A review by amyschlott
Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol by Ann Dowsett Johnston

3.0

The topic of this book is so important and several chapters were stellar. Overall, it was too choppy for me and I think she lost a lot by only featuring stories from women matching the stereotypical label of "alcoholic/addict" even though one of the messages of the book is that problematic drinking - not at the level of the stories shared - is on the rise and one of the final chapters mentions "only a small proportion of the population are alcoholic". The personal sharing of her own story was brave and one of my favorite parts as well as the discussion on stigma. Finally, I don't always pick up on editing things, but it was driving me crazy how she continually described what things were over and over again. For example, every mention of MacLean's in the first half of the book was accompanied with some variation of the description of "the Canadian national news publication".