Beam Me Up, Scotty

By Michael Guinzburg

Book Overview

In Crack City, U.S.A., when addicts fire up the white rock in the glass pipe that will transport them out of their misery, the prayer they intone with red-eyed reverence is "Beam me up, Scotty". After several years of deep addiction, Ed T--- stumbles out of detox and heads home to his family. All he finds is an empty apartment. Sobriety is a lonely business. So he turns to Hard Drugs Anonymous, the twelve-step program designed to help sick and suffering addicts along the path to salvation. In a smoky church basement in Manhattan's East Village, Ed meets his new "family": Rachel, an actress and part-time dominatrix; Frank, an ex-cop busted for possession who still bleeds NYPD blue; Myron, really Myra, a reforming unleaded gas-guzzler saving up for a sex change. They aren't alone. Screwups and misfits of every race, color, and creed gleefully exchange self-help slogans and bubble with hope and encouragement. Fifth Avenue matrons mingle with cardboard box dwellers, and street hustlers hug corporate lawyers. Maybe there is a way out of the nightmare of the past, a power higher than crack. Beam Me Up, Scotty is Ed's day-to-day - at times hour-to-hour - story of redempton and revenge, and he's holding nothing back. He takes the messages of Hard Drugs Anonymous to heart - then he takes them to the street. From Step One through Step Twelve, Ed works his Program and fights to stay clean while Scotty beams temptation on every street corner. But Ed is on a different kind of mission now: he's dealing salvation in lethal doses. Michael Guinzburg's novel is as high voltage as a live wire and as impossible to let go; it seizes readers from Step One and holds them for the full count. As a novel, it istaut, gripping, and fast-paced. As dark comedy, it is scathing, chilling, and unremitting. As moral tale, it will both disturb and edify. Beam Me Up, Scotty invites comparisons to the finest works by Jim Thompson, Hubert Sel

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559702087
• ISBN13: 9781559702089
• Release Date: June 1993
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The best book I have ever read.

Awesome, incredible. So funny. I never laughed so hard in my life, and really thought about what I read. There is sex, drugs, murder, tension, an outrageous bunch of characters who I loved. I can't believe this book is not a movie. Like Taxi Driver with humor and it actually says something about our sick society. If you read one book this year, make it this. Scotty rocks.

Addiction, murder, and 12 step programs

"Beam Me Up, Scotty" is one of my all time favorite novels. Guinzburg portrayal of addiction to twelve-step programs, sex, food, crack and even murder is as powerful as it is hilarious. Guinzburg's style and imagery is harsh and brilliant! I can't wait until more of his work is published in the US.

A pre-Zero Tolerance NYC bustin' lik a crack-rock in ya face

Guinzburg writes like a renegade, mercenary pioneer pinballin all over crack-city with a Rabelasian swagger not seen since the likes of Hubert Selby Jr. His Big Apple is rotten to the core, and sure it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it, so why not Ed? Like a whitewashed Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction, Ed dishes out divine retribution with no concession to any moral conciousness other than his own. Crack-dealin' bro's beware, Ed's one angry mo'fukka. like a bear with a sore ass and a head fulla PCP, your time's up and there ain't nowhere to run. A rollercoaster ride through Hell!

Sublime send-up of our self-help addled language and world!

Michael Guinzburg is an undiscovered writer of genius. A lyrical stylist with a richly deserved core of devotees (mostly in Europe where he is celebrated), his prose in Scotty nails the language of the Twelve Steps and our self-help addled culture with sublime hilarity. Read this book. Do it.

I love everything about this book!

This is one of my favorite books. Guinzburg's persuasive writing keeps you on your toes and loving it. You don't know if you should laugh or cry at his characters and story line. I hope you'll enjoy it was much as I did.