LIAR: A MEMOIR

A physician asks Rob Roberge when he broke his neck. He says, “I don’t think I did.” But, the x-rays tell a different story. Aside from never treating the injury that nearly paralyzed him, his doctor explains that he’s likely to have a progressive disease that erodes memory and destroys the frontal lobe. A widely lauded fiction writer, Rob’s terrified by the prospect of losing his identity—after all, what is identity if not our memories?

Driven by fear of losing is memory, Rob records the most formative instances of his life, among them: his first drink at age eight, the brutal murder of his childhood girlfriend, his grandfather shooting his grandmother, his cousin suiciding off a bridge, reckless drug abuse in college, being diagnosed manic depressive with rapid cycling and occasional psychotic episodes, a grand mal seizure when he first quit drinking, marrying his soul mate, getting and staying clean and sober for nearly fifteen years, his wife’s diagnosis with an agonizing neuro-muscular disorder, stealing enough of her Oxycodone and Xanax to kill himself, failing to die, getting clean and sober again, publishing three novels and a story collection, investigating the unsolved murder of his childhood girlfriend, opening for Yo La Tengo at the Fillmore, feeling guilty, surviving, feeling grateful, coming to enjoy life and feel worthy of love. Rob's poignant creativity, wild honesty and fierce intelligence yield one of the most engrossing explorations of truth, memory and meaning that we’ve read in years, as well as the most original addiction/recovery narrative in at least as long. Rob Roberge is the author of MORE THAN THEY COULD CHEW (Morrow, 2001), THE COST OF LIVING (Other Voices, 2013) and DRIVE (Holliday Press, 2006). Rob is on the core faculty at University of California Riverside/Palm Desert’s MFA and has taught at UCR’s main campus, Antioch Los Angeles’ MFA program and the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, where he received the Outstanding Instructor Award in Creative Writing. He studied at Emerson College and has a MFA from Vermont College. He plays guitar and sings with the legendary LA punk band The Urinals.