"READING IN THE RAIN" - ACTIVERAIN BOOK CLUB - August 2012
The Next Right Thing by Dan Barden
A Short, Fun Summer Read!
Join us when we discuss it on Wednesday, August 15th.
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Randy is himself given to violence: That’s why he’s an ex-cop and has an ex-wife who despises him and a girlfriend who’s close to leaving him. He charges about questioning, threatening and sometimes slugging people — he’s the classic “dry drunk” — and in the process he digs up plenty of dirt. One of his pals in AA is growing marijuana and paying off crooked cops. Another operates a scam that involves renting space in “recovery houses” to recent recruits for inflated prices. Another has been “thirteenth stepping” — AA jargon for seducing vulnerable newcomers to the program, which is considered “scumbag behavior.”
In time, Randy learns that Terry, who had desperately wanted a child, was about to become a father, which makes it even harder to understand how he could have turned to heroin. When another of their circle dies under mysterious circumstances, the police suspect Randy. But all this is standard fare in a crime novel. What gives “The Next Right Thing” its special dimension is its relentless portrayal of the addict’s life.
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