“‘You ever smoke meth?’ he asked, casual like he was offering a cigarette.”
So begins a passage in S. Elias W Sharp’s unforgettable debut memoir, Dreams are for the Dead. A former roommate who poses the question to Sharp in the empty apartment they used to share. The furnishings are now all gone.
The encounter continues, “I don’t know what I was expecting, but he made it look easy. Too easy. He held the pipe like it was pure gold. Lit the bottom of the bulb gently, like coaxing a baby bird awake… and the smell hit me — burnt plastic and rot, like rubber tires burning. Awful, industrial, toxic. But there I was, still curious.”
S. Elias W Sharp plunges readers into an unfiltered retelling of his bottoming out before rebounding. It is a memoir that doubles as a testament, of one brave soul facing his demons to focus on rebuilding his life. Getting such an intimate understanding of what the author endured is to gain an appreciation for right choices, and overcoming adversities that very few must.
Sharp candidly shares the reason for his book. “When I sat down to write Dreams Are for the Dead, I wasn’t trying to follow a formula. I wasn’t chasing a tidy arc or a clean narrative … I didn’t want this memoir to just tell a story — I wanted it to feel like what surviving actually feels like: chaotic, nonlinear, beautiful and brutal all at once. I let memory guide the flow and I allowed pain to exist on the page without needing it to be tied up with a bow. This wasn’t just writing. It was rebuilding. It was therapy. It was an experiment in honesty, and in whether the truth — even the ugliest parts of it — could still be beautiful.”
Figuratively, Sharp puts himself, and the reader, back on that path and into the addict mindset. He realizes sobriety is achievable, even though circumstance can cruelly isolate one from the best possible sources of help and encouragement. And yes, it is beautiful.
Through eviscerating language and descriptions, Sharp tears the reader down with him as he plunges into complete vulnerability. As Elias begins his ascension from those dark places, he proves that his trauma does not define him, though it’s burdened him for most of his life. In a recent interview, Sharp said, “We don’t wake up one day and decide we are going to become an addict.”
Sharp shared that his book’s title reflects back to his childhood, when survival and safety were paramount goals and he didn’t have time to think about his future or dreams.
“I was too busy surviving to dream, I was navigating my own traumas and experiences. I had no time to think about my future or where I might be or what I wanted to do with my life. In that sense, dreams were for the dead when I was a child.”
From S. Elias W Sharp’s dark cloud shines a brilliant silver lining that will touch each of us.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s April 2026 issue.
