Susan (SG) - , reviewed on 6/30/2010 + 25 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

My book club chose this book, and I wasn't sure how I was going to like it, but I ended up really enjoying it and for the most part, found it a page turner. I work in the health field so I know something about how devastating alcoholism is, but this memoir brought all those statistics to life through the author's gripping account of her own struggle with the disease. I found it difficult to relate to alcoholism as a disease until I read this book: the kind of obsessive behavior and physiological responses she describes really bring it home.

But the heart of the story is the author's searing honesty about the life she was living as an alcoholic - the lies she told, the relationships she wrecked, and most importantly, how alcohol stunted her emotional growth and ability to mature. Well written, witty, and moving, I highly recommend this book, even for folks (like myself) who might've thought they'd be put off by the subject matter.

When I finished, I looked up Caroline Knapp to see if she had any other books and find out how she was doing, if she was still sober. I was sad to hear that just a few years after she got sober, she died of lung cancer (smoking was her other addiction) at 42. I think she probably appreciated the irony that in the end, it was lung cancer and not alcoholism that got her, and I bet she was grateful that unlike her father, she had made choices before her death that meant she met it sober and lucid, and after she'd had the chance to repair some of the damage her alcoholism caused. I hope she found the peace she so desperately sought in the end.

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