Yeah, those were the days..... He's lucky to have survived so intact and so insightful. We certainly weren't our parents, and they certainly let us all down. Good memoir, well written and interesting. More power to you, Chris Rush, for surviving and thriving!

This is a crazy story! I don't read much non-fiction but I flew through this one. Well written and fast paced. Thank you!

I knew I liked Chris Rush from the first chapter. We're introduced to him as a child who appears to be more certain of who he is than most adults I've met. As Rush recounts his childhood into adolescence and then young adulthood, the environment around him, people he encounters, the era he lives in, all attempt to forge him into a different person. His resilience is just amazing to me. After living what feels like several lifetimes worth in a decade, I'm left completely in awe.

The highs and lows reading of this memoir mimic the drug-fueled jaunts of the author. He delivers his testaments with a measured amount of nonchalance, as if they were typical childhood milestones. Though he recalls layered enthusiasm for these substances at the time, with the benefit of hindsight we get to really see the absurdity of the predicaments he found himself in due to drug use. It's euphoric, but devastating.

And with a lot of stories of people with fucked up childhoods, there's the adults that failed them. Usually repeatedly, immensely and often. Even though he was able to thrive well enough to write a book in the end, it was not an easy or necessary journey. Honestly, I don't know how he survived. And many in similar positions don't. It feels unfair and despite getting many good stories out of it, it's a gut-punch to think about.

One of the most astounding things is that Rush doesn't seem angry much at all, at any point. Maybe he's worked through these feelings or he just doesn't have the rage that others might. I don't think I'd have the same temperament if I had undergone a fraction of what he did.

I loved this memoir. It's melancholic and profound and I can't recommend it enough.

Chris Rush began doing drugs at the age of 12 when his sister’s friend gave him acid. This began his long embrace of the American counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s, which Rush recalls in his poignant memoir The Light Years.

The son of a wealthy, Roman Catholic New Jersey couple, Rush was prone as a boy to running through his neighborhood in a pink satin cape. He was eventually ostracized from his family because of his father’s hostile attitude toward Rush’s behaviour and mannerisms.

Rush spent time in a series of boarding schools and then fled out west for a number of risky adventures, eventually landing in the Arizona wilderness. During this time he better came to understand his own sexuality as a young gay man. His parents were largely indifferent to his activities while he was away. They were always more focused on their own lives and troubled marriage.

Rush, a renowned artist whose work appears in many museum collections, has written a masterful coming of age story. The Light Years (digital galley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) paints a vivid picture of a young man searching for his place in the world. Rush shows remarkable grace in recalling a trying adolescence that would have broken many individuals.

This notification came after book was archived so I.was unable to.get it!! I.think.I.would have loved it tho

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. This is the memoir of the artist Chris Rush that starts at age 11 and takes him through his young adult years. This covers the gamet of topic, sexuality, religion and drugs. As I read this book I ran through many emotions. Lots of laughter and many thoughtful moments throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. It might have been the book that got me out of my rut.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Chris Rush was born into a prosperous, fiercely Roman Catholic, New Jersey family. But underneath the gleaming mid-century house, the flawless hostess mom, and the thriving businessman dad ran an unspoken tension that, amid the upheaval of the late 1960s, was destined to fracture their precarious facade.

Wow, it's amazing the author is still alive to tell his incredible story. Well written, very interesting. Must read. Warning: adult situations, extreme drug use, and really broken people.


5 stars

Every now and then a memoir appears that makes anyone who has experienced parenthood wonder What the Hell? How did this person survive, and how could parents allow their child to disappear into the unknown? The events in Chris Rush's personal history take place almost 50 years ago, and given the bifurcated nature of the home he grew up in, one can only wonder at his resilience in becoming the respected, honored artist he has evolved into. Chris is the middle child of seven of a successful contractor and his complicated wife whose fiercely Catholic lives include raucous parties attended by members of the diocese of Trenton. The father's work mostly involves construction of churches, but it is his alcoholism that drives the family. Each of the seven goes in a wayward direction, seemingly without any reaction from the parents.

But this is Chris's story, and his life of deeper and deeper involvement into the drug culture of the seventies, his being cast adrift while still in his teens and while he is coming to grips with his own sexuality, tells more about his character than that of those loathsome parents. He actually professes love for those two, and more understanding and acceptance than they are possibly entitled to. As he says toward the end Life Shapes a Face, makes it what it is. It is worthwhile to take a peek at his website and see the beautifully unsettling examples of the art he has created.

The Light Years is an engaging memoir about the author's life. He spent his teen years in the 70's taking and dealing drugs. Some crazy things happened to him. He survived an overdose, he lived off the grid in Arizona in the mountains, eventually he rejoined society and went on to live a successful life. He got lucky because so many just like him did not make it. It's a fascinating read. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Just a wild memoir. Rush, a well respected artist and designer, tell the story of his teenage years which essentially consisted of taking and dealing drugs. His odyssey across the US and his stay in the mountains in Tucson, living off the land , while stoned or tripping on LSD, makes for fascinating reading. And it appears that the rest of the kids in his family, and especially his sister Donna, were stoned or tripping during the seventies as well. I am the same age as Rush, and lived through the same times, how he came out the other side of a drug filled youth is fascinating reading. Highly recommended.