Crooked Smile
What It Took to Escape a Decade of Homelessness, Addiction, & Crime
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Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
Crooked Smile
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Graham Rowat
About this listen
Featured in the Wall Street Journal
Crooked Smile details one man's journey that left him homeless on Skid Row, and what it took to escape a decade of addiction.
"Darkly humorous" is an understatement when it comes to this tale of addiction, homelessness, incarceration, and redemption. Jared Klickstein, the child of two heroin addicts who eventually became addicted himself, takes listeners on a raw and personal journey from his unsettling and secretive childhood in the suburbs to the slums of Skid Row. Through tales of violence, relapse, and deep inner struggle, Klickstein provides a harrowing account of his personal encounter with near-death.
But this story is not just about one man's life—it's about the hundreds of thousands of homeless and drug-addicted Americans who are on the streets right now. It's about those who need help the most, and what can be done to address the growing addiction and homelessness problems. Klickstein offers a fresh take and solutions to both epidemics, providing firsthand experience and insight into what policies should be put in place to mitigate the suffering. Crooked Smile recounts one man's escape from a hellish life—and carves a valuable path for others.
©2024 Jared Klickstein (P)2025 Tantor MediaListeners also enjoyed...
How far addiction can take you and how it is in fact always possible to come back no matter how impossible it might seem.
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What really got me was how unflinchingly he looks at who he used to be. There’s no sugarcoating or trying to make himself look good. He owns it. And somehow, through all the chaos, you feel this thread of humanity — this desperate search for meaning, connection, and something real.
It’s not a feel-good book. It’s rough. But it’s also real in a way most books aren’t. And by the end, it left me feeling strangely hopeful. Like, yeah, people can go through hell and still find their way back. Not perfectly, not all at once, but they can.
If you’ve ever struggled with addiction, mental health, or just felt completely lost — or love someone who has — this book hits different. It’s intense, but worth it.
One if the realest books I have read
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He then surrenders to half a lifetime of addiction himself, and this book covers that period, explaining in detail, and accepting the blame.
It is incredibly informative and covers both the determination, stupidity and sadness. Although I have no personal experience of drugs myself, I had several friends who were criminal victims, and now I understand them far, far better than I did way back at the time.
The book is almost written as a humorous insight into such failings, but beneath is the heartbreak.
I send absolute admiration and sympathy to the author.
Amazing and and brilliantly deserving
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