Kasher In The Rye

BOOK: Kasher In The Rye – The True Tale of a White Boy From Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16.

AUTHOR: Moshe Kasher

GRADE: B+

After an almost unbelievable transformation from a 15 year old mentally ill criminal – addicted to booze, drugs and stealing – into a regular panel member on the wildly popular and totally hilarious Chelsea Lately show, Moshe Kasher has penned a memoir that is equal parts heart breaking and inspirational. Kasher In The Rye is Moshe Kasher’s attempt to make sense of – and shed – his demons while explaining how everything went so very wrong in his life. The result is simply jaw dropping.

Moshe Kasher bizarre life began with his mother kidnapping him from his father and their Chassidic community in NY and moving 3,000 miles away to Oakland, California – where he settled in for a life of being different. A four year old little boy in analysis. A Jew in a Christian home. A white kid in a black school. A drug addict in an affluent middle school. Everywhere Moshe went, it seemed he just could not fit in. That is, until he discovered booze. Then drugs. Then stealing. Life would never be the same again.

Kasher’s slide down the rabbit hole was faster than normal – but his trip is one easily recognizable to anyone who’s ever struggled with an addiction. The beauty in Kasher In The Rye is Kasher’s ability to write in a way that the reader actually starts to feel exhausted – as though you are living his life through every page. Kasher really opens the door for people to see what it actually is like to be so desperately addicted to a substance that nothing else matters; how it feels to literally live for the high. Non-addict readers will be shocked. Readers who’ve shared in this struggle will feel a kinship of empathy for Moshe. I, personally, felt his losses and cheered his success along with him. Nothing made me happier than watching him succeed in the end.

While the writing is relatively pedestrian – and the big F-bomb is dropped into every other sentence – the story carries the reader through some of less than stellar prose. I would recommend this to all. Prepare to be amazed!