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Janis Ian's book, Society's Child: My Autobiography, is a candid account of her troubled childhood growing up as a "red diaper baby" in New Jersey; her rise and fall as a gifted musician who made millions of dollars and then lost every penny due to the machinations of a sleazy accountant and the ire of a vindictive IRS agent; and a wife who was viciously abused every which way by her crazy drug-addicted husband, a man whom she knew was dangerous well before they married. And that's just for starters.

Author John Cheever, masterful writer for many years of classic short stories that were hallmarks of The New Yorker magazine, is on my short list of successful writers who spent as much or more time torturing themselves than they did putting words to paper.

Cheever by Blake Bailey, combines literary criticism with detailed research and judicious use of the author's extensive journals to paint a detailed portrait of this conflicted and deeply alcoholic and sexually confused artist who never seemed comfortable in his own skin, yet managed to produce more than a hundred short stories and several novels before his premature demise.