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ohheybryant's review against another edition
4.0
If you like literature and read a fair amount of books and have ever loved an alcoholic then you really must read this novel.
dancermom's review against another edition
5.0
A deep dive into the desperation of the alcoholic. I was sorry to learn that Charles Jackson eventually succumbed to his illness. No doubt this book has helped many people recognize their problem and/or feel compassion for those suffer from alcoholism.
jenamiller's review against another edition
4.0
Check out my review at http://bookaweekwithjen.blogspot.com/2013/02/book-9-of-52-lost-weekend-by-charles.html
chris_chester's review against another edition
4.0
An extremely high-resolution depiction of the mind of an alcoholic.
I'm given to understand that this is a sympathetic portrayal. Alcoholics themselves have lauded the work for its depictions of the depths reached in a binge, the self-rationalizations, the pain inflicted on loved ones.
It might be sympathetic but it's not sympathetic, if you know what I mean. If anything, this book made me have contempt for alcoholics. It makes them seem like hopeless cases. And disgusting ones, at that.
Still, very well-written.
I'm given to understand that this is a sympathetic portrayal. Alcoholics themselves have lauded the work for its depictions of the depths reached in a binge, the self-rationalizations, the pain inflicted on loved ones.
It might be sympathetic but it's not sympathetic, if you know what I mean. If anything, this book made me have contempt for alcoholics. It makes them seem like hopeless cases. And disgusting ones, at that.
Still, very well-written.
francesca_penchant's review against another edition
5.0
"He was no fool like other people (they who believed his promises when he knew better than to believe them himself); and knowing it, he yet craved the drink that would bring the whole ruin down upon him again.
"And what of the passing and lost, the uncounted and unrecoverable days used up in those depths? The time that went down the drain and never came back? What thing was there in all the world that could ever repay you for those days...?
"And wasn't that using up life frightfully fast, or—worse than fast—unaware? Time was all you had, all anyone had, and you weren't counting, you let it slip by as if the unused day or week might offer itself over again tomorrow. But it didn't and couldn't—it had been used even though you hadn't used it. Had you no better use for precious time than that? What are you if the chief good and market of your time be but to drink and sleep? Hadn't you in youth often cried out what a day to be alive? And how many days had there been, since, when you weren't even able to long for death? Why ask how many? You could never say, you had lost count too long ago. The lost lost days, so many that you were something a good deal less than your thirty-three years, many months less, whole gaps and periods of your life taken out in blank—most shameful and wanton waste of all, because nothing could ever give them back again. Compensation for your loss, recovery of time itself, lay only in re-entering that blank once more where time was uncounted and time didn't count, drinking yourself out of the middle of the week and into your timeless time-out."
—The Lost Weekend
"And what of the passing and lost, the uncounted and unrecoverable days used up in those depths? The time that went down the drain and never came back? What thing was there in all the world that could ever repay you for those days...?
"And wasn't that using up life frightfully fast, or—worse than fast—unaware? Time was all you had, all anyone had, and you weren't counting, you let it slip by as if the unused day or week might offer itself over again tomorrow. But it didn't and couldn't—it had been used even though you hadn't used it. Had you no better use for precious time than that? What are you if the chief good and market of your time be but to drink and sleep? Hadn't you in youth often cried out what a day to be alive? And how many days had there been, since, when you weren't even able to long for death? Why ask how many? You could never say, you had lost count too long ago. The lost lost days, so many that you were something a good deal less than your thirty-three years, many months less, whole gaps and periods of your life taken out in blank—most shameful and wanton waste of all, because nothing could ever give them back again. Compensation for your loss, recovery of time itself, lay only in re-entering that blank once more where time was uncounted and time didn't count, drinking yourself out of the middle of the week and into your timeless time-out."
—The Lost Weekend
internetnomads's review against another edition
5.0
This was one of the most suspenseful books I've read in a while, although little is happening in reality. The reader's view is of a seriously mentally ill person drugging themselves into a near-death state. The details are incredible.
edonaldson2k's review against another edition
4.0
My favorite line from the book: "Spinal tap, baby."
I read the novel first, then saw the film. Both are excellent, but very different. Novel: super gay (sex in the church sheds with boyhood friend Melvin; getting kicked out of his fraternity for his big crush on a senior boy; the fiance who will NEVER become his wife; lots of closets, filled with booze, of course; a dream in which he is saved from a homophobic lynching by his brother). Film: super hetero (Don kisses two girls [what?!] and even the swishy male nurse is butch [Bim is less lovable and less dangerous here]; outstanding female supporting roles, even though there is little basis in the book for them). A great contrast.
I read the novel first, then saw the film. Both are excellent, but very different. Novel: super gay (sex in the church sheds with boyhood friend Melvin; getting kicked out of his fraternity for his big crush on a senior boy; the fiance who will NEVER become his wife; lots of closets, filled with booze, of course; a dream in which he is saved from a homophobic lynching by his brother). Film: super hetero (Don kisses two girls [what?!] and even the swishy male nurse is butch [Bim is less lovable and less dangerous here]; outstanding female supporting roles, even though there is little basis in the book for them). A great contrast.
thursday_nxt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5