The concept of this book is great: as a former drug addict, David Carr has trouble recalling a great portion of his own life. Now an established reporter, Carr uses his reporting tools and techniques to uncover his own past. I believe everyone has a story, and I have no-doubt that Carr's is an interesting one. The research is promising, but the delivery needs serious work.

I cannot get through this book. I have tried & tried. I cannot seem to read more than four pages at a time. I am intelligent. I received excellent grades in college, and am the administrator for a specialty department where I work. However, a lot of the words Carr uses, I just do not get--in either meaning or context. Carr also uses an overabundance of these "big" words in the same paragraphs, or even sentences. It is as if the author highlighted words, entered them in an online thesaurus, and picked the most intelligent-sounding replacement.

Carr also seems to have trouble forming his own thoughts; while I like quotes and references to philosophers, etc, Carr often quotes or refers to other authors and philosophers several times alone within the first two chapters--and again, often in the same paragraph.

Reviewing "The Night of the Gun" may seem unfair without completing the book; but I simply cannot finish. When an avid reader begins falling asleep after every few pages, and has not reached the end after two months, that seems to be a review in itself. It is time to move on.