A remarkable personal narrative in today’s Sunday Times Magazine by David Carr (the Times’ Media columnist). The mix of honesty and self-deception, freedom and addiction, waste and grace is stunning. Here’s a small sample:

To be an addict is to be something of a cognitive acrobat. You spread versions of yourself around, giving each person the truth he or she needs you need, actually to keep them at a remove. Lets stipulate that I do not have a good memory, having recklessly sauted my brain in fistfuls of pharmaceutical spices. Beyond impairment, there may be no more unreliable narrator than an addict. Recovered or not, I am someone who used my mouth to constantly create one more opportunity to get high.Here is what I deserved: hepatitis C, federal prison time, H.I.V., a cold park bench, an early, addled death.Here is what I got: the smart, pretty wife, the three lovely children, the job that impresses.Here is what I remember about how That Guy became This Guy: not much. But my version of events is worth knowing, if for no other reason than I was there.