Book Review / Klonopin Lunch Jessica Dorfman Jones

A nice-guy husband, a nice job, a nice apartment: for many women, this sounds like the ideal way to end their twenties; for an almost-thirty Jessica Dorfman Jones, it felt like the end to her life. Looking to shake things up just a bit, she signs up for guitar lessons and winds up quickly entering the world of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. (It’s not a list, she clarifies, “it’s a lifestyle.”) First there’s the guy—he’s in a band, of course, and gorgeous, and the two of them embark on an intense sexual and emotional affair. Then there’s the music; Jones is a natural, it turns out, and starts a band of her own. And then there’re the drugs: mostly cocaine, but plenty of alcohol and a smattering of whatever else is around. She becomes a cheating, coked up lunatic, unrecognizable to her family and friends. “My life was so fucking lame,” she tells us in an effort to explain her transformation—a defense that just doesn’t hold up for me. There’s a certain braggy quality behind her memoir that I felt was somewhat thoughtless. Despite the destruction this period caused to her life and the lives of her friends and family, she sounds fairly impressed with herself. I came to this memoir looking for the real soul-searching, reflexive writing that this kind of situation can generate and didn’t find it. It’s an entertaining read…but just that.

Labell, Molly. "Klonopin Lunch." BUST Magazine Aug 2012