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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
Great story about the struggle of addiction. One thing that bothered me about it was the subtle "Canada bashing" at the end of the book. Is Canada really to blame for your addiction and relapse?
Dark, painful, cynical but very honest. I appreciated how the author shared her journey with us, nothing seemingly held back.
“...I read Drunk Mom with my jaw on the floor, which doesn’t happen to me that often." - Lena Dunham
Exactly that.
This book STARTED with her doing lines of cocaine that she found in a public bathroom and just kept getting worse from there.
I finished this book faster than I've read a book in a long time. It was horrifying and heartbreaking and I felt sorry for her, hated her, and rooted for her. I can't possibly understand drinking that much around an infant but I liked how she didn't sugarcoat her bad decisions. She knew she started out her son's life as a terrible mother and made sure the readers knew it too which is pretty brave. I spent the majority of the book thinking, "this is it! She's finally reached rock bottom!" but nope! I had to keep reading just to see when it was she'd finally decide she shouldn't do this anymore.
I hope she stays sober.
Exactly that.
This book STARTED with her doing lines of cocaine that she found in a public bathroom and just kept getting worse from there.
I finished this book faster than I've read a book in a long time. It was horrifying and heartbreaking and I felt sorry for her, hated her, and rooted for her. I can't possibly understand drinking that much around an infant but I liked how she didn't sugarcoat her bad decisions. She knew she started out her son's life as a terrible mother and made sure the readers knew it too which is pretty brave. I spent the majority of the book thinking, "this is it! She's finally reached rock bottom!" but nope! I had to keep reading just to see when it was she'd finally decide she shouldn't do this anymore.
I hope she stays sober.
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Halfway through and it hits me, why am I reading this?! Complete waste of time.
wow. and, man!
i stayed up way, way too late last night because i couldn't stop reading this book. it's a tough read at times - which, given the title one must expect, really. but the thing bydlowska does amazingly well is convey the mindset of an addicted/alcoholic person: the frantic, the chaotic, the scheming, the blacked-out, the re-framing. the behaviours she uses in planning to buy her alcohol, drinking her booze, dealing with the empty bottles, lying to her boyfriend, endangering her baby's life - being aware of this, guilty over it yet unable to do differently...well, it's amazing. it's a warty story and while moments are sensational - the opening scene has her finding a baggie of coke in a washroom stall at the ROM (in toronto), which she then proceeds to snort - i never felt like bydlowska was purposefully trying to make anything out to be worse or bigger than it was. her alcoholism was (is) ugly. people around her suffered. this book doesn't ask you to like her or feel empathy for her (though i did. feel empathy, that is.) i think the point of this book is to open the minds of those who don't have addictions/addictive personalities. fwiw, bydlowska is the partner of globe and mail columnist russell smith.
i stayed up way, way too late last night because i couldn't stop reading this book. it's a tough read at times - which, given the title one must expect, really. but the thing bydlowska does amazingly well is convey the mindset of an addicted/alcoholic person: the frantic, the chaotic, the scheming, the blacked-out, the re-framing. the behaviours she uses in planning to buy her alcohol, drinking her booze, dealing with the empty bottles, lying to her boyfriend, endangering her baby's life - being aware of this, guilty over it yet unable to do differently...well, it's amazing. it's a warty story and while moments are sensational - the opening scene has her finding a baggie of coke in a washroom stall at the ROM (in toronto), which she then proceeds to snort - i never felt like bydlowska was purposefully trying to make anything out to be worse or bigger than it was. her alcoholism was (is) ugly. people around her suffered. this book doesn't ask you to like her or feel empathy for her (though i did. feel empathy, that is.) i think the point of this book is to open the minds of those who don't have addictions/addictive personalities. fwiw, bydlowska is the partner of globe and mail columnist russell smith.
Because I got pregnant.
Because my mother couldn't handle it when I did...
Sometimes, I would pick up the phone wanting to ask my mother: As it like this for you when you were pregnant? Did you feel like this? What did you do when? What happens after?
Then I would put the phone done. I couldn't call. I remembered. I was told not to call. It was because of that.
Because my mother didn't quite succeed in poisoning me with her own guilt. But I felt poisoned regardless. I felt toxic with rage.
Because I held it together and told myself I will hold it together until I give birth to this child and then I will murder every single perpetrator, starting with myself.
Because of Frankie. Because I couldn't handle all the love.
pg 282
Because my mother couldn't handle it when I did...
Sometimes, I would pick up the phone wanting to ask my mother: As it like this for you when you were pregnant? Did you feel like this? What did you do when? What happens after?
Then I would put the phone done. I couldn't call. I remembered. I was told not to call. It was because of that.
Because my mother didn't quite succeed in poisoning me with her own guilt. But I felt poisoned regardless. I felt toxic with rage.
Because I held it together and told myself I will hold it together until I give birth to this child and then I will murder every single perpetrator, starting with myself.
Because of Frankie. Because I couldn't handle all the love.
pg 282
Had to return before finishing
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced