Many writers and readers across the country are mourning the passing of New York Times columnist and media critic David Carr, and the best way to remember him is to return to his work. In this 2008 episode of the Audio Book Club, three Slate contributors discussed The Night of the Gun, Carr’s best-selling memoir from that same year.

In the book, Carr details his descent into alcoholism and drug dependency. But, as Meghan O’Rourke, Troy Patterson, and Katie Roiphe discuss, Carr complicates the memoir-of-addiction genre by using his reporting skills to fact-check his personal recollections. By interviewing his own friends and acquaintances and researching his medical records, Carr attempts to break out of the familiar conventions of the memoir.