Drinking: A Love Story
by Caroline Knapp
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone who has ever questioned their relationship with alcohol.
I also recommend this to anyone who feels they are trying too hard to avoid negative emotions.
I just started reading this book, and it's really good. I have to say I'm wondering though at this point if I am a low-functioning human being who would have more success as a high-functioning alcoholic (the author talks about her her professional success was spurred on in a way by the need to conceal her alcoholism.)
I like addiction stories. You've got to serve somebody.
I finished this ...more
I just started reading this book, and it's really good. I have to say I'm wondering though at this point if I am a low-functioning human being who would have more success as a high-functioning alcoholic (the author talks about her her professional success was spurred on in a way by the need to conceal her alcoholism.)
I like addiction stories. You've got to serve somebody.
I finished this ...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
memoir-lovers
i feel that she talked a lot toward the end about aa, but that's what worked for her. she by no means ever states that aa will work for everyone, but since it plays a large part in her experience, it also plays a large part in her story of recovery. most of the book is about her family, her habits, her life coming of age, and her life as an alcoholic.
i am not sure why, but i really enjoy reading stories authored by abusers of alcohol, how they grew up, what their home life was like, thei...more
i am not sure why, but i really enjoy reading stories authored by abusers of alcohol, how they grew up, what their home life was like, thei...more
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Read in January, 1992
Personal backstory: Unlike many courageous readers here I didn't use this amazing book to help give up an addiction - thanks be to God. But our small Lutheran church has served the same healing function that Anne Lamott's congregation in the San Francisco Bay area did for her. Our church has the largest number of AA and CA meeting groups in California's Pasadena area. I read the hard cover edition in 1992 and thought it was a powerful recovery story. I kept reading each of her books as the...more
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Read in October, 2007
Inside Information
This book is so well written, and is so honest and informative, it is perhaps the most compelling (and useful) story about addiction I've ever read. Caroline Knapp, an Ivy-League educated columnist and editor, shares the story of her slide into alcoholism and her road to recovery with brutal honesty. Her down-to-earth, conversational tone pulls you in, and paints a very credible picture of someone who goes beyond the singular, self-serving notion of merely writing a me...more
This book is so well written, and is so honest and informative, it is perhaps the most compelling (and useful) story about addiction I've ever read. Caroline Knapp, an Ivy-League educated columnist and editor, shares the story of her slide into alcoholism and her road to recovery with brutal honesty. Her down-to-earth, conversational tone pulls you in, and paints a very credible picture of someone who goes beyond the singular, self-serving notion of merely writing a me...more
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very good stairmaster reading...you'll spend half the time being annoyed with this pretentious chick, and half the time wanting a glass of wine/beer/tequila shot. Not that drinking isn't a complicated love story for all of us--but she seems to think her love story with the bottle is on a heathcliff/catherine earnshaw level. Whereas the rest of us are at, apparently, more of a harlequin novel level.
ok--as I've spent more time on the stairmaster with this chick--and on the subway (since she's...more
ok--as I've spent more time on the stairmaster with this chick--and on the subway (since she's...more
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Read in November, 2001
It's interesting to read how many people here felt compelled to embark on their own recovery journeys after reading this book. I'm one of them as well. Knapp's frank, candid chronicle of her "drinking career" rang true with me in a way that no other "drunkalogue" had.
In that respect, I am biased. Beyond what I have experienced in the wake of finishing this book, and making that first call for help, I can appreciate it for the truly well-written memoir that it is.
Th...more
In that respect, I am biased. Beyond what I have experienced in the wake of finishing this book, and making that first call for help, I can appreciate it for the truly well-written memoir that it is.
Th...more
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Read in February, 2008
This is the memoir of an alcoholic who grew up in Cambridge and worked for the Boston Phoenix, so the setting was familiar to me. The book has several poignant moments that will resonate with functional alcoholics and problem drinkers. However, the author's story is not particularly dramatic, and it's easy to see how she successfully recovered from this disease, while many people don't. She briefly touches on the fact that the majority of the people in her rehab program relapsed.
I liked the ...more
I liked the ...more
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I had such high hopes for this book, I've heard many people rave about it, and when I checked it out of the library the librarian even made a comment about how good it was. Unfortunately, I found it boring and repetitive. The author jumps around alot to different periods of her life which can make it a bit hard to follow (I kept thinking..."was this time before or after that other thing, etc.") Although she has some interesting themes and thoughts, she harps on them repeatedly - I ofte...more
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So, normally I don't gravitate toward the recovery autobiography genre. I tend to be somewhat distrustful of them, and assume there is some preachy message of grace and salvation etc. But this was actually alright. The fact that it was a trials and tribulations of a woman from a wealthy upper middle class New England family got on my nerves here and there- but I did manage to check myself. Alcoholism is a disease and money/ family background don't really factor into the equation of who does ...more
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I thought this was well done. The book addresses one's relationship with alcohol and the difference between not being able to quit and not wanting to. I think the title is excellent.
Sadly the author's personality led her to various addictions including anorexia and smoking. This supports recent studies noting that many people who have undergone gastric bypass surgery later struggle with alcohol and other addictions, often leading to depression.
Knapp died too young, from lung cancer ...more
Sadly the author's personality led her to various addictions including anorexia and smoking. This supports recent studies noting that many people who have undergone gastric bypass surgery later struggle with alcohol and other addictions, often leading to depression.
Knapp died too young, from lung cancer ...more
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I'm moving this book from three stars to four. As a counselor, I garnered a more thorough education about alcoholism from this memoir than I did from any textbook or DSM-IV.
Counseling aside, this book is well-written and compelling. Given the tremendously large influence alcohol holds universally, studying the phenomenon benefits us all. It's easy to become numbed to the ubiquitous alcohol signs, advertisements, "let's have a drink" comments, et cetera. We need to start "...more
Counseling aside, this book is well-written and compelling. Given the tremendously large influence alcohol holds universally, studying the phenomenon benefits us all. It's easy to become numbed to the ubiquitous alcohol signs, advertisements, "let's have a drink" comments, et cetera. We need to start "...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Drinkers, anyone who likes to read about addiction
Knapp creates in her biography all the nuances and splendors of a great love story. Her love interest is alcohol of course and yet, you find yourself relating so easily to the pain she suffers in this most addictive relationship. She's completely adept at creating subtle but strong ties between any intimate relationship and alcoholism. She so lovingly describes her partner and love interest you find yourself longing for a drink of that crisp white wine, but her finish leaves you gun shy of this...more
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Read in June, 2008
So far, my favorite quote is, from the first chapter:
"Trying to describe the process of becoming an alcoholic is like trying to describe air. It's too big and mysterious and pervasive to be defined. Alcohol is everywhere in your life, omnipresent, and you're both aware and unaware of it almost all the time, all you know is you'd die without it, and there is no simple reason why this happens, no single moment, no physiological event that pushes a heavy drinker across a concrete line into...more
"Trying to describe the process of becoming an alcoholic is like trying to describe air. It's too big and mysterious and pervasive to be defined. Alcohol is everywhere in your life, omnipresent, and you're both aware and unaware of it almost all the time, all you know is you'd die without it, and there is no simple reason why this happens, no single moment, no physiological event that pushes a heavy drinker across a concrete line into...more
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recommends it for:
Anyone who struggles with an addition or famililes of those who do--hey, that's everybody!!!
This is a compelling depiction of an alcoholic, told from an upper middle class point of view. If you don't think you have a drinking problem because you get up every morning and go to work (or you're not lying in a gutter), think again and read this book. I lived in Boston for a time and was a fan of Caroline Knapp when she wrote for The Boston Phoenix. I was crushed to learn of her death (she was in her early forties). All of her books are very good.
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Read in October, 2007
Almost done. Picked this up in my supervisor's office to read when i don't have any calls to make or meetings to run. It had some okay parts, but on the whole Knapp's broad generalizations about alcoholics "Alcoholics do this, alcoholics do that, we do this, blah blah blah" got really irritating. So she was/is an alcoholic--that means she can speak from her own experience, but not from EVERY alcoholic's. Plus her writing was just so... trendy.
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Read in April, 2008
Having read several other books about addictions, this one lacked the punch that the others did. The author did however provide the disclaimer that there was nothing special about her story, and that's why she wanted to share - that alcoholism is an every day, all around us issue. I suppose for a reader just coming to terms with their own addiction or that of a loved one, this would be a good starting place.
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Read in September, 2007
i was nervous this would be another stereotypical "i drank too much" memoir, and although it had a few of those moments, the descriptive writing style really helped it rise above. the author uses a lot of metaphors that you would never think of using in this situation, but that actually make her feelings/emotions/motivations crystal clear. and we both share an obsession with wine.
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Read in April, 2005
A memoir written by a well-known Boston editor: very sobering. Peppered with horrifying stories of herself and her friends’ wrestle with a disease which has invaded US society in epidemic proportions {right up—down?—to the “president”} and her recovery, not to happen to hardly any of the other people we meet in this nevertheless hopeful account of one woman’s story.
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Excellent non fiction for anyone who has been touched or struggled with alcoholism. She details her 20-year battle. She drank all through her education and as an award-winning editor and columnist until crumbling, and then finding triumph. Such a grown up writer and credited with writing the first Sex In The City column, "Out There", for seven years in the Boston Phoenix.
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Read in December, 2007
recommended to Jess by:
Mike McKinney
I read this book right after I quit drinking, and it really helped reinforce some good lessons I was just learning. The book is a memoir of sorts, written by a woman who was a "well-adjusted, polite drunk." A lot of things she wrote resonated within me, including multiple addictions, and maintaining the fascade of wine connoisseur (with the real goal being to get drunk).
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.93 (611 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.95 (583 ratings) number of reviews: 104popular shelves
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quote
"Was he smart enough? Introspective enough? Was it just enough to love him, or should I attach myself to someone who seemed farther ahead of me, someone smarter and more ambitious than me, who'd be sure to carry me along into the version of adulthood I thought I should be striving for?"
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