Scan barcode
cooperca's review against another edition
2.0
An intriguing look into six prolific writers and their abusive love/hate relationship with alcohol. The interlinking story between Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most interesting points discussed. Each's view point and dependency come from insecurities and a need to forget.
The quote from Hemingway about alcohol and F. Scott Fitzgerald was enlightening, “Also alcohol, that we use as the Giant Killer, and that I could not have lived without many times; or at least would have cared to live without; was a straight poison to Scott instead of a food.’
Another passage for me that brought home how alcohol destroys is from John Berryman's piece he wrote and later read out to his treatment group. It's a stream-of-consciousness piece that reflected the pain and despair that arrived from his addiction: his drinking destroying his marriages, being jobless, penniless, and lost.
Although these sections of the book kept me reading. overall I found the book to be disjointed, jumping between one story and author to the next. She also jumped from discussing the writers to then going into a scientific description of what alcohol does to ones body. One moment she'd be discussing Raymond Carver and next she'd be talking about Tennessee Williams and then she'd be discussing a rehab or scientific description of an addict and/or alcohol. I found it to be uneven, at times dull, and most of all, it felt like she was trying to copy their style of writing. I never heard her voice or style of storytelling.
The title of the book comes from:
‘There was a line from Cat (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) in particular that had stayed with me for years. Brick, the drunkard, has been summoned by his father. Big Daddy is on a talking jag and after a while Brick asks for his crutch. “Where you going’?” Big Daddy asks, and Brick replies: “I’m takin’ a little short trip to Echo Spring”’ - Olivia Laing
Echo Spring was the nickname for a liquor cabinet as it was the name of the bourbon inside the cabinet.
The quote from Hemingway about alcohol and F. Scott Fitzgerald was enlightening, “Also alcohol, that we use as the Giant Killer, and that I could not have lived without many times; or at least would have cared to live without; was a straight poison to Scott instead of a food.’
Another passage for me that brought home how alcohol destroys is from John Berryman's piece he wrote and later read out to his treatment group. It's a stream-of-consciousness piece that reflected the pain and despair that arrived from his addiction: his drinking destroying his marriages, being jobless, penniless, and lost.
Although these sections of the book kept me reading. overall I found the book to be disjointed, jumping between one story and author to the next. She also jumped from discussing the writers to then going into a scientific description of what alcohol does to ones body. One moment she'd be discussing Raymond Carver and next she'd be talking about Tennessee Williams and then she'd be discussing a rehab or scientific description of an addict and/or alcohol. I found it to be uneven, at times dull, and most of all, it felt like she was trying to copy their style of writing. I never heard her voice or style of storytelling.
The title of the book comes from:
‘There was a line from Cat (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) in particular that had stayed with me for years. Brick, the drunkard, has been summoned by his father. Big Daddy is on a talking jag and after a while Brick asks for his crutch. “Where you going’?” Big Daddy asks, and Brick replies: “I’m takin’ a little short trip to Echo Spring”’ - Olivia Laing
Echo Spring was the nickname for a liquor cabinet as it was the name of the bourbon inside the cabinet.
wicked_sassy's review against another edition
4.0
This wasn't a super interesting book (don't we know enough about Hemingway being an alcoholic? I'd have preferred Dorothy Parker) but I love Laing's writing style. She is introspective and poetic in her word choices and that made the book a compelling read.
"I don't know why this, of all possible locations, seemed the necessary place to start, but the story of what had happened there worked its way inside me, as certain stories will." -p. 15
"Nothing except changes in climate and language communicate so thoroughly a sense of travel as the difference in birdlife." -p. 33
"I woke at five, just as the sun was rising. We'd crossed by night into the Grain Belt and now we were running up Illinois, through mile after mile of stubbled corn, punctuated by metal grain silos and graveyards for abandoned trucks and cars. I put Sufjan Stevens on my iPod and watched the colourless world well up with light. The fields seemed endless, a sea that shifted as the sun rose from lead to pewter and then to gold." -p. 220-221
"There are moments in a journey that can never be predicted in advance: not their richness, nor the effect they have on one's heart." -p. 221
"I don't know why this, of all possible locations, seemed the necessary place to start, but the story of what had happened there worked its way inside me, as certain stories will." -p. 15
"Nothing except changes in climate and language communicate so thoroughly a sense of travel as the difference in birdlife." -p. 33
"I woke at five, just as the sun was rising. We'd crossed by night into the Grain Belt and now we were running up Illinois, through mile after mile of stubbled corn, punctuated by metal grain silos and graveyards for abandoned trucks and cars. I put Sufjan Stevens on my iPod and watched the colourless world well up with light. The fields seemed endless, a sea that shifted as the sun rose from lead to pewter and then to gold." -p. 220-221
"There are moments in a journey that can never be predicted in advance: not their richness, nor the effect they have on one's heart." -p. 221
olivesolivesolivess23's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
sc_willmott's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0