Summary of Mark Lanegan's Sing Backwards and Weep

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 I was born in 1964, and I was raised by my mother. She was a teacher, and she couldn’t control me. She always made me feel bad about myself. My father couldn’t control me either, and he often projected a deep, quiet sadness around him.

#2 I was a petty thief in junior high. I would ask to use the restroom between classes, then make my way through the school, down to the gym locker room, and rifle through the pockets of the students there. I stole whatever was there.

#3 I had a difficult childhood, and my father spent little time parenting me. I was a compulsive gambler, a fledgling alcoholic, a thief, and a porno fiend. I hid my weed and smoking apparatus in the doghouse under our carport.

#4 I had to start toughening up, which meant smartening up. I wasn’t talking about fighting, but I was tired of paying for my broken hands. I needed to be stronger and smarter than I was.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669357780

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I was born in 1964, and I was raised by my mother. She was a teacher, and she couldn’t control me. She always made me feel bad about myself. My father couldn’t control me either, and he often projected a deep, quiet sadness around him.

#2

I was a petty thief in junior high. I would ask to use the restroom between classes, then make my way through the school, down to the gym locker room, and rifle through the pockets of the students there. I stole whatever was there.

#3

I had a difficult childhood, and my father spent little time parenting me. I was a compulsive gambler, a fledgling alcoholic, a thief, and a porno fiend. I hid my weed and smoking apparatus in the doghouse under our carport.

#4

I had to start toughening up, which meant smartening up. I wasn’t talking about fighting, but I was tired of paying for my broken hands. I needed to be stronger and smarter than I was.

#5

I was 15 when I traded in all of my comic books for records. I was instantly hooked on punk rock, and soon traded in all of my other records for more punk rock. I had a very negative opinion of police officers in Ellensburg, and would frequently get arrested with them.

#6

I was one of two quarterbacks on my high school team, and we were terrible. I never did any homework, and I was treated with contempt by my teammates. I was a full-blown alcoholic after my second bottle of MD 20/20, and I would go to the park and drink it.

#7

I was a frequent target of Waddell Snyder’s jokes and abuse. One day, after practice, I found my helmet filled and dripping with soda. The prankster had been the biggest, heaviest lineman on our team, an extremely large dark-skinned black man named Waddell Snyder. I laughed out loud when my dad called the coach off our property.

#8

I was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for vandalizing a van, drinking underage, and stealing car parts. I would do my time at Shelton, the medium-security prison in Washington. The judge reviewed my rap sheet, which was drug and alcohol related, and suspended my sentence on the condition that I completed a year of outpatient substance-abuse treatment.

#9

In 1982, I was playing baseball in Ellensburg, Washington, and I was having the best season of my life. But I had failed a home economics class the previous semester, which meant I wouldn’t be allowed to play sports anymore. I would have agreed to anything to play baseball.

#10

I was not expecting to receive such a hostile welcome when I returned to school, but I was still shocked by the hostility of my teacher, Mrs. Stevens. I had dreamed of playing baseball, but that was done when I received an F on my end-of-semester project. I had no other option but to decline her generous offer.

#11

I had a high school girlfriend named Deborah who had quit college, come back to town, and moved in with me. I had quit drinking and was trying to quit, but I couldn’t get past Friday night. I would drink for twenty-four hours, no drugs, just drinking and not sleeping. Then I’d be unconscious for twenty-four hours.

#12

I had been reviled as a town drunk before I could even legally drink. I had a full beard at age 18 and started drinking in bars, always blacking out and bringing