The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir

by James Brown

Renowned novelist James Brown's searing memoir is a wrenching yet often wry chronicle of loss and reaffirmation written in response to a life marked by alcohol and drug abuse; mental illness; economic hardship; and the suicides of his two siblings. Harrowing, brutally honest, and no-holds-barred, The L.A. Diaries unveils Brown's struggle for survival, mining his perilous past to present the inspiring story of his redemption. Beautifully written, moving, and lined with dark humour, these twelve interconnected confessional chapters address personal failure; heartbreak; the trials of writing for Hollywood; and the life-shattering events that finally convinced him he must 'change or die'.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Addiction, Biography Memoir, Biography, Mental Health, Music

215 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2010

About the author

James Brown is the author of several novels, and the memoirs, The Los Angeles Diaries, This River, and Apology to the Young Addict (to-be-published March 2020). He is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction Writing and the Nelson Algren Award in Short Fiction. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, GQ, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Ploughshares, and The New England Review.

Reviews

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/20/16: There are so many addiction memoirs out there. Don’t they all begin to sound the same after a while? Well, not this one. Aren’t they all just focused on what’s in the narrator’s head—the constant search for the next fix? Not this one. Don’t they mostly just invoke horror at what the addict goes through, with little room for the subtler emotions? Definitely some of them. But not this one.

Two things about The Los Angeles Diaries stand out to me. The first, appropriately enough given the title, is the setting. James Brown grew up in Hollywood, with an older brother and sister who tried their hand at acting (his brother with some success), and Brown himself eventually tries, mostly without success, to become a screenwriter. His depiction of his town was successful on every level: I was there for the traffic jams. I felt the desert heat. I could picture the various seedy neighborhoods. Although Brown never describes it explicitly, I sensed his flop sweat in every awkward meeting with a Hollywood executive, and I sympathized with his struggle to be creative in such a soul-killing atmosphere. The vividness of the writing made it much easier to put Brown in context, to recognize that, even in the throes of addiction, he’d had a life and was still trying to have one.

By the same token, Brown’s relationship with his two siblings, both of whom had their own struggles, provided valuable context and some of the most moving moments in the book. So often other characters in addiction memoirs are shadowy figures—again, the focus tends to be centered solely on the addict himself. But not here. Brown’s sister and brother are extremely well-drawn, and I was as invested in their stories as in the main story of Brown himself. The troubled nature of these relationships made the consequences of addiction all too real, and I was left wondering why most authors of addiction memoirs seem unwilling or unable to write authentically about the people who matter most to them. As The Los Angeles Diaries shows clearly, this context can make the difference between a pretty good memoir and a great one.

It’s possible that many addicts, by the time they get around to writing about their experiences, have laid waste to most aspects of their lives, or at least to their memories of their lives, and therefore tend to focus mostly on the destruction-to-redemption arc of their stories. But James Brown makes a convincing case that casting a net that captures all the elements of a life makes for a more satisfying reading experience. I thought this book would be a run-of-the-mill addiction memoir; instead it has left an indelible mark.

3/6/16: In addition to making me weep, this book made me think a lot about what makes some addiction memoirs more successful than others. Review to follow.

[Nina-Marie Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved ‘The Los Angeles Diaries’ so much I put off my review—just felt so anxious about how I could possibly do it justice. (Whenever I’m bowled over by a book, I get completely insecure in my own ability to string together words that might express how deeply it has made me feel…)

The minute it arrived from Amazon, I pretty much devoured it in a sitting. With Brown’s most recent memoir ‘This River’ (which I read last week) still resonating in my mind, I found I could not put ‘The Los Angeles Diaries’ down.

At the risk of repeating much of what I already said in my review of ‘This River’, Brown’s writing is simply gorgeous—the language was like this gentle, confident, steady thread capable of guiding even the most squeamish or apprehensive of readers through the hairiest of moments.

And that’s not to say ‘The Los Angeles Diaries’ wasn’t a visceral read—it most definitely was. What I loved about reading this book immediately after the ‘This River’ was how much closer it brought me to his family, especially his brother Barry and sister Marilyn. I could see them, felt for them—and had such a powerful sense of their intense bond as siblings.

I cannot remember the last time I cried reading a book, but midway through the second-to-last chapter 'Midair', it was like something burst in my chest. The way it was written, Marilyn's story—so incredibly tragic, so heartbreaking, and a reminder of how insidious addiction can be. I really was just blown away, completely overwhelmed by it.

Since finishing ‘The Los Angeles Diaries’ I’ve been thinking a lot about memoirs—what’s so cool about the best ones, is that the people who have mattered most to an author become important to so many others—they live on in the work to affect this vast sea of relative strangers, forever. As a reader, we don’t just get to meet them (on the page), if the memoir is as stunning as either ‘This River’ or ‘The Los Angeles Diaries’ we fall in love with them. What a gift. And Brown has given an incredible one to his family. They are so vividly alive for these books. I am so grateful to have found them.

If you haven’t discovered James Brown’s work, you are missing out (& I am also grateful to Naomi B from Goodreads for introducing me to his work, bless you!)

[Patrick O'Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

For his prose alone I'd recommend James Brown's The Los Angeles Diaries. It is so beautifully written: the sentence structure sparse, the rhythm quick, the imagery intense. He makes some brilliant choices with his narration. I have never before read a second person narrative where the author uses it to portray empathy. Brown does it well and if you're not into this type of memoir, which not everyone is, I suggest you skip ahead and read the chapter:"Midair." It is stunning.

The entire book is scene driven, there really isn't much reflection. Other than the author allowing the reader to make their own conclusion as to his behaviors. And I'm all for trusting the reader to get it. However there are times when it feels as if Brown is too distant. He never quite takes responsibility for his actions. He says look at that, look how fucked up it was, now on to the next chapter. I don't need him to ask forgiveness, or look for absolution. But not saying anything is sort of weird. Addiction is messy. There's a lot of lose ends. There's a lot of resentments, fears, anger, hatred - basically a LOT of emotions - and to just show the reader and not acknowledge them doesn't really sit well. Nor does the book's final chapter - it is un-satisfyingly vague. Yet, with such beautiful use of language, I can forgive these issues.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Where did this book come from? Frankly, I should've read this years ago. It's a perfect book. I realize I can be overly approbative when it comes to literature... I can lay on the praise in thick, greasy layers, immediately pronouncing the writer a genius who fell from the heavens. But shit, it's prose, this stuff is hard. Really hard. Ten times more difficult (and creative) than acting... if you ask me. Only painting comes close. And I still think writing prose is more complex.

Okay, so what does this have to do with James Brown's searing autobiography about his troubled family, substance abuse and life as a struggling writer in Los Angeles? Simple. The guy's brilliant. His sentences are tight, compact, filled with emotion and verve. The narration moves at a breakneck speed. The story itself? Amazing. Except it's not a story, it's his life, and it's one of the saddest existences I've ever read about. Even more incredible is that he's alive to tell it. A struggling writer from a seriously fucked up family comes of age in a sprawling Los Angeles landscape. His brother, an actor who actually makes it for awhile, succumbs to alcoholism and suicide. His sister, an aspiring actress, follows the same road. And here's James - doing his best to get his novels optioned into scripts, constantly being told by the Hollywood factory that they're too dark, while struggling to hold on to his sanity and master a major alcohol and cocaine addiction. Addiction never sounded more real and miserable. It's not written with self pity or pride like the book I just finished - Jack Grisham's "American Demon" - which was frankly full of shit - totally filled with false pride. This book is real. James Brown truly came out of hell to tell his story. He does so with a humbled simplicity which is much more interesting than a series of "I did this and that and man it was crazy" bullshit (see American Demon)... No, James Brown's narrative exudes and incredible knowledge and wisdom. He is ten years ahead of most memoir writers. Augusten Burroughs couldn't lick his boots.

There are passages in this book that will break your heart. If I met someone who didn't like this book, frankly, I wouldn't like them. This book is like Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones or Van Gogh - it's an absolute... that's a noun...not an adjective. It is an absolute. There's no way you couldn't like it. Thank you Goodreads for having this book pop up as a recommendation. I'm going to read it again and again and again. AS a native of Los Angeles, this book just splits you open and makes you reevaluate everything in your life, and spurs you to create. Thank you, James Brown for your courage. I hope he's kicking ass out there wherever he is. Freaking amazing. Read it today.

[Andrew Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sentence one of every review of this book must include the phrase, "No, not that James Brown, lol!" So that's why I led with that; it's not like I had a choice.

Now, paragraph two of my review must include mention of the fact that The Los Angeles Diaries is, to date, the only book my library system has added to their collection because I requested that they do so. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll also add Brown's companion memoir, This River , from 2010.

TLAD is a life-spanning series of autobiographical essays, bouncing around in time and theme but adding up to a compelling, coherent whole that's still only 224 pages long. It is highly readable and highly lovable. Brown's language is poetic but not overtly academic, unflinching but not maudlin, hilarious and still 100% serious.

The book opens on two of my favorite chapters. The first has the adult Brown, with three published novels under his belt, getting his heart broken again and again by Hollywood, which keeps optioning and adapting his books into screenplays but never actually shoots them. In the second chapter, little 5-year-old James tries to make sense of his mom's clandestine pyromaniac activity. As the book progresses, we get to know Brown's older brother and sister, who each travel paths more depressing than his.

Ultimately, TLAD functions best as an addiction memoir, a slightly less toxic cousin to Jerry Stahl's Permanent Midnight . I'm an addiction memoir enthusiast - I've spent most of the past 5 years sober, and it's been a steady struggle. Reading these types of books, you get numb to the play-by-plays of bad behavior. Brown, though, has a tactic of dialing back the obvious. He doesn't over-romanticize or over-apologize. He paints the picture, and you as the reader have the reaction, whatever it may be. It serves to make you care more about him and the true characters in the book.

Without using any cheap tricks, Brown paints himself as a pretty likable guy, and you can occasionally find him hanging out on Goodreads. He may even read and like this review, and, shit, I may just go message him a link to it right now, which would be a cheap trick.

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this book my freshman year of college so i had it in my possession, i remember loving it but didn’t really remember it. i just re-read through the whole thing in a few hours. psychologically this book is such an interesting read. anyone who is feeling lost through the struggles of addiction should give this book a try. i’ve never had a book almost bring me to tears like this one. so so SO good.

[Lain · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Brown, the author of several novels including "Final Performance" and "Lucky Town," has mined his dysfunctional childhood many times for material. And he's had plenty to choose from, including an arsonist mother who bankrupted the family, the alcoholism and drug addiction (and subsequent suicides) of his brother and his sister, and his own battles with alcohol and drugs and failed marriage.

This book is less a chronology of his life than a series of vignettes from his childhood, strung together with scenes from his adult years. So much pain, so much tragedy -- it makes the reader wonder how he was able to redeem himself and recover.

While Brown writes clearly and clear-eyed, it's from a distance. He relates the stories of his life with a detachment that leaves the reader unaffected by even some of the most horrific events. And when he finally comes to the point where he must choose between life and death, it's almost anticlimactic -- there's no sense of the torment that must have gripped him. Perhaps, though, it's this very detachment that has allowed him to survive.

This is the book that James Frey might have written if he'd stuck to the truth. There's not as much high drama and not as many memorable characters, but it rings true. And these days, there's a lot to be said for that.

[Tim Devore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A MUST READ!!!

[Brooke Eppert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Los Angeles Diaries
By James Brown
Review by Brooke Eppert


The Los Angeles Diaries by James Brown is a fascinating story about his struggle with drug and alcohol addiction and what kind of events occurred throughout his life that changed who he was. My favorite thing about this book is that it is very “eye opening” to some of the things that happens that I will probably never experience in my life, such as watching as my mother is put into jail. The book was very straightforward with topics and James Brown writes his life story in a miraculous way that makes the reader feel the pain, disappointment or happiness he describes.

This book also teaches many life lessons, such as to never give up on something and to always think before you act. Another life lesson taught was that it is never too late to change your self and be a better person, which is what I think James Brown wanted the readers to know the most.

I enjoyed reading this book, mainly because there are some topics that I cannot relate to, so it was almost a “learning experience” for me. One of the topics that I could relate to that James Brown described in his book was breaking promises to people or having someone break a promise to you. Another topic I could relate to was personal failure. James Brown describes personal failure when many of his novels are optioned to become published, but are later rejected. He became a role model for the reader in this situation however because he always kept trying to improve him novels and himself and he never gave up on his dream.

Although James Brown might not seem like a role model because of his life long battle with drug and alcohol addiction, I admire him for never giving up on his dreams and always trying again, even when he had lost a lot of self-esteem and had gotten a little bitter. He had a tough life growing up, and he has made some very careless decisions, but he was given a second chance to change and I applaud him for taking that chance even when he knew it would be difficult.

I personally enjoyed this book because of the descriptive details and confessions that I could either relate to or just read about and try to understand. However, I would not recommend this book for everyone because of the mature content of the book that may be difficult for some people to read. Also, the book was sometimes a challenge to follow along with because it would jump back and forth from different years. For example, the first chapter of the book was in the year of 1994, and then the next chapter was in the year of 1961 and later back to 1995. Overall, The Los Angeles Diaries was an admirable book because of the events that James Brown went through and how much the reader could relate to some of the situations and its descriptive details.

[Glen Helfand · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a lot of rich, harrowing material in the narrative of James Brown's life. But that doesn't necessarily account for the lean, propulsive book that he channels that material into. I haven't read his novels, which, according to the references in the memoir, also finds inspiration in his life story, but here the tragic family dynamics provide a bracing, hopeful perspective. All the seemingly salacious things on the book jacket, the suicides, drug and alcohol addiction, bankruptcy, and the opening salvo of family crime, are told with a calm clarity. Brown writes with an amazing directness and simplicity. While there is self-reflexivity, there is an objectivity too, and that is what makes the book so readable--and so resonant. The tale is pared to the bone, the situations seem so automatically parallel to the psychological underpinnings. The only thing to quibble with here is the simplicity of the title, which barely hints at the fearlessness of this memoir.

[Antonia Crane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book and I read it start to finish on the plane from Burbank to New Orleans. You know a book is good when you have to hide your face in a sweatshirt on a plane to avoid the shame of tears. The prose is simple, honest and true. It's the most effective first person memoir I've read in a long time. Brown's sentences sting without trying too hard, like "Everything, I tell myself, is under control." The beginning sucked me in right away and held me there. The fires that burn LA every summer. The Santa Anna ash blowing. Then this crazy woman, Jim Brown's mother, lights a building on fire for no apparent reason. I would've like to return to that thread more in the book. I realize there was alcoholism to cover and suicides to show and I was satiated. I recommend this book as a great, quick read.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had ordered this book from my library because I had won the follow-up to this book, This River: A Memoir on First Reads and wanted to have a good understanding of the author's life. I had anticipated simply reading this book, as a former addictions counselor, more from a bibliotherapy perspective and not putting much thought into it. What ended up coming out of this is that I have thoroughly enjoyed the book and read a little less than half of it in one day because the author has a real talent for drawing the reader really poetically into his story. I will easily finish this book in 2 days, if not a day, because I have enjoyed it that much.

ETA..if you are an animal lover, particularly of pot bellied pigs, you will have an issue with portions of this book! ;)

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won the sequel to this book on Goodreads so I checked this one out of the library to prepare for it! This was an unexpectedly good book. It gives the reader a real look at the life of someone with addictions. After reading the book and learning about the author's childhood,I could understand how he could have gotten to such a low point in his life and was glad to see he had reached a turning point. I am looking forward to the sequel!

[miteypen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book could have been depressing as hell, but the author's way with words saved it. I don't think I've ever read an account of addiction and suicide as sensitive and insightful as this one.

[Mark Anthony Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever! James is a great guy and awesome author. This memoir is very powerful and loaded with tragic emotions of hard reality and drug addiction.

[Chiefdonkey Bradey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like diving into icy dazzlingly clear water

[Lora S · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant, raw, painful. just so fucking good.

[Shonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Addiction Sucks

I am an Addiction Counselor & have read many books by authors who struggle with this problem. This author really gets across the way an addict thinks & feels. I can’t say it was an easy read or enjoyable, but it was important.

[Stuart Chappell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quit drinking for almost two years almost immediately after reading this book. Even though I have returned to having the occasional drink, I have yet to go on another binge.

[Peter Karlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most economical argument against alcohol and the movie business ever written.

[James Lockwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutally honest inside look at alcohol and drugs

One of the first books I’ve read in a single day in a long time, I kinda wish there was some redemption in the end for the author,

[Jeannette Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the heart-breaking story of the author and his brother and sister, all of whom struggled with multiple addictions and tragedies. Ultimately, Brown's brother and sister decide they can't go on and commit suicide. Brown also decides he can't go on, but he, with the help of the woman who becomes his second wife, stops using drugs and alcohol.

Brown moves from past to present, changing the focus of the story from his mother to his siblings and to their father. Stories of addiction can so often become a hopeless treadmill of self-destruction. Brown portrays his family with hopes, goals, frustrations, connections and disappointments. Alcohol and drugs help fill the emptiness and fears, but ultimately betrays them all.

Brown is sympathetic but open-eyed and realistic in his story-telling.

[kathy L. Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

April 27 2019

[RB Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the middle of reading Andre Dubus the III's Townie, I got this book in the mail. Partly because I misplaced Townie and partly because from the first paragraph through I couldn't stop reading James Brown's autobiographical Diaries, I still have to go back and finish Dubus' memoir/autobiography. But, when I do finish Townie, I want to go back through both these books and see why it is that I like Brown's Los Angeles Diaries and consequently Brown, as both a person and a writer, so much more than Dubus and his book Townie.
The similarities between the two books are startling, you'd think I was reading books from a syllabus for memoirs of American male writers at the turn of the 21st century. Both writers have tough stories, come from broken homes, white, lower middle class to poor, latch key upbringings with '70's/'80's adolescence dirty with drugs, alcohol and petty crimes. Both families have been strewn with tragedy. Both writers confess to a great deal of repellant behavior, Dubus with his lust for fighting eventually stomping and getting away with a brutal, public beating of a group of minors in a restaurant, Brown bailing on his family for long stretches of time on meth and alcoholic benders set off by seemingly trivial set-backs and frustrations.
To me, Brown is a much better writer, earned and artful prose compared with Dubus' voice which in my memory yields strain and something like a juvenile vanity, with expository explanations for his misbehaviors and psuedo-tough-guyness? Above all, I have to admit that Dubus' story of submitting his first short story to five different magazines and getting it accepted at Playboy for $2,500, at 24 years old, pains me with envy and discolors him as being spoiled by blessings. But, it's gotta happen to somebody.
Brown's book is laid out in twelve chapters that are more like short stories with Brown and his family as the common thread. The stories bounce back and forth through time periods and are obviously arced and polished off individual pieces that have appeared in other publications in years leading up to this compilation.
This makes for compact revelatory reading whenever a fella like me with only brief pockets of time to steal for such luxuries, gets to it. This works strong.
The risk of rounding off chapters of one's life like this is the slop of getting didactic or preachy, the reward is beauty and revelation. The tightest Brown walks this line is at the end of the chapter called "On Selling A Novel to Hollywood";

My phone stops ringing. My book mysteriously disappears from the bookstores and soon another rejections slip from the New Yorker arrives in the mail. It sounds like the same old story but something has changed this time. Something about it feels brand-new. Maybe it has to do with that third strike. Maybe it's about the other close calls, too, the hopes they inspired and my coming to realize how few ever get the shots I've had. I'm sure of one thing, though. It's not about Hollywood anymore, or getting drunk and wasted, and in some ways it never has been. This is a bigger story now. One about change. Adaptation and acceptance. The drafts are endless but it's the writer, not the story, who undergoes the most important revisions.

[Victoria Waddle · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Brown begins with that phenomenon of nature that all of us here in the Inland Empire know: the Santa Ana winds. We’ve seen the uprooted trees and downed powerlines in front of our schools, the smashed fences in our backyards. And we know about and fear the fires, and that less natural phenomenon, the arsonist.

And so Brown begins by speaking directly to our experience, and continues to do so. Though heartrending, many of the details of his biography are not so uncommon. There are the crazy lives he and his siblings lived with their unbalanced mother, his drug abuse at an early age, his alcoholism and the way it wrecked his marriage. That he not only survived all of this, but later moved on to have a creative life would be reason enough for me to recommend the book to you. Well, that and the fact that Brown doesn’t waste any time blaming others for his addiction and missteps.

Fortunately, there is so much more here, packed into a tightly narrated work, in what feels like a group of loosely-woven short stories, organized not by chronology but through emotional connections. For example, the thoughts on the Santa Anas lead to the story of Brown’s mother leaving him in the car while she runs out to set an apartment building on fire, an act which costs a life.

The book itself is littered with (well-deserved) praise from many famous people, but the comment by Janet Fitch is the one that struck me as closest to my experience with The Los Angeles Diaries: “Oddly inspirational, the tale of the last man standing.” In part, Fitch is referring to the fact that both Brown’s sister and brother committed suicide. This is certainly a story of survival—and of survivor’s guilt. That it is so well written is the bonus that makes me want to hand it to you when you when come in to the library for a biography.

Since I am dealing with high school and with assignments, I want to add the housekeeping details that only pertain to our particular situation: The Los Angeles Diaries is exactly 200 pages long—that is, the exact number of pages that many teachers use as a minimum requirement. This, I know, will thrill some of you. Since each chapter reads like a stand-alone story, I don’t think you’ll have any problems stopping and starting; you won’t get lost, and each new day’s reading will be a sort of fresh tale. Oh—and you are going to love the story about how the alcohol-addled Brown, in hopes of making up with his wife, buys her a pot-bellied pig.

NOTE: This review is also posted on my blog School Library Lady.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hard hitting, honest, raw book is one of the best memoirs I have ever read. Brown is a very talented writer and when he shares these tough stories of his childhood - being raised in a household of alcoholism and neglect and mental illness - it truly packs a punch. I came to James Brown's writing in a rather circuitous way - I'm a film historian and I recently rediscovered 70's actor Barry Brown - he starred in two films back to back in the early 70';s and had a very promising career going but his alcoholism destroyed his film career and he took his own life at the age of 27. While reading about this tragedy, it led me to his younger brother, the writer James Brown. It mentioned he chronicles his family and the suicide of his brother (and then later in life, his older sister Marilyn - struggling with drug & alcohol addiction jumps to her death in Hollywood) - in a memoir titled The Los Angeles Diaries. I can truly understand how some would not want to read of such misery and struggle but I find it rather cathartic to read of James taking all this in as the youngest in the family and trying to navigate it all. It is beautifully written & I recommend to those who enjoy reading memoirs and the real stories of battling addiction & a dysfunctional family.

[Tiffany Hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best addiction memoir out there. Brown has a talent for my favorite, very hard to achieve, kind of writing - literary but accessible. I'll give you the gist of what to expect with two awesome lines that stand out.

While describing the depths of his own desperation, Brown makes a poignant observation about an event we are all familiar with – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. When Jackie begins to climb out of the car “all she’s concerned about is gathering up the pieces of her husband that landed on the back of the trunk. Her impulse is to put him back together. Of course that’s impossible but it doesn’t mean that there isn’t beauty in the moment, in her desperateness to salvage what can’t be saved.”


My favorite line from any book:
When Brown is a child, he plans to break his mother out of jail: “But there’s a catch. Finding a guard’s uniform to fit a sixty-pound kid will take some doing. It isn’t funny either. Every detail has to work or I will fail.”
Ugh, crushing. It is funny, but it is also so serious and so desperate, we are taken out of our own heads and into his desperate heart.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes, there are no happy endings. This is a powerfully written, dark and troubled book. The author describes his life in unflinching details, and makes no effort to sugar-coat the troubles he has as a result of his family, his drinking, and his drug use. Written in the present tense, the memoir takes on a very current feel - the doom about to befall the narrator seems imminent at every moment. Brown's writing is very sharp, and although the subject matter is difficult to read, I found myself wanting to turn page after page. Also, while I know nothing of drug use, his descriptions seemed true and not trite, as so many fictional accounts seeking to capture the feel of drug use do.

As a side note - the penultimate chapter is written in the second person perspective - addressed to the author's sister, Marilyn. It is the only chapter like this in the book, and in other books, I would find it annoying. It would have bothered me that he has a chapter addressed to his sister, but not his brother, that this is the only chapter written in this way where the others are all a first person narrative. But in this book, it works. Everything just works.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just when you think you are seeing the worst in human weakness 13 come on, we 19ve all seen and heard of our own friends throwing their lives away through alcohol and drugs 13 that 19s when James Brown burns down the house. Things get worser. Times get tougher. And the human pain and misery reaches suicidal depths.
I like 1CThe Los Angeles Diaries 1D because of the element of self-fufilling prophesy. James Brown, the person, and James Brown, the writer, is much too street smart and insightful to get caught up in his own fate. Or is he? When he steps back, he paints a painful picture of his family and childhood. He registers clearly mistakes and abuses. When he writes about his adulthood, the picture is well-entrenched in our minds, but what could be going through his?
The writing of his own memoir is vivid and inspirational. His life is a fucking mess.

[Mariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on a total whim. It's no secret that I am kind of a memoir junkie (no pun intended, given the subject matter of this book), although I am usually ambivalent at best about the author of any given memoir by the last page. This book is awash in the usual memoir fodder: drugs, depression, divorce, etc., but something about the author's straightforward, no excuses or apologies presentation made the book both extremely readable and extremely sympathetic. I am putting this one on a "future reading" list for my teenage kids if I ever start to be worried that church, red ribbon week and the rest are an insufficient deterrent to drugs and alcohol! I found it a heartbreaking but worthwhile read.