The Stardust Lounge: Stories from a Boy's Adolescence

by Deborah Digges

Book Overview

Stephen Digges is the kind of angry adolescent a lot of parents would have given up on. He is out of control by the time he is 13 -- running with gangs, stealing cars, fooling around with drugs and guns, and in general making his family's life hell. Confronted with his growing recklessness and defiance, his mother, the poet Deborah Digges, decides to try to accept Stephen on his own terms--a course that stuns her family and leads to the breakup of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385720939
• ISBN13: 9780385720939
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

this book blew me away

i'm a psychiatrist and a mother of an adolescent boy and can tell you that this book is one of the most beautifully honest books i've ever read on ANY subject. i'm going to recommend it to all my patients who are parents. it's a wonderfully inspiring story that helps one move beyond fear into a state of grace. i just loved it.

Stunning, moving book

I first heard about this book on the Dianne Reemes show. Lots of controversy-- so I HAD to buy it. I'm glad I did. This book is so intelligently written. I loved the lists, letters, even the police reports Digges uses to further the narrative. The story itself is stunning.The ending is a knock-out! I just had to say how beautifully crafted this book is, as well as moving, and memorable.

What a great read!

I want to say that I began this book just after supper one night and couldn't stop until I finished it about 3 in the morning. I KNEW I had to get up for work, I KNEW that in a few hours I would be dead on my feet cooking my kids' breakfast. But I just couldn't stop, and though I was, for sure, exhausted the next day, I was also haunted by Digges' break-through story. I have talked about it with other parents, co-workers, and friends. They say, Can I borrow it?" I answer no. Go buy it yourself. I'm keeping mine.

Star-Studded

We just finished THE STARDUST LOUNGE in my reading group-- we were divided half and half-- some hated it, some loved it. I was one of the ones who loved it! Maybe because I didn't believe Digges meant this book as a "How-to" but more a "this- is- how- we- did it-,this- is- how- we- got- through" book. What a fantastic story-teller Deborah Digges is! I read this book cover to cover and then re-read, and will some more. I loved THE STARDUST LOUNGE for its honesty, from time to time its sense of hopelessness in the face of her son's adolescent horrors and terrors. Two thumbs up for Digges!

A healing book for these troubled times

I just finished reading "The Stardust Lounge" for the second time. At first read, it is a riveting, albeit, troubling journey of a devoted mother and her out-of-control son. The book is unsettling in it's raw, unabashed exposure of the power of the dark tunnel through which many adolescents pass - both male and female. As a counselor who has worked with adolescents for many years, I know, first hand, that the author's experiences are much more prevalent than most parents, and society in general, would like to admit. The ultimate power of this book, written in a seductively honest, often poetic style, is the message of the true nature of healing. Anyone who has been through troubled times - and who hasn't? - will find their answer in this book.