Nice Recovery: A Memoir

Product Description

From the author of Alice, I Think comes a riveting memoir of addiction and recovery. Susan Juby started out as a bright and creative student with an innate ability to write incredible stories. At the age of thirteen her life began to unravel, and like many teens, she turned to alcohol to get her through the awkward stages of trying to find her own unique identity and fit in with her peers at school. In this revealing memoir, she details the painful and sometimes funny experiences of trying to be clean and sober at a time when most young adults are just starting their drinking careers. Juby also looks into how the situation has changed for young people washing up on the shores of addiction today through a series of interviews with recovering addicts and alcoholics. Told with honesty and Juby’s wry wit, Nice Recovery is a candid memoir from one of Canada’s most beloved writers.

Review

“I’m embarrassed that I lack words to describe the raw elegance of Susan Juby’s Nice Recovery. It is smart, funny, lyrical, desperately candid and astonishingly generous; and it is fucking courageous. It speaks to the very heart of the loneliness and despair that leads to the destruction of so many kids’ dreams. And then it gives us hope. This is not a young adult book; it is not an adult book. It is a human book with the power to literally save lives. I am honoured to blurb it.” - Chris Crutcher

“Juby tells her story with such honesty and warmth that it’s easy to empathize with both her ascent into alcoholism, for that’s what it was for her, and then her spiralling downfall. Her story is also interspersed with the same wonderfully incisive humour that distinguishes her novels, though she is careful to avoid flippancy; her book, after all, was not written for laughs… It is Juby’s acceptance and forgiveness of herself that is on display here; her story is, quite simply, an inspiration.” - The Globe and Mail

“The best comic writers always have a dark side. Susan Juby tells the tale of her days as a wild young ‘drinky pants’ with ‘a minor drug addiction on the side’ with great spirit and honesty. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, you may even shed a tear, and you’ll definitely cheer her on her way to recovery. A great read.” - O.R. Melling

“[In] Susan Juby’s hilarious, moving memoir Nice Recovery …. she is autobiographer, confessing her teenage alcoholism and drug habit. She does this with compulsively readable, self-deprecating wit, a candid voice and an entertainer’s penchant for the lively turn of phrase…. A cautionary tale, yes, but with energy derived from a spirit of compassion and sympathy. It’s as wise, witty and engrossing as any young adult novel I’ve read recently.” - Toronto Star

“Unlike many addiction memoirs, Nice Recovery isn’t a hot mess tell-all. Like Juby herself, it’s honest and funny, but avoids over-sharing…. If you’re drawn to Juby’s work because she’s more Liz Lemon than Elizabeth Wurtzel, however, rest assured she hasn’t abandoned her sense of humour. As she sees it, Nice Recovery is ultimately just like all of her other books, an uneasy mixture of “the dark and the light.”” - Quill & Quire

“[A] good read for anyone.” - Winnipeg Free Press

“Juby’s narrative is captivating as she describes her life as a party girl and her precipitous descent into addiction. […] The sometimes brutal honesty of Juby’s story is lighted by flashes of her familiar wry sense of humour and readers will enjoy some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. […] Addiction is an unfortunately common experience and this book will have an almost universal appeal for both teens and adults.” - Canadian Children’s Book News

“Alarming, blunt, and delightfully written … This is a brave and helpful book.” - The StarPhoenix

“Juby’s journey through addiction and out the other side is thoroughly entertaining, for both adults and older teens… with its honest, forthright presentation of fact, Nice Recovery goes a long way towards reviving a reviled and o