Problems
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4.5 • 16 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A young woman’s life in New York City is upended by addiction in this debut novel “that is equal parts irreverent and hilarious, depressive and hopeful” (Bustle). Maya is a young woman with a smart mouth, time to kill, and a heroin hobby that isn’t much fun anymore. She’s been able to get by in New York on her wits and a dead-end bookstore job for years, but when her husband leaves her, and her favorite professor ends their affair, her barely calibrated life descends into chaos. Maya’s struggle to be alone, to be a woman, and to be thoughtful, imperfect, and alive in a world that doesn’t really care what happens to her is rendered with dead-eyed clarity and unnerving charm. Rendered in frank, graphic, highly charged language where “everything rings true” and “leaves you on a high” (The Guardian), The New York Times exclaimed “a novel about a heroin addict shouldn’t be this much fun to read.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sharma's debut novel is an uncompromising and unforgettable depiction of the corrosive loop of addiction. Maya is a young woman living in New York with her husband, Peter. She has an afterthought of a job at a bookstore, is sleeping with a former professor, and regularly does heroin. Following a trip to Peter's parents' house for Thanksgiving, during which Maya tries to stop using, Peter leaves her ("You make me feel like an employee," he says to her) and the professor breaks off their affair. Maya's not-very-happy life descends further, becoming a cycle of sleeping with Internet strangers for drug money, attempting to quit, and then resuming. Sharma structures the novel in short bursts of prose, alternately jumping around or lingering in a scene. Despite the floaty plot, there is a propulsive energy in Maya's story, guided by her askew yet precise perspective: "This is the way heroin addiction works: You take four classes thinking you will keep yourself busy, but then you mess it up because you're always high... And so then, what's the point of getting clean? To return to a mostly empty life?" Some readers may find the subject matter too difficult, but in Maya's voice, Sharma has crafted a momentous force that never flags and feels painfully honest.
Customer Reviews
Problems
Well written and quite affecting. Ended a little too soon for me as I had developed sympathy for and interest in Maya and wanted to read more. Reminded me a little of Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish.