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Special Praise for Dopefiend: A Father’s Journey from Addiction to Redemption

“In this brilliant memoir, Tim Elhajj illuminates what the long, hard road looks

like for those of us who are in recovery or those of us who love someone in

recovery. The daily effort, the scores of setbacks weathered, and small triumphs

hard-earned that, in time, move us into a deep, intimate, authentic relationship to

ourselves, to others, and to the world—one that we thought we’d never have; one

that might not be what another might choose but that is what we require. I will

keep this book near; I will give it to friends; I will cherish it always.”

Louise DeSalvo

Author of Writing as a Way of Healing

“Tim Elhajj tells the story of his tenuous relationship with his son and his recovery

from the heroin addiction he acquired during his childhood in a Pennsylvania

steel town. While Dopefiend follows the twelve steps of a recovery program, these

steps serve as the frame that hold together a sequence of masterly told vignettes.

In one heartrending incident, Elhajj stands in line during a dismal Christmas to

receive an already wrapped and donated toy for his son. Elhajj doesn’t know his

son’s address. Sentiment is such a dangerous ground for most writers since it easily

falls into sappiness; yet, Elhajj instinctively finds the right balance in telling his

often gut-wrenching tale. Dopefiend should be put on the same shelf as William

Burroughs’s Junkie and Nick Flynn’s Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.”

Matt Briggs

Author of The Remains of River Names and Shoot the Buffalo

“This is an extremely moving and powerful memoir. Elhajj doesn’t linger on the

ugliness of addiction itself, but focuses on the solution and the hard road that as

addicts and alcoholics we must all travel if we choose to turn our lives around.

Elhajj is a fine writer and brave soul with a tremendous heart. His story is one of

staggering loss and seemingly insurmountable struggles, but in the end he leaves

us victorious, with the greatest message of all—one of hope and redemption.”

James Brown

Author of This River and The Los Angeles Diaries

“I recommend Tim Elhajj’s Dopefiend to anyone interested in chemical

dependency and recovery from it. The book’s subtitle, A Father’s Journey from

Addiction to Redemption, more accurately sums up its content. Like Franz

Wright or Mary Karr, Elhajj lets the vivid details contained in his punchy prose

make his points for him, without editorializing or preaching. The lean story that

results gets right to the point: it’s possible for an addict to change, with time and

grace, from an inept and disconnected father to exactly the kind of example and

confidante a son needs when the son has become an adult.”

Fr. Jim Harbaugh, SJ

Author of A 12-Step Approach to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

“This is a real book, about a person, who becomes a real person. The biggest

mistake any of us can make in life is to make the outside world real and the

inside one not. The author made this mistake. For too many years he believed

the delusions his drug world provided him and never came close to discovering

his true nature. Confusing pleasure for happiness he nearly destroyed himself.

You don’t have to be doing drugs to miss life. You can search for happiness in

a million ways and not find it. As the author teaches us, it’s what we stop doing

that transforms our life. If you have ever wondered what goes on in that cocoon

where the caterpillar turns into a butterfly, read this book.”

Robert Smith, LCSW

Addiction Specialist and Interventionist

“I love this book! From the first page, I was swept up into the story and the

narrator’s progress from a Lower East Side homeless shelter to rehab and beyond.

Most stories of addiction focus on the addiction side of the story and say

little about what the actual work of recovery looks like. Dopefiend is a riveting

portrayal of the recovery side of the equation. Both funny and poignant, this

book belongs on the shelf beside the very best of recovery memoirs, such as

Knapp’s Drinking: A Love Story and Karr’s Lit.”

Theo Pauline Nestor

Author of How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed