My Friend Leonard, by James Frey narrates a story about an alcoholic and drug addict man going through life while trying to get out of his addictions and live a normal life. This man, James, is at jail for problems he had thanks to his addictions. When he happily goes out, he suffers a lot of problems such as girlfriend committing suicide, no job nor money, no home; and goes through ups and downs; but he still, remains suffer. Leonard, James’ friend, shows friendship, care, support, happiness; he’s always there for James, whenever he needs him, Leonard tries to help with financial problems, sentimental problems, physical problems, etc. This teaches us that all personal problems can be achieved no matter how rough life gets in your way.
This book concisely shows how life´s hard for some people and in this case a former alcoholic and drug addict. He suffers through many problems in his life, but he bears to stay without drinking or doing drugs; but directly dealing with feelings. James buys a bottle of Rose, his favorite deadly liquor, he always has it with him, he learns to have it near him, beside him and not drink at all; he always has the option to drink it or not, but he keeps on choosing the right choice. James can go to bars with his friends, others might be drinking, getting drunk, causing problems; but he’s just there, drinking a coke. He doesn’t judge them, he definitely know how it is to be in the other side. After going out of jail, being unemployed, his girlfriend having suicide, having no money, nor house, he decides to fin a way to work, go through life, ask Leonard for money to rent an apartment, he starts his life all over, when depressed no drinking nor doing drugs, he cries and cries himself to sleep. This book is full of lections, lections that show us no matter how hard life is, you can shoes to live it the wrong way, or change in to a new way. This shows how an addict can overcome his problems and become a normal person again.
This book is for strong readers, I consider this should be for about 13 and above. This is a strong book with serious, hard to understand situations. It implies to be read by a mature audience who can handle reading strong situations and some bad language. An interesting thing about this book is the way it’s written. It is written in a mix of verses, stanzas, prose and run-on-sentences. It’s all written in first person, but not only what he says, sees and thinks, but everything hehears, sees feels, crosses his mind, etc. This book shows us difficulties of the life of an alcoholic drug addict who finds away to change his life positively, overcome his addictions, become a successful man, maintain and important friendship and most important of all, improve his life.
If it were set in another time or place it would be very different. First of all, his life wouldn't be about going to an apartment, dealing with his life, tryng to control himself from beer, or Rose. In other times it would be either more formal, or harder or evemn illegal to buy those alcoholic drinks. His life, beside being weird, also sounds as a life of an American man in an American city. I'm sure that of for example, that would've been here in Mexico, it would0ve been different. He would either be wearing hats and living a "rancho" life, or living in a poor neighborbood. The boomk would be extremely different if the time and/or place changed.
 Yes, it shows every detail of what james feels, thinks, sees, hears, what he know, what he doesn't know. We, the readers know exactly what he knows, no more, no less. I wouldn't change it because we fully understand his life and what's happening from his own point o view. We know what he's feeling and thinking and seeing. We don't k ow all the details. We know from his own thoughts.
James, the main character talks about his past life, he used to be an alcoholic drug addict, kind of a dealer, a troublemaker who was always causing problems due to being high or drunk. At the beggining of the book, he is a regular man in jail who was arrested for having problems as an alcoholic, he already has rehab, but he's sad, mad, missing Lilly, wanting to see her and drink and smoke. In the rest of the book he's a man with a tough past who´s now staying clean, making a new life, recovering from his heartbreak and trying not to fall back into the addiction, be a normal sober man, with a normal job, a normal life, and learining to control and change himself. Sometimes he's happy, sometimes he's depressed, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes confused; while learining to change himself and trying to deal with Lilly's suicide, he goess though lots of emotions, but now he's a good man.
 The narrators point of view is the most important in this book. The narrator is also the main character, it's not as if he were telling you what happens, but it's as if you were hearing this thoughts and you were inside of his mind. Everything in this book depends on his point of view,mif he's happy he'll see things fine, when he's depressed, thinking about lilly, or his life, everything seems sad or depressing. Everything that happens in the story happens because of the way he sees and feels. He somethimes feels miserable and everything seems sad and miserable.m
 James is out of jail, he's caused many problems in his life while being drunk and high and he ended up in jail. He went out of jail and he'll go see his girlfriend, who is sad and depressed because her grandma dies and he's not there to be with her. He gors to see her to her apartment and they tell him what happened to her. She died, she killed herself, she was way too depressed and was sure nobody was there for her, he got there from jail, and she was dead. He bought a bottle of Rose, his favorite liquor. He always has it there with him, but he proves himself he will
 The narrator is James, the main character. all the book is narrated in first persona, he never introduces himself by his name, his name is just mention once so far. It's when Porterhouse, his friend from prision, says goodbye. this book is all narrated by him, there are no quotations at all. It's as if he writes everything he sees, feels, hears, eats, etc. For example, when someone speaks he says " He speaks, i listen, he says...". Everything is written in first person.
 The theme of this book is friendship, no matter the age, the conditions, how life is going; friendship is one of the most important things. First of all, the book is called "My Friend Leonard", the book mentions how close they are/were, love each other and the narrator considers himelf like Leonard's son and best friends. When they met they were both pretty messed up, which made them bond and become great friends. Leonard is a lot of years older than the character, but they somehow became best friends.
 My book is My Friend Leonard from James Frey. I don't know anything about this book at all. My mom read it and recommended it, she said it was good, so I'll try to read it. She picked it randomly in a book exchange. I've recomended many books, she´s liked them. For the first time I'm reading a book recomended by her, So I hope I like it. I trust her.
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