Something was wrong with Peter. Eilene Zimmerman noticed that her ex-husband looked thin, seemed distracted, and was frequently absent from activities with their children. She thought he looked sick and needed to see a doctor. Yet in many ways, Peter also seemed to have it all: a senior partnership at a prominent law firm, a beautiful house by the beach, expensive cars. When her calls to Peter were not returned for several days, Eilene went to his house to see if he was OK.
So begins Smacked, a moving memoir of Eilene's shocking discovery, one that sets her on a journey to find out how a man she knew for nearly 30 years became a drug addict, hiding it so well that neither she nor anyone else in his life suspected what was happening. She also embarks on a journey to recreate her life in the wake of loss, both of the person—and the relationship—that profoundly defined the woman she had become.
“Eilene Zimmerman’s Smacked tells the story of her ex-husband’s secret, spiraling addiction, which resulted in his sudden, shocking death. A rare combination of journalistic rigor, personal courage and writerly grace, Zimmerman’s account illuminates, as David Sheff’s Beautiful Boy did, that addiction is not a choice, not a moral failing, and not a problem that any amount of love, intelligence, talent or success can shield or save you from. A shattering story of terrible loss, learning, and survival, this is memoir at its most engrossing and most useful.”
— Bill Clegg, author of Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man
