the spiral downward his life took because of drugs. He not only hit bottom, he began to dig a hole and just kept digging. Deeper. Until he lost everything. His home, his job, his family. And yet his family did not abandon him.
When he was not willing or able to save himself, his family saved him. And he began to see that his life was worth saving. That he could come back from devastation and drugs, with the help of his wife and family, a spiritual recovery program, and God.
Lest you think Marvin had never been taught to turn to God, he says in his bio that he is the son of a Christian minister. But crack cocaine was more powerful than what he’d been taught, more powerful than his love for his wife, more powerful than Marvin himself.
Marvin writes his life. Not mine. I came to see that this is his memoir, his experiences, his words. They are powerful words. He went into the depths of Hell and came out with hope and a future.
Marvin D. Wilson stood up and told his story, a dark tale of drugs and a bright hope of redemption. I admire Marvin for writing this book and sharing his story with others. It’s a dark story, but it has a bright ending, one which others may find inspiring and life changing. There is not rating system for books like there is for movies, but I recommend it for adults, not children or teenagers, unless you feel they are sinking and need a rope to grab hold of, a true story of someone who survived.
September 27, 2007
When you think of a crack-head, what kind of picture comes to mind? A stupid teenager, with little, or no education? A prostitute? A smack-talking, ghetto-born African-American? Or, maybe, a misfit Caucasion dropout, from a broken home, with an alcoholic, abusive, absentee father? Crack-heads are street-walking, panhandling, hustling, poorly dressed, teeth missing, gaunt, thin, useless, and dangerous looking kinds of people, that you'd never invite over to dinner, right?
Well, guess again, because the author of these memoirs is an educated, articulate and thoughtful, formerly successful family and businessman, a grandfather, who owns expensive suits, always knows how to appear well groomed, and knows which fork is used when, at the gourmet banquets of the upper middle class. "I Romanced the Stone" observes, discusses, and exposes fundamental tendencies of addiction in our society, and weaves these general themes throughout the personal story of the author's journey.
The reader comes to understand that drug addiction is not some exclusive disease of the poor, or the uneducated, or the social castaways of our world; it is an insatiable and insidious ghost, shadowing anyone, of any walk of life, from any economic or social environment. It can appear as a false god, "the good life", and then devour you as "the grim reaper" is revealed bewilderingly to you, as your new slave master.
The book tells how the author was rehabilitated, cured, and had his life and soul spared, through love and help from family, and most significantly, through a powerful spiritual experience. It is an inspiring, yet fearsomely awesome story, sending a message of hope, and advisement.
Well, guess again, because the author of these memoirs is an educated, articulate and thoughtful, formerly successful family and businessman, a grandfather, who owns expensive suits, always knows how to appear well groomed, and knows which fork is used when, at the gourmet banquets of the upper middle class. "I Romanced the Stone" observes, discusses, and exposes fundamental tendencies of addiction in our society, and weaves these general themes throughout the personal story of the author's journey.
The reader comes to understand that drug addiction is not some exclusive disease of the poor, or the uneducated, or the social castaways of our world; it is an insatiable and insidious ghost, shadowing anyone, of any walk of life, from any economic or social environment. It can appear as a false god, "the good life", and then devour you as "the grim reaper" is revealed bewilderingly to you, as your new slave master.
The book tells how the author was rehabilitated, cured, and had his life and soul spared, through love and help from family, and most significantly, through a powerful spiritual experience. It is an inspiring, yet fearsomely awesome story, sending a message of hope, and advisement.
April 3, 2010
Marvin D. Wilson has a hilarious blog that I follow, and his writing and unique sense of humor there made me want to read more of his work. The first line in the preface of this book is "A crackhead wrote this book," which I found blatantly honest and it made me immediately trust the author to tell me the truth. Maybe I'm reading too far into the abrupt opening, but I read it as though the author were saying, 'there, so we got that out of the way, so the stigma that goes with my past, and all the stereotypes you have in tow, reader, bring it! We're going for a ride...' and we do. Wilson takes the reader through his journey from addict to work-o-holic to spiritually fit and incredibly likable guy.
Throughout, the book moves quickly, and herein lies my critique. It moved too quickly in places, moving with such an intensity and authorial humor that it almost seemed to read as though the author were in a hurry to get beyond the gritty stuff and not dwell in any one scene (gritty or not) for too long. That made it read more like a long essay than a memoir, to me, and when it comes to memoir, I'm picky.
That said, it was clean, insightful, funny and I do recommend it to just about anyone who enjoys a good inspirational tale that doesn't try to shove messages down a reader's throat.
Throughout, the book moves quickly, and herein lies my critique. It moved too quickly in places, moving with such an intensity and authorial humor that it almost seemed to read as though the author were in a hurry to get beyond the gritty stuff and not dwell in any one scene (gritty or not) for too long. That made it read more like a long essay than a memoir, to me, and when it comes to memoir, I'm picky.
That said, it was clean, insightful, funny and I do recommend it to just about anyone who enjoys a good inspirational tale that doesn't try to shove messages down a reader's throat.
April 1, 2009
At first glance at the cover, I thought this book was about a man ready to kill himself. Then I noticed the hand in the clouds and figured he'd gotten saved. After some thought, I figured it out before opening the book, always a good thing.
In this true story, Marvin Wilson details his life as a druggie and hippie, two words that nearly became synonymous in the 60's and 70's. He talks about the ups and downs of street life and the dangers that lie within when you live the fast life.
Wilson also talks about his transformation in Jesus Christ in no uncertain details. The way he talks about the struggles of life without Christ, and the struggles of life when you first meet Christ was one of the most realistic accountants of salvation I've read in ages. I love the detail, the sarcastic humor, and the warnings that exist page after page. Good book and one that will go into my personal library.
In this true story, Marvin Wilson details his life as a druggie and hippie, two words that nearly became synonymous in the 60's and 70's. He talks about the ups and downs of street life and the dangers that lie within when you live the fast life.
Wilson also talks about his transformation in Jesus Christ in no uncertain details. The way he talks about the struggles of life without Christ, and the struggles of life when you first meet Christ was one of the most realistic accountants of salvation I've read in ages. I love the detail, the sarcastic humor, and the warnings that exist page after page. Good book and one that will go into my personal library.
September 26, 2007
It ain't pretty but it's real. Drug addiction from the inside out. [good job Marvin]
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews