Review - "Chancers: Addiction, Prison, Recovery, Love: One Couple's Memoir"

"Chancers: Addiction, Prison, Recovery, Love: One Couple's Memoir" by Susan Stellin & Graham McIndoe 

For readers of Beautiful Boy, Drinking: A Love Story, and Dry comes a brave shared memoir, told in alternating chapters, of love, addiction, devotion, and redemption. When Stanford-educatedNew York Times journalist Susan Stellin met the edgy and charming Scottish portrait photographer Graham MacIndoe, they fell hard and fast. But after their romantic first few months together, Graham’s addiction to heroin and crack slowly eroded their relationship. In Chancers, they tell their story, from Graham’s arrest for drug possession, his stint at Riker’s Island, and his looming threat of deportation to Susan’s struggles, first to distance herself, then to follow her instincts to help him.

        

(actual rating 2.75)

*I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review*

           

Where to start, where to start ... 

Chancers is about Susan and Graham, a freelancer writer and a photographer, who start a relationship after Graham takes an author-picture for Susan's upcoming book about traveling. What Susan does not know is, that Graham is addicted to drugs. Through a series of events (and lies), Susan finds out what Graham has been hiding from her. Despite her trying to help him, Graham gets deeper into the rabbit hole, until the unthinkable happens (*sarcasm*) and he ends up in prison. 

The story then focuses on his time in prison and how he deals with the fact that the pretty much screwed up his life and Susan, who tries to help him regain his freedom (not in a Prison Break way but like in a less cooler and more legal way). 

This book is about how people can lose their path and how they can re-find it, if they try hard enough (which Graham didn't at the beginning but later understood the bigger picture .. basically). 

If I'm being honest, I had a hard time liking this book, which has nothing to do with the writing style or the topic in particular .. but what irked me was that I could not understand how Susan could stick through this or how Graham could not realize how he was treating his loved ones earlier. And basically how these two could actually stay together in the end - but I was never in love so maybe that's the problem. 

In other words, I think this book is interesting and that quite educational to some extent. I learned a lot about what is going on inside people's head who are victims of addiction. Despite my reluctance to the people's choices, I do think this is recommendable. Especially, if you are dealing with this kind of stuff. It shows you that you are not alone and that there are people out there who understand what you are going trough. 

Title: Chancers: Addiction, Prison, Recovery, Love: One Couple's Memoir

Author: Susan Stellin & Graham McIndoe

Pub. Date: June 7th 2016

Pages: 307 (ebook)

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books 

ISBN: 9781101882740

Genre: Nonfiction; Autobiography; Memoir;