Book details

Hero of the Underground

A Memoir

Author: Jason Peter with Tony O'Neill

Hero of the Underground

Hero of the Underground

$22.99

About This Book

This New York Times bestselling gritty memoir Hero of the Underground offers a no-holds-barred look at the twisted underbelly of a seemingly perfect life. Jason...

Page Count
304
On Sale
06/23/2009

Book Details

This New York Times bestselling gritty memoir Hero of the Underground offers a no-holds-barred look at the twisted underbelly of a seemingly perfect life. Jason Peter, an All-American football player, captain of the National Champion Nebraska Cornhuskers, first round NFL draft pick. . . and heroin addict.

I wasn't afraid of death.

How could I be? I lived under death's shadow every day. When you swallow sixty Vicodin, twenty sleeping pills, drink a bottle of vodka, and still survive, a certain sense of invulnerability stays with you.

When you continually use drugs with the kind of reckless determination that I did, the limit to how much heroin or crack you can ingest is not defined by dollar amounts but by the amounts your body can withstand without experiencing a seizure or respiratory failure. . . .

I found myself contemplating death again. Only this time I wasn't going to leave it to chance. I was going to buy a gun, load the thing, place the barrel in my mouth, and blow my fucking brains out.

"Had Hunter Thompson been a football player instead of a fan, this is the book he'd have written. Flat-out, mash-your-face-in-the-dirt amazing." —Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight

Imprint Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin

ISBN

9780312561031

In The News

“Riveting . . . the first page took me to the top of a roller coaster and dropped me straight down.” —Peter King, SportsIllustrated.com

“Compelling brutality . . . it's nasty. And well worth the read.” —ESPN.com

Hero of the Underground gives us a portrait of red-blooded jock as monster dope fiend. It's a savage, unsparing, eye-popping ride through the dark soul of big money, endless drugs, American manhood, and our national past time---self-destruction. Ex-Cornhusker Jason Peter writes like a soulful badass, and we're lucky he lived to tell the tale. Had Hunter Thompson been a football player instead of a fan, this is the book he'd have written. Flat-out, mash-your-face-in-the-dirt amazing.” —Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight

“Bruising... more harrowing than usual. Peter's narrative relentlessly focuses on the brutalizing facts, and it is free from the macho posturing and self-congratulatory navel-gazing common in recovery memoirs. Nightmarishly honest.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Wow, I am not sure how to express how unsettling this wound up being, for me. The book is a sledgehammer. When I think about the book, I feel this sort of hollow whistling in my chest. Jesus.” —Nancy Rommelmann, New York Times bestselling author of The Real Real World

“I enjoyed the hell out of this book, sped through it like a crack fiend. There will be a lot of interest in this part of the world because of his Cornhusker ties. Nebraska is God's country, but God, as Peter says, is Tom Osborne.” —Poe Ballantine, author of Things I Like About America and God Clobbers Us All

About the Creators

Hero of the Underground

Hero of the Underground

$22.99