Love and Trouble: Memoirs of a Former Wild Girl

Book excerpt: "Claire Dederer's youth was wild, an endless cascade of beer and rock and acid and sex that left her numb and adrift. But then, after two decades of disciplined transformation, she'd become a successful writer, a faithful wife, and a mother - a real adult. That is, until one morning at 44, she found herself overcome by the same sexual cravings and ineffable sadness of her younger years. The hedonistic girl, 'that crazy bitch', was back - or had she never left? Frank and disarming, seductive and hilarious, this is Dederer's attempt to reckon with those urges and to reconcile the girl she'd been with the woman she's become." -- Provided by publisher.