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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.