A reporter investigates himself

I just finished David Carr's "The Night of the Gun: A reporter investigates the darkest story of his life -- his own."

The book has been getting a lot of buzz these days, primarily because of the author's methodology.

Carr's an inveterate journalist -- a reporter with The New York Times -- who, conscious of the scandal surrounding James Frey's Million Little Pieces, applies all the best journalistic principles (including hiring an independent third party) to assist him in making a searching and fearless moral and physical inventory of his life of drinking, drugging and carousing.

The result is an unflinching look at his life which, among other things, has included numerous incarcerations, stints in rehab, a brush with cancer, relapsing after fourteen years of sobriety, and raising twin girls all on his own.

Memory is the distance between two people, as Carr says, so to avoid the pitfalls that Frey fell into, he has been meticulous about documenting his research.

You can find much of it on-line, including videotaped interviews, pictures and written affidavits.

It's a good and fast read.