Don’t Pity the Desperate
Unsolicited Press
Sept. 2024
Don’t Pity the Desperate
Don’t Pity the Desperate tells the story of Myra, a self-aware teenage girl who perseveres when her father admits her to an inpatient treatment center against her will. Under tight surveillance, Myra must confront both her alcoholism and her compulsion to pull out her hair. She finds hope in faith and confession, two key principles of recovery. As her peers—an ensemble of abused, neglected, and sometimes unrestrained addicts—grow to rely on the solutions offered at Our Primary Purpose, Myra decides to follow the rules. But when her counselor betrays her, her boyfriend rejects her (doesn’t he?), and God remains indifferent despite her prayers and devotion, Myra must twist her narrative to move forward. Her quest for love and acceptance is a dark anthem of Gen-X pop culture and an affirmation of the suffering of growing up.
Advanced Praise
“Myra is in deep trouble, exactly the sort of trouble American teens find themselves in, here in the centerless middle of endless suburbia, of late stage capitalism, driven by longings she cannot control or decipher. In a voice that rises up out of her deepest insecurities and denials, Don’t Pity the Desperate tracks Myra’s progress toward her own truth, or at least a self that is by degrees more survivable, and there is much bravery and beauty in the telling. This deep-hearted, penetrating portrait delivers the thing I want most in any story: the feeling that the writer’s life depended, at least a little, in getting it on the page.”
—Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek and Finding Hope in the High Country
“From page one, Don’t Pity the Desperate is riveting, encompassing the grief, confusion and, yes, the desperate wanting of a young addict named Myra who has lost her way. Deadpan, darkly humorous and profoundly touching, Moore’s novel is full of knife-sharp insights about rehabs and recovery – and I fear those insights are as true today as they were in the 1980s, when this story is set. Is recovery possible? And what, exactly, are we recovering from? Vivid and evocative, Moore’s story is unforgettable. It lingers in my imagination still.”
—Samantha Dunn, Author of Failing Paris and Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life