David Carr’s Daughter On The ‘Grand Caper’ Of Life, and How to Keep it Going

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Remarkable Interview –

APR. 30, 2019 – He was so good at inspiring confidence in you,” daughter Erin Lee Carr says. “He had an ability to spot talent in a way that I’ve seen sort of unrivaled — whether it be Ta-Nehisi Coates or Lena Dunham or his colleague A.O. Scott at the Times.” But David Carr’s role as a mentor to his daughter was complicated by his addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine. His 2008 memoir, The Night of the Gun, describes how, earlier in his life, he put Erin and her twin sister Meagan into foster care before eventually getting sober.

In the memoir All That You Leave Behind, Erin, now a documentary filmmaker, writes about how her father’s past affected her life, and how she dealt with her own addiction to alcohol. She sees her book as a continuation of her father’s spirit. “He talked about life being a grand caper and that we hope it doesn’t end soon…” she says. “The book is about extending the caper.”