Sunday
drinking: a love story
I just finished this book. I'd read Caroline Knapp's book about her dog and I liked her "Alice K." columns very much. SHe was (she died of lung cancer at age 42 a year or two ago) a singularly graceful essayist. I love her writing.
I wanted to love this book. I thought I would, but it just didn't stick to the bones. There isn't much there. It's worth reading for the writing alone. Her descriptions of the social customs that surround drinking are wonderful, lyrical things.
But the story at the core -- of her own realization that she has a drinking problem and her decision to go to rehab and quit - falls flat. I never fully believed she had a problem and her decision to get help and quit drinking altogether seems rather abrupt. I can't figure out why she went to rehab and her involvement with AA isn't fully fleshed out.
But again, she is such a good writer that I read it in one sitting (it's a very slim, little book).
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1 comment:
Hi, Katie,
Elaine again. I, too, jumped into this box to suggest you read that Augusten Burroughs book--but because it's FUNNY. After reading Dry a year and a half ago, I was panting for more of his stuf and asked one of the papers I write for if I could review Magical Thinking, the follow-up, which was about to come out.
But it's awful.
The worst part of the awfulness is that you darkly suspect he's drinking again, for which eventuality the excoriating candor of Dry has uniquely prepared you. Such are the perils of memoir.
Happy New Year!
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