Cracking Up: From Rising Star to Junkie Despair in 1,000 Days—An Unlikely Addict's Memoir

Gordon Lownds's career was peaking. He was fearless. Invincible.

But fate-and cocaine-intervened.

A reckless, experimental hit on a crack pipe quickly morphed into a raging, hard-core, shooting-up junkie experience. He became trapped in unfamiliar territory, desperately trying to navigate the sordid, violent drug world-all while coping with a psychotic girlfriend, overdoses, and drug busts.

Lownds barely survived the soul-destroying and death-defying events that unfolded over just 1,000 days. But he managed to crawl out of the gutters of despair-only to find even greater trials ahead in recovery. It took many hard years for him to earn back the respect he'd once had and the trust of those he'd let down.

Cracking Up reveals the darkest side of success and the hidden struggles faced by a distinguished Canadian entrepreneur. It's a brutally honest account of how even the most successful can fall, and of the universal challenges faced by all addicts trying to reclaim their lives.

PRAISE FOR "CRACKING UP"

“It’s a brutally honest tale that takes readers from Lownds’s first foray into entrepreneurship…to the depths of Vancouver’s infamous East Side.”

—Toronto Star

“The book is honest, brutally so, and Lownds describes his drug and sex escapades in such an expletive laden manner that he feels obliged to chime in at certain points to directly address the reader.”

—CTV News

“Gordon Lownds has a unique story of falling into the darkness of addiction—and finding his way back into the light.”

—Ben Mulroney

"Hunter S Thompson has nothing on Gord Lownds!"

—Steve Gunn, Co-founder of Sleep Country Canada and Canadian Business Leader

"Brilliantly written, captivating, and hard to put down.”

—Akela Peoples, CEO Mental Health Research Canada