Junkie Love

Book excerpt: Joe Clifford didn’t start drinking beer until he was almost twenty years old. By the time he turned twenty-two, he was addicted to methamphetamine; and the heroin wasn’t far behind. Soon he’d lose his wife, his job, his home. Junkie Love follows the roughly ten years Clifford spent wandering the streets of San Francisco and beyond, first as a wannabe rock star, and then as another homeless junkie with his head lost in the stars. In between are the harrowing events and close calls, the shady characters and the enduring friendships, the redemption and restitution that led Fix Magazine to call Junkie Love “one of top four recovery memoirs” of all time. From the Forward by Jerry Stahl "The good news is Clifford’s is exactly the kind of voice our poor, strung-out country deserves in these toxic end-times. Like his hero Kerouac, this is a writer drawn to life’s more rough-edged and unsung corners. But, in the best Beat tradition, he writes about the lost and monstrous with a life-affirming, almost depraved sweetness. The miracle is, hardcore addicted, in love with a beautiful schizophrenic, Clifford returned with mind and talent intact. But that no trace of clichéd bitterness or streety one-downsmanship pollutes his tone."