TOW #12 - The Gilded Razor (Sam Lansky)

In his memoir, The Gilded Razor, Sam Lansky speaks truthfully about his life experience with drug addiction and the great impacts that it had on both himself and those around him. A writer for The Atlantic, Out, Esquire and also the New York magazine, and an editor for Time, Lansky has been writing for much of his life. In the opening pages of the book, Lansky vividly recalls the way he often feels when looking back at his life and what he would do differently. He writes, “I would flash back momentarily to a long-forgotten winter night years earlier and see myself, seventeen years old and spectral in the lamplight, stumbling out of a brownstone with a runny nose and my fly unzipped. My hair would have been too long, probably, from always taking the money my father gave me for a haircut and using it to buy drugs.” (Lansky 1). By so descriptively speaking of himself, the author is able to offer the reader the chance to see how he was directly affected by his various addictions. It is quite clear that his repeated use lead to various physical differences like his disheveled appearance. He also reveals how he had hurt those close to him. His addiction drove him to obtain drugs in anyway possible, in this case by lying about the way he spent money given to him. This would destroy his connections.

Later, towards the middle of the memoir, Lansky speaks of writing and makes an analogy to explain how it connected to his life experiences stating, “The was one difference between writing and drugs: with cocaine, after the first line, other lines followed whether I wanted them or not. When I wrote, I could control exactly how many lines there were, and when it all stopped.” (Lansky 62). By comparing his writing to his drug use, Lansky was able to display how little control he felt during this point in his life. By stating these differences, he reveals that he essentially had no way of bouncing back from his addiction because he had virtually no sense of control over his usage. This, as is unfortunately expected, would lead Lansky down a dark path of addiction, unbreakable for many years to come, affecting him both physically and mentally.

Overall, I do believe that in the first half of his memoir, Sam Lansky was effectively able to display the devastating effects that drug addiction has in hopes of dissuading others from using as well. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking for something truly gripping to read. I cannot wait to continue with Lansky’s story!