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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Didn’t know what to expect but I loved this. Compelling, touching, didn’t want it to end.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Caroline Knapp lets us into her struggle with alcoholism. I have been involved with people who were addicted to various substances, but I have never really dealt with someone who was an alcoholic. This book gave me a really good understanding of what the struggles with alcoholism can be like. It was a little bit repetitive, but addiction is repetitive. I think everyone who is curious about what it is like to deal with alcoholism would benefit from reading this book.
This is one of those books that has been on my radar for a long time, so I'm glad that I finally found and read it. Actually, I didn't read it so much as tear through all 281 pages in a single evening when I should have been focused on homework instead. Given the subject matter, perhaps it's fitting that I consumed it in an uninterrupted weekend binge.
Drinking: A Love Story is a memoir of journalist Knapp's twenty-year relationship with alcohol. Much of the book will sound familiar to anyone who has read about addiction or has some background with Alcoholics Anonymous. Knapp's book avoided a pitfall that a lot of addiction recovery books fall into (in my opinion) by keeping the stories of her own life commonplace. She doesn't demonize her behavior and she doesn't demonize herself; rather, she highlights the contrast between high-octane drama and muddled haze that characterized the last segment of her drinking life.
Some chapters are better than others. I thought that the chapter on cross-additictions within the community of women drinkers was the best description of the subject I've seen. Knapp posits that almost every woman who has trouble with drinking also has what women tactfully call "an unhealthy relationship with food." She explores how these two impulses wage an unspoken war across the lives of women and, while she doesn't go any farther than that, just the recognition of the connection is worth reading. Her chapter on sex and alcohol is interesting and more than a little uncomfortable-making. Lastly, the overarching connection between Knapp's drinking and her relationship with her father is an excellent piece of self-examination in its own right.
Words Below
Vocabulary
Abstemious. (adj) Characterized by abstinence.
Quotes
Alcohol travels through families like water over a landscape, sometimes in torrents, sometimes in trickles, always shaping the ground it covers in inexorable ways.
Alcohol puts you in such a box, leaves you with such an impossible equation: you have to sexualize the relationship in order to feel powerful, and you have to drink in order to feel sexual, and on some level you understand it's all fake, that the power is chemical, that it doesn't come from within you.
Water seeks its own level; a lot of us seek out people who will drown us.
Drinking: A Love Story is a memoir of journalist Knapp's twenty-year relationship with alcohol. Much of the book will sound familiar to anyone who has read about addiction or has some background with Alcoholics Anonymous. Knapp's book avoided a pitfall that a lot of addiction recovery books fall into (in my opinion) by keeping the stories of her own life commonplace. She doesn't demonize her behavior and she doesn't demonize herself; rather, she highlights the contrast between high-octane drama and muddled haze that characterized the last segment of her drinking life.
Some chapters are better than others. I thought that the chapter on cross-additictions within the community of women drinkers was the best description of the subject I've seen. Knapp posits that almost every woman who has trouble with drinking also has what women tactfully call "an unhealthy relationship with food." She explores how these two impulses wage an unspoken war across the lives of women and, while she doesn't go any farther than that, just the recognition of the connection is worth reading. Her chapter on sex and alcohol is interesting and more than a little uncomfortable-making. Lastly, the overarching connection between Knapp's drinking and her relationship with her father is an excellent piece of self-examination in its own right.
Words Below
Spoiler
Vocabulary
Abstemious. (adj) Characterized by abstinence.
Quotes
Alcohol travels through families like water over a landscape, sometimes in torrents, sometimes in trickles, always shaping the ground it covers in inexorable ways.
Alcohol puts you in such a box, leaves you with such an impossible equation: you have to sexualize the relationship in order to feel powerful, and you have to drink in order to feel sexual, and on some level you understand it's all fake, that the power is chemical, that it doesn't come from within you.
Water seeks its own level; a lot of us seek out people who will drown us.
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
I mean, it's a book about addiction so yeah it has all those things in there. A great, well-written book, though!
I love reading books about addiction. It reminds me not to fly too close to the sun. Anorexia, alcohol, drugs, really anyone's dance with the dark side. Drinking: A Love Story, has been on my TBR shelf for years and I finally picked up a copy to read.
Caroline Knapp's story is a familiar one. She was a high-functioning alcoholic who finally decided where her elevator stopped before crashing to the ground. From the outside, many people thought she was fine. Her family and friends knew she needed help, but help only comes when you are ready to accept it. Knapp doesn't have major screw-ups that often lead people to their rock bottom, but she was smart enough to know when to get help, and she's stayed on track. Kudos to her for finding the strength to do it.
Disjointed at times, Knapp keeps the reader at arm's length and you don't necessarily feel her pain like you do in other memoirs. Read it if you enjoy a successful journey to recovery. Three stars.
Caroline Knapp's story is a familiar one. She was a high-functioning alcoholic who finally decided where her elevator stopped before crashing to the ground. From the outside, many people thought she was fine. Her family and friends knew she needed help, but help only comes when you are ready to accept it. Knapp doesn't have major screw-ups that often lead people to their rock bottom, but she was smart enough to know when to get help, and she's stayed on track. Kudos to her for finding the strength to do it.
Disjointed at times, Knapp keeps the reader at arm's length and you don't necessarily feel her pain like you do in other memoirs. Read it if you enjoy a successful journey to recovery. Three stars.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
A well-written autobiography about one woman's relationship with alcohol. Interesting insights into the emotional side of an alcoholic's addiction.
Can't believe it took me this long to read this. Wish it had existed when I got sober, as so much of it echoes feelings and experiences I had when I was drinking before I got sober. As with many sobriety memoirs, the drinking pain goes on too long and the sober part is too short, and I feel a little squidgy about how often she tells other people's stories or generalizes about drinking and recovery. But, an excellent memoir and recovery tale. Tragic that the author died so soon after she wrote this.
So sad. SO sad. I’ve never read a book that was too heavy for me; but this one was. The author is a person who lived her life completely overwhelmed by the hardest things in life. I think it was hard for me to read because when you go through a crisis, you feel like you’re going to fall apart. And she did. And sometimes it seems like it would be easier to fall apart than to fight to heal.
Would recommend to anyone in a very very dark place. Would not recommend to anyone emerging from a very very dark place.
Would recommend to anyone in a very very dark place. Would not recommend to anyone emerging from a very very dark place.