Novel as Parents’ Guide to Teen Drug Use

Anne Lamott’s New York Times best selling novel Imperfect Birds wasn’t written as a manual to help parents spot teen drug use – that’s just a bonus. Woven in between the prose is the story of a mother raising her 17-year-old daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area. Complete with a quaint small town, a nearby big city, a stepfather and some quirky supporting characters, the book seems to tell a story that could be any of our lives.

The story takes a turn as the smart, athletic Rosie continues to lie her way through her senior year of high school, hiding her alarmingly increasing abuse of alcohol, Ecstasy, pot and prescription meds from her parents, it becomes hard to keep reading. When will Elizabeth catch on to her daughter’s deception? Will she get help in time?

Rosie’s story is almost stereotypical in its progression from small infractions to trouble with law enforcement to home drug tests and taking greater risks. Like other addicts, she finds a way to manipulate her loved ones and downplay her problem. Without giving away the ending, Rosie does eventually seek treatment, even if it is against her will. Lamott, a recovering alcoholic herself, is careful not to wrap up the story with a neat bow, though, or provide an unrealistic “happily every after” ending. As anyone knows who has battled drug or alcohol addiction or loved someone who has, getting clean is rarely cut and dried. This nonfiction book does a great job, though, of showing that there is hope and a bright future beyond substance abuse.

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