Beautiful Things
A Memoir
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4.0 • 216 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“I come from a family forged by tragedies and bound by a remarkable, unbreakable love,” Hunter Biden writes in this deeply moving and “unflinchingly honest” (Entertainment Weekly) memoir of addiction, loss, and survival.
When he was two years old, Hunter Biden was badly injured in a car accident that killed his mother and baby sister. In 2015, he suffered the devastating loss of his beloved big brother, Beau, who died of brain cancer at the age of forty-six. These hardships were compounded by the collapse of his marriage and a years-long battle with drug and alcohol addiction.
In Beautiful Things—“an astonishingly candid and brave book about loss, human frailty, wayward souls, and hard-fought redemption” (Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author)—Hunter recounts his descent into substance abuse and his tortuous path to sobriety. The story ends with where Hunter is today—a sober married man with a new baby, finally able to appreciate the beautiful things in life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
President Biden's son takes a searing look at the vicissitudes of his life in this bracing warts-and-all memoir. The lawyer and former lobbyist's exposure to trauma began early; in 1972, when he was three, Hunter was in his mother Neilia's car when it was struck by a tractor-trailer, killing Neilia and his younger sister. The entire Biden family stepped in to give him and his older brother, Beau, as normal a childhood as possible, with their father, a senator from Delaware, commuting home every night from D.C. to be with them. Despite his relatives' support, his success at Yale Law School, and a lucrative profession, Hunter became an alcoholic and, after his brother Beau's death from brain cancer in 2015, he turned to crack cocaine. ("At one point I dropped clean off the grid, living in $59 a night Super 8 motels"). Even before then, Hunter's addiction had taken control of his life and destroyed his first marriage. In depicting the depths to which he'd sunk, Hunter powerfully demonstrates how even a child of privilege can flounder. He gives Trump's allegations about his business dealings in the Ukraine only scant attention, and it's his story of persistence and finding love again that makes this notable. This courageous self-assessment makes the despair of substance abuse devastatingly palpable.
Customer Reviews
Deeply touching and engaging
This was so well written it made me feel like I already know the person. I appreciated the insightful moments regarding addictive behavior. Hunter’s challenges seemed almost insurmountable but he came out on the other side to live another day. Thank-you for sharing your story.
Amazing Read
A book of fear, loneliness, regret, hope and above all LOVE….
It’s helped better understand the people around me struggling with addiction.
Awful
Terrible. Don’t waste your time reading these lies.