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 written with the force of a 'Cape Doctor" Sep 11, 2009
reviews give you a tame objective insight into this wild adventure, Al's writing creates a vivid 3D mental image as you are emotionally tossed about in his world .this is a biography, not fiction, and i was unable to put it down till the last page. the adrenaline was sustained for several days after as i processed all the mayhem.A riveting read.highly recommended for anyone with a sense of adventure and if Cape Town of that era was familiar stomping ground then this multicultural chameleon alternative travelogue will not disappoint.phew
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 He made it Aug 01, 2009
Acid Alex is not your average autobiography; this vivid and candid life story is to other biograpies what LSD is to paracetamol.
Following Alex's life from (then) Rhodesia to South Africa and across borders as he starts smuggling marijuana is a roller coaster ride of intrigue, abuse, frustration, incarceration, Christian rehab centres, violence, survival and, finally, redemption. South Africa has had its share of exceptional personalities, and Alex must be counted as one of them.
The book is an easy read but be warned: it is NOT for the faint hearted. Al (as he's now known) will shock and offend all but the most blase reader as he describes his experiences with the frankness of a razor blade. He is not only graphically descriptive and brutally honest but his life led him through the worst South Africa of the late 1900s had to offer. He's experienced the worst of child abuse, the border war, jails and the low life of the Cape Flats. That he survived is enough reason to to write a book, but that he came out the other side a better person than most of us is what makes the book more than a gripping read. Despite his past Alex is one of the very few people on Earth that did not succumb to but rose above his past. Instead of becoming a victim of circumstance, for which he has every excuse to be, he became a master of his destiny, committed to saving other children at the start of the same race he had to run. In a way his story mirrors the story of South Africa, a country that, through the inspiring leadership of Nelson Mandela, rose above its past.
After reading a borrowed copy of the book (from the first edition) I was stunned to find that Al and I live in the same town, and was honoured to briefly meet this exceptional individual.
Do not buy Acid Alex if you are even moderately sensitive. But if language will not offend and hell won't frighten, and if rising above all odds is what grips you then Acid Alex is the one biography you must read.
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