Marvin D. Wilson has a hilarious blog that I follow, and his writing and unique sense of humor there made me want to read more of his work. The first line in the preface of this book is "A crackhead wrote this book," which I found blatantly honest and it made me immediately trust the author to tell me the truth. Maybe I'm reading too far into the abrupt opening, but I read it as though the author were saying, 'there, so we got that out of the way, so the stigma that goes with my past, and all the stereotypes you have in tow, reader, bring it! We're going for a ride...' and we do. Wilson takes the reader through his journey from addict to work-o-holic to spiritually fit and incredibly likable guy.
Throughout, the book moves quickly, and herein lies my critique. It moved too quickly in places, moving with such an intensity and authorial humor that it almost seemed to read as though the author were in a hurry to get beyond the gritty stuff and not dwell in any one scene (gritty or not) for too long. That made it read more like a long essay than a memoir, to me, and when it comes to memoir, I'm picky.
That said, it was clean, insightful, funny and I do recommend it to just about anyone who enjoys a good inspirational tale that doesn't try to shove messages down a reader's throat.