Rating: 4 Soda Caps
I'm not sure what's so special about Nic Sheff. Maybe it's the uncomfortable honesty of his life that's just repulsive enough to make people care but not make them turn away. There's this innocence to him despite his life choices. He always seems to run from anything that's good for him and levitate towards what's quite obviously no good for him. In this way, the ending is a bit expected.
The word choice and imagery in Tweak are not all that impressive, except when Nic talks about Zelda or drugs. Besides that and occasionally when he's biking or when the idea of a family taunts him, his writing starts sounding a bit like Holden Caulfield's Catcher in the Rye because nothing really seems to strike his fancy. Even still, he gets bored easily. There's something about being an addict and trying to build your life again that makes you want to just be an addict instead -- the daunting day-to-day and building of trust. I like how Nic portrays this but he doesn't really get into it, in my opinion. He more so focuses on the "getting better" part even though that clearly wasn't what he was thinking about. There's a lot of shaming -- mostly self shaming -- and insecurities or external disappointment that goes into being an addict. Nic just barely scratches the hidden side of an iceberg on that topic.
Towards the end, there's a lot missing from the story. Chunks of time lapse between entries. I would've liked to have known what happened in these chunks of time but i suppose that's how Nic portrays the chunks of time missing in an addicts life. One day you're sleeping in a crack house; the next day you're sleeping in a whore house.... Etc... There's this introspective quality that Nic seems to lack though. Part of me is torn reading about his life and how foolish he is, while part of me wishes he'd grow the heck up (something i don't entirely believe he's done due to his word choice).
Tweak has a counterpart written from the perspective of Nic's dad. I look forward to reading his side of things. If he has half the dynamic or enigmatic nature that Nic has, it should be just as compelling as Tweak. Nic also has another book called We All Fall Down. I might add that to my To Be Read list as well depending on how i feel after his dad's book, Beautiful Boy.
