The Tennis Ball Diaries

Last month, the publishing industry threw its back out promoting the father-son memoirs Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines. The former was written by David Sheff, whose titular son, Nic, spent a good portion of his youth enjoying his titular meth addiction but getting his act together in time to pen the latter book. Beautiful Boy, published by Houghton Mifflin, has received the lion's share of the attention, but young Nic's effort, put out by Ginee Seo Books and stocked a little shockingly in the young adult section of bookstores everywhere, has naturally gone along for the ride. (In case you were wondering, Nic begins his story with a healthy disclaimer, stating how he fudged the dialogue and created composite characters and generally spruced things up, probably with an eye toward Oprah. Which worked. The show airs in April.) Nic's book is essentially a drug log, but it has a nice local angle — he grew up in the city. And in the process got fucked up all over it: He scores in the Haight, he gets wasted in the T.L., he shoots up in Sea Cliff, he stumbles around Baker Beach. You might even know this guy. Find out as father and son appear at "Methamphetamine: A Family's Nightmare."
Tue., April 1, 8 p.m., 2008