Like Largo's two other "encyclopaedias", this chronicles death of many celebrities both well known and since forgotten. This book focuses on those acclaimed for genius in many different fields and their subsequent addictions, peculiarities, and eventual death, usually bizarre and/or self-inflicted.
This book is great for those interested in the history of people and the macabre, both of which I find truly fascinating. ( )

Lots of famous artistes, whether they be artists, musicians, troubadours, writers or similar, seem to involve themselves in unseemly habits. Thus, the author had no lack of material to work with.

Other reviewers have noted that they were not sure what Largo's goal with "Genius and Heroin"; I am however easy to please so I was quite content with the short entries on a range of famous people who have gone off the ropes in one way or another. I will say though that Largo ends the book on a bit of a downer (even for a book about addiction and death) by having as the final entry a story about a 19 year old chess whiz who jumped to her death in 2006 - most likely due to her allegations of sexual assault against her father. Perhaps there could have been a lighter way to end? ( )

An extremely shallow look at some of the demons possessing creative or visionary people, I had to put it down in irritation after the second internally inconsistent passage. This felt like it had been written by committee, and then poorly proofread. Disappointing, especially as I was hoping for much more from this author. ( )

This is an encyclopedic collection of information about heroin-using artists, writers, and thinkers. Some facts about the people themselves are presented, as well as varied-length accounts of their drug usage and some speculation as to how it may have influenced the writing/thoughts/actions for which they became famous.

While the reader can identify patterns on his or her own, I would have enjoyed this book more if it did a bit of this in black and white. It was also never clear to me what exactly the author's goal was: to simply make a connection between genius and heroin, yes, but the tone seemed to vary. Perhaps people with genius mindsets are more prone to drug usage? Drug-induced thoughts can masquerade as genius?

It's an interesting collection, albeit more informative than exploratory/explanatory/analytical. ( )

Genius and Heroin tells us something we probably could have guessed: creative people may have a tendency to fall into excess. Everything is kind of sad and depressing, despite largo's attempts to inject some humor into things. Am I supposed to laugh? Feel sad? I don't know, and I suspect most readers - unless their morbid curiosity is such that this is the book they've been waiting for all their life - won't, either. ( )