A candid, bare-it-all, and highly engrossing memoir…
With unsparing candor, Lewis Kempfer chronicles decades of his drug and sex addicted life in intimate detail in Don’t Mind Me, I’m Just Having a Bad Life: A Memoir. Kempfer started struggling with self-loathing and depression as a preschooler which escalated into sex addiction and substance abuse and continued relentlessly until he hit rock-bottom in 2012 and made a full recovery afterwards after finding faith. During that time, he managed to earn his bachelor’s degree from Trevecca Nazarene University and have a successful career first at the Boiler Room Theatre and later at the Walt Disney Company. Surprisingly, no one at work suspected he had drug addiction problems, and he was able to keep his dream job intact. Kempfer recounts the way his extreme self-loathing helped him justify his substance and sex addictions and various broken relationships. Kempfer’s confession is well-written, lucid, and utterly candid, as he recounts his childhood trauma, his struggles with his sexual orientation, and loss of faith during his teenage years. Along with detailing the sensation of his crystal meth highs and the subsequent paranoia, his explicit accounts of sex with strangers, and his addiction to online dating, Kempfer also provides a thorough account of his struggles to stay clean, find love, and achieve professional success. Kempfer’s recurrent resistance to the concept of a higher power and his subsequent restorations to faith will ring a chord with many including those from LGBT and recovery communities. Kempfer is someone whose problems seem to stem from being uncomfortable with loneliness and the acute desire to fit in and be loved unconditionally, and who goes to any length to be accepted, to belong to someone. Many people, including those from the recovery community, will be able to connect with Kempfer on that. The book explores difficult themes such as childhood abuse, violent gay sex, and substance abuse, which make it an uncomfortable, dark read, but Kempfer’s uncensored voyage into his own consciousness as a sex and drug addict, is extremely absorbing and hard to put down. With its authentic narrative and moving prose written with utter honesty, the book offers the story of a man who is deeply flawed and extremely vulnerable, yet he makes readers root for him. Kempfer’s ultimate recovery offers hope for anyone struggling with issues of self-worth, loss of faith, and various addictions. Readers will wait eagerly for the second installment of this wonderful memoir.
Don’t Mind Me, I’m Just Having a Bad Life: A Memoir
by Lewis Kempfer
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PUB DATE September 9, 2019
ISBN 9781543970760
PRICE $21.95 (USD)
