His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina
 

His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina

9/10

For those of you who don’t know who Nick Traina is, I will tell you what he is most famous for: Being the son of the best-selling author Danielle Steel and for fronting a ska/punk band called Link 80. After releasing two CDs he ultimately kills himself by means of heroin overdose at the age of 19. The amazon book review says that he “succumbed to heroin addiction”. That is BS, or my memory is failing me, I don’t remember any mention of him going through heroin withdrawal or using it for anything other than recreation or suicide. This book, which was written by his mother, has probably made him famous too, and is an excellent look into bi-polar disorder. It is well written and heart wrenching at times. Of course there is some bias as his mother writes it. But she said she read his journals before writing this book and he isn’t shown entirely in a positive light.


Nick was the son a man who suffered from drug addiction. That man however hardly saw Nick throughout his life as his mother remarried and Nick was part of a very large family (I think 7-9 kids?). But Nick was the only one from that father. Well maybe there was one sister from him too, but I’m 90% sure it was only Nick. Sorry, it was a while ago that I read this and I saw the book recently and decided it would be relevant to share here. It is at least as relevant as Prozac Nation is, to this forum. Nick experiments with a variety of recreational drugs, including coke, speed, opiates, marijuana and LSD. I think there are a few trip reports, in the form of journal entries or poems. There is also quite a bit about the drugs he tries to manage his profound bipolar disorder. I remember lithium and thorazine being used, the latter when he was institutionalized.

Anyways this is a beautiful and tragic story that gives an intimate account of someone suffering from bipolar disorder and how it affects them and their family. I found Nick Traina to be a fascinating and extremely unique and charming individual. Also, the review by beatlebangs1964 on amazon is really good.