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"Harrowing" might be the best single word to describe David Carr's memoir, "The Night of the Gun." Carr survived years of heavy cocaine and alcohol use and a bout with cancer to become an attentive father to his daughters, a faithful husband, and a productive and successful journalist. This is the story of his journey to hell and back (and a trip back to the hell of addiction after 14 years of sobriety). Addiction memoirs are quite popular these days, but the genre suffered a severe blow in the wake of the scandal over James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces." Carr could be considered the anti-Frey. Throughout most of his life in addiction, and afterward, Carr has been a successful journalist. He brought his considerable writing and reporting skills to this project. Armed with his reporter's notebook and a video camera, he went out to comb through arrest and medical records and to face those who were in the middle of the maelstrom with him--and those who suffered with him. The results are painful, and often, surprising. The title of the book refers to what he remembers vividly as a night when a close friend pulled a gun on him. It didn't happen that way. The evidence actually points to the opposite conclusion--that Carr was the one with a gun. He finds this hard to process, since he never recalls even owning a gun. This wasn't the only jarring memory had to confront. He faces the mother of his twin daughters, who remains convinced that Carr "stole" them from him. This time, though, Carr's memories, the memories of others, and the documentary record tend to support his conclusion--that he rescued them from a bad, possibly dangerous living situation (the girls' mother was even deeper in the grip of addiction than Carr). Taking over as primary parent of his daughters seems to have been the pivotal moment in Carr's journey. The shock of realization that he's responsible for two young innocents propels Carr to rebuild the shattered pieces of his own life. "The Night of the Gun" offers not only insights into the destructive power of substance abuse, but useful insights into the nature of memory itself. Highly recommended.