{"product_id":"the-chief-of-birds-a-memoir-paperback","title":"The Chief of Birds: A Memoir - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMichael Templeton\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Having the past shattered into a present that is meaningless, the future becomes nothing at all.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Chief of Birds \u003c\/em\u003eis a memoir of addiction, incarceration, and return from the brink of destruction. Allowing quotations from Samuel Beckett, Maurice Blanchot, and others to speak where the author has been silenced, it charts the fragile re-emergence of a self that passes for recovery.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\/\/\/\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Imagine Rousseau's \u003cem\u003eConfessions\u003c\/em\u003e written by a monster in chains. Templeton takes us on a harrowing inner journey from the depths of extreme addiction through a strange transformation, but his is not some simple, uplifting recovery or sobriety narrative. To hell with platitudes and magical thinking. From the haunting confines of suicidal alcoholism in \"The Room,\" through the long autopsy on his identity in \"The House,\" Templeton's metacognitive ordeal unfolds in kinship with Samuel Beckett's bleak minimalism. His sharp, courageous pursuit for authentic identity tears the thin membranes between social institutions, language, and one's narrativized self. Like Joker in\u003cem\u003e Full-Metal Jacket\u003c\/em\u003e, the narrator, \"a demon slipping and sneaking from word to word,\" guards at great risk the illusive, dim light of honesty of an authenticity while navigating the iron-clad principles of AA. A courageously relentless examination of the human condition, this memoir is as much a theory of mind as a story of breaking free from the deadly grip of addiction.\" -- Alex Johns, Associate Professor of English, University of North Georgia\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"As a frequent \"monster of the solitudes\" and former 12-Step reacher, regurgitator, wrestler, repudiator and reject, I feel gratitude for Mike Templeton's fresh approach to the \"Recovery\" industry gerbil wheel in his meta-memoir \u003cem\u003eThe Chief of Birds\u003c\/em\u003e, a volume I find reminiscent, in ways, of Dostoevsky's \u003cem\u003eNotes from the Underground\u003c\/em\u003e, albeit from a further evolved 21st century American erstwhile cog-in-the-machine vantage point. Higher Power pshaw. Hop off the wheel. Get out from between the teeth. Read this book. Save yourself.\" -- John Burroughs, 2022-23 U.S. Beat Poet Laureate and author of \u003cem\u003eThe Wrest of the Worthwhile\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 124\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.29 x 7.48 x 4.72 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 25, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48894695637144,"sku":"9781916541009","price":31.46,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0759\/8830\/4024\/files\/PRxCjojznr9781916541009.webp?v=1776736249","url":"https:\/\/thepinkflamingobooks.myshopify.com\/products\/the-chief-of-birds-a-memoir-paperback","provider":"The Pink Flamingo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}