Comments about Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption:

I've read most of this book, and read some parts twice. It does tell readers how messed up this generation of Kennedys are, with Lawford and his dead relative David probably the most messed up. In comparison, a Kennedy casual fan can realize that they really need the discipline of having regular lives and trying to deal in the world in a responsible way and in trying to help common people. This guy's life turns into a 15+ years drug binge which began in prep school and continued through college, law school, Hollywood, marriage, and fathering three kids. He seems as messed up or more messed up than his contemporaries Joe Kennedy III and RFK Jr. Chris ends up in hospitals, after he od's with syringes in him, etc etc, all the while rafting and climbing a mountain, and trying to bed every woman he can. His dad was a booze hound, his mom spent time in Europe with his sisters, and his well-regarded relatives are busy doing their stuff. I can't feel sorry for this guy despite the family tragedies; he chose to go on a really long binge and lived to tell about it. He was a soap star, has appeared in a number of Hollywood movies, and now he's trying to help us all recover after he partied with his dad, Lennon and Ringo, and failed to bed Bianca Jagger. Boo-hoo! He needs a better editor: on one page it's My Cousin Vinnie, and the next it's Vinny. Aren't the words they and their plural? Not in this book. He likes an occasional fragment and admits to grammar deficiences. He is as much a Lawford as a Kennedy, or more the former, and less the latter. He got through Tufts and BC Law School; and his family's connections who provided him with letters of reference didn't get him into Harvard, but he partied with RFK Jr. there just the same. Yea!