Addiction has the power to throw lives into chaos. Sometimes reaching across generations, it disrupts not only the addict but also the addict’s family. That’s the story told in the debut memoir by Winooski resident Jessica Hendry Nelson.
If Only You People Could Follow Directions is the story of her brother’s addiction, her father’s alcoholism, her mother’s attempt to hold the family together, and her own attempt to make a life out of chaos. She spoke with VPR's Peter Biello about her book.
Read an excerpt of the book as it appeared in The Rumpus.
Jessica Hendry Nelson will read her work at at Johnson State College on April 1 at 5:30 p.m. and host a reading at ArtsRiot on April 3 at 7 p.m.
Broadcast on Monday, March 24, 2014 at 8:49 a.m.
