By Jenna Duncan, News Staff

David Sheff, author of this year’s First Pages book ‘A Beautiful Boy,’ echoed much of the same emotional turmoil found in his novel regarding his son Nic’s struggle with addiction to methamphetamines on Thursday night.
First Pages is a reading program which began in 2006 with entering freshman honors students, and last year expanded to the entire entering class. Every student is required to read the assigned text, which according to Northeastern’s website is aimed to shed light on a selected issue, and help unify the freshmen.
In the lecture, Sheff began recapturing the pain his son’s addiction caused him, reflecting on how it began and how it began to effect him.
‘I was addicted to his addiction,’ he recalled, a theme recurring in his book. ‘How can a parent not be obsessed with their child’s life or death situation?’
Nic was using drugs in middle and high school, and Sheff reflected on his own experiences with drugs.
‘I missed my teen years and a lot of my early 20s,’ he said.
Sheff went back to continue talking about Nic’s addiction, and at times when talking about Nic being in the hospital or relapsing, would choke up.
Most of this was reminiscent of the book, freshman communication studies major Nicole St. Germain said.
‘I thought it was really similar to the book,’ she said. ‘I think it was hard because the audience he was talking to was big. It didn’t add as much to the book as I thought it would.’
The crowd was not as large as last year’s though, when author of ‘Three Cups of Tea’ Greg Mortenson came to speak.
‘A lot of people went, but there was a good percentage that didn’t,’ St. Germain said. ‘They just didn’t think they had to. A teacher said it wasn’t actually mandatory and some people didn’t read the book.’
Students who didn’t read the book said it was because the subject matter didn’t appeal to them.
‘Those types of books don’t interest me,’ freshman international business major William Duran said. ‘I guess if you’ve been more involved in alcohol and drugs, it’d be more interesting.’
However, others found the similar subject matter interesting since the book is an unconventional drug memoir from a father’s perspective.
‘I think the best part of the book was how it was written from the dad’s point of view as opposed to his son’s,’ St. Germain said. ‘It was a little different from any other book written about drug addiction.’
Since the book was so close to the son’s journey, chronicled in Nic Sheff’s memoir ‘Tweak,’ some said now they had interest in learning the son’s point of view on the story.
‘I really want to {read it},’ freshman pharmacy major Crisasha Harry said. ‘I probably will because the son’s [view] may be more authentic since it’s his perspective.’
Even some that liked the book were not in attendance, including Sarah Trieweiler, who said she had fallen asleep before the speech.
‘I liked the book,’ Sarah Trieweiler, a freshman biology major said. ‘I thought it was well written, interesting and relevant.’
Overall, the book was a good choice for the program, regardless of how many students actually read the text, St. Germain said.
‘I loved the book, it was awesome,’ she said. ‘I took a lot away from it.’