Review: Here's one to the guy with both middle fingers raised
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 28, 2011
I guess the most amazing thing about Mishka Shubaly's drug and alcohol soaked memoir is how much he is able to remember.In some circles used to be that when a baby started teething, parents would massage the infant's gums with bourbon or more often vodka, which didn't taste as bad. The alcohol soothed the hurt and quieted the kid down.Shubaly was likely one of those infants. For him the alcohol started while he was still in diapers, before conscious memory, and didn't stop for the next three decades.  When he grew up, got older, and after alcohol no longer made him feel good - just not bad - he started with opiates and heavy duty non-opiate helpers such as Opana, and he'd snort it and after just a line or two he felt as if his body was" bursting with love."At 32, he was used to his face scraping the floor. "I got a job, got fired, got another job, got dumped, moved onto a friend's busted futon, joined a band, got fired, bottomed out, got sober, got a job and started drinking again. I'll give you a nickel if you can detect a pattern."Then he got sober and stayed that way, for two days straight, then two months, now it's been two years.A friend hired him to manage a place called the Beauty Bar on 14th Street in NYC. One night a buddy working in the bar was sucker-punched by a drunken Aussie and he landed on the floor unconscious with a big knob on the back of his head.Shubaly hung around until the friend got transported to the hospital. By then he was too bummed out to think about pedaling his bike home across the bridge into Brooklyn. He cabbed it. The point is, the next morning he decided to run back across the bridge to get his bike. To run. This is just after he got sober and it hurt but it really felt good, too. He kept at it. Running. He ran marathons and he stayed sober and his outlook changed.Running became the new possible. Instead of only bad, running became proof that he could do good things, too. And that's pretty much the story.It's a lot of people's story and the job for Shubaly is to tell it in a way that keeps things interesting. I think that deep down this guy wrote about himself so that we'd come to like him and to appreciate his rehab and resilience. I think he's the type of guy who just wants to be liked. So it's a good thing he comes across as a really likeable guy.I think you should read his story. I've given you a couple details. He has a raft of anecdotes and encounters that will amaze and amuse. But most of all, my guess is he'll win you over the way he did me.When he hit bottom, he says, he "lived on foot in the gutter and the other in the grave, face down on the bar with both middle fingers in the air." It's not that way anymore. And the turnabout is a rich story told well. Hey, dude, keep on running.