Recently, there has been a spate of novels, short stories, memoirs and non-fiction books published that touch on the topic of women and alcohol–Here is just a sampling:
MOMMY DOESN’T DRINK HERE ANYMORE by Rachel Brownell (memoir)
IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor (personal essays written before the popular blogger/memoirist announced she was quitting drinking)
BLAME by Michelle Huneven (novel)
LIT by Mary Karr (memoir, see excerpt in Drinking Diaries)
“Intervention” a short story in Jill McCorkle’s collection GOING AWAY SHOES
TROUBLE by Kate Christensen (novel w/ lots of unapologetic drinking)
ONCE WAS LOST by Sara Zarr (young adult novel with alcoholic mother)
And for those of you interested in poetry, there’s FLAWED LIGHT: American Women Poets and Alcohol, a non-fiction book about women poets and alcohol.
Some of my personal, perennial favorites:
SMASHED by Koren Zailckas (memoir)
ROSIE by Anne Lamott (novel, featuring a woman struggling with her relationship to alcohol)
AT HOME IN THE WORLD by Joyce Maynard (memoir, & she’s the daughter of an alcoholic)
What are your favorite books that touch on the subject of women and alcohol? Favorite movies? Poems? Please share!
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Caroline Knapp was an American writer and columnist whose candid best-selling memoir Drinking: A Love Story recounted her 20-year battle with alcoholism. She was the daughter of noted psychiatrist Peter H. Knapp, who did groundbreaking research into psychosomatic medicine. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2002. In May 2002, she married her longtime friend and companion, photographer Mark Morelli. She died in Cambridge of lung cancer on June 4, 2002.
…and MAry Carr’s “Lit”
I always know when a memoir on addiction (and hopefully) recovery touches me because I start feeling a) teary eyed and b) very, very uncomfortable. Well, Lit fulfilled both criteria and then some. I had never even heard of Mary Karr before, but you can be sure that I am going to work my way back and read everything she has written.
Lit is different from most of the memoirs that I have read on the subject, mainly because the tone of the writing is not what I am use to. I usually like my memoirs to be told in a more day to day voice, with as little verse as possible. Mary Karr does not write this way – her voice and her story are full of poetry, verse and this, for me, was a bit odd in the first pages of her story. I kept thinking “how can you tell your story honestly if you are going to do it in some melodic tones” – however, I need not have been worried.
Somehow, Karr manages to write a beautiful, flowy and absolutely perfectly toned story, while at the same time, giving us, in honest and frank detail all the good the bad and the ugly – without once sugar coating it. This was quite a feat!!! and I loved it. Karr’s story is difficult to read, especially if you have yourself lived in the hell that is addiction. You can easily see the addict in the making as Karr describes her young family life with a mother that was so self-centered and so self-serving you can’t help but wonder how Karr actually made it out alive! Having to deal with the death of her dad, “the good parent” thrown into the mix (and touches me on a personal level) added to the burden of her childhood. Karr goes on to describe her descent into addiction and some of her experiences were extremely scary and harrowing.
However, as always, what I love best is her story of walking (sometimes) crawling to sobriety AND hopefully to something better. Of course, with the help of the wonderful AA program and with alot of hope, spirit and integrity, Karr shows us her path as we slowly (at times ever so slowly) see her grow towards becoming the person she wants to be.
This memoir is touching, frank and perfect.