My Incredibly Wonderful, Miserable Life
An Anti-Memoir
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
The funny, sad, and heartwarming memoir by Leonard Nimoy's son Adam Nimoy—who bounces back after suffering through severe drug addiction, multiple career changes, and a devastating divorce.
Augusten Burroughs meets Don Rickles meets Larry David in this riveting chronicle by the son of Spock that includes a thirty-year battle with drug addiction, three career changes, one divorce, a major mid-life crisis, and countless AA meetings. In this frankly humble and hilarious anti-memoir, Adam Nimoy shares the incredibly wonderful, miserable truth about life as a newly divorced father, a forty-something on the L.A. dating scene, a recovering user, and a former lawyer turned director turned substitute teacher...in search of his true self. And, most importantly, he shares the wonderful, miserable truth about growing up the son of a pop culture icon. He’s been rushed by crazed Star Trek fans at a carnival, propositioned by his father’s leading ladies, promised by his own teenage daughter that she never wants to see him again, and fired by famous television producers for his temper.
In a city and amidst an industry where appearing perfect is a way of life, Adam Nimoy doesn’t mince words, and My Incredibly Wonderful, Miserable Life is his cautionary, startlingly honest, and very funny tale.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nimoy knows some people will only be interested in his story because of his family connection to the Star Trek actor, his father Leonard Nimoy; early on, recounting an excruciating meeting with a literary agent, he contemplates calling his book I Am Not the Son of Spock. There are a few celebrity-filled anecdotes, such as his youthful crushes on Jill Ireland and Bibi Andersson. His core story, however, is about the personal upheavals that come when he decides to end a decades-long addiction to marijuana. Once he stops using pot to shield himself from pain, Nimoy realizes his marriage isn't working. The separation hits his adolescent son and daughter hard, and the book's most poignant scenes track the turbulence as he works to maintain a place in their emotional lives. Nimoy's career as a television director has honed his sense of story; in one chapter, he reframes a youthful run-in with the cops as an exercise for his film students to find the "moment of decision" driving the character. The best scenes from this "anti-memoir" zero in on those emotional cores, enabling Nimoy to tell an instantly recognizable story of heartache and recovery with deceivingly simple honesty. B&w photos throughout.
