Can't Hold

Abstract

Can’t Hold follows the life of Matthew, a drug addict, as he tries to survive the opioid crisis of the early twenty-first century. The novel begins with Matthew trapped in a drug-riddled neighborhood outside Tampa, Florida. After a close friend dies from a drug overdose, Matthew, in a panic, leaves the neighborhood, gets a job, and hopes to return home to his sister and niece who live in Wisconsin. This novel explores the physical and spiritual pervasiveness of addiction. Ultimately, this novel is wondering why there exists such a staggeringly low survival and recovery rate for drug addicts in our country. To investigate this ongoing epidemic, the novel is narrated through the first-person present tense perspective of Matthew in hopes of offering a visceral and personal experience for the reader—a glimpse into the demanding nature of addiction, and the seemingly impossible prospect of recovery.