Reviewed by J.B. Scott

Reviewer Rating: * * * * *
Title: A Small Journal of Heroin Addiction
Category:  Autobiographical/Non-Fiction
Author: Robin Marchesi
Publisher: Clocktower Books
ISBN: 0-7433-0021-1
Release Date: Available Now

The curtain of real life dramatically rises revealing a stark scene…the time: 1979. The leading actor: a 28 years old, newly recovered heroin addict. The stage: six weeks in a Spanish prison. The charge: attempting to traffic hashish along the Moroccan border. However, this is not a lavish stage production. This is the private journal of English author, Robin Marchesi's life - this is Los Rosales, or part one of "A Small Journal of Heroin Addiction."

The curtain rises again, twenty years later. Robin is drug-free, but set on a new plot, aptly named the "Mission" to save a young protégé caught in the clutches of heroin addiction in San Francisco. How well he illustrates his strength and biting need to remedy previous pathways, not just for himself, but for two mothers - his own and X's as well.

Poetry and prose interwoven so no seam is visible, you cannot help but be the passenger along this evocative, linguistic journey. It is chilling, stark, and brutally honest, a haunting expose of his life. There is no victimisation, nor will you find self-pity, anger, malice or bitterness coating his literary tongue…

"I'm alive today

Standing

Ground

And

This precipice

Down which

I stare

Shakes me

With its knowledge

Of my own

Mind"

Marchesi has remarkable insight. Not only of self, but the human psyche of those sharing his journey of dependency and those fortunate enough to also experience the recovery. Many of his phrases are so beautifully crafted…"Why does he cry? -- Only he, staring into invisibility, knows the secret of his eyes secretions, of his unknowing pains. Whistle blows. Evening count up time." I found myself book marking such passages with 'post-it' notes so I could refer back to them at a moments notice.

Copyright © 2001 by  J.B. Scott