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A review by dcmr
The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison
3.0
I have such mixed feelings on this book. Leslie Jamison writes with depth, breadth and beauty. She shares her own story of alcohol addiction with painful brilliance, while weaving in the history of U.S. narcotic policies and treatments, along with the stories of accomplished artists/addicts. It's an overwhelming amount of information, and it's no wonder it often reads like the dissertation from which it began.
But the most difficult part of this book is her gilded life, as she travels the world from one funded writer's workshop, residency, and appointment to the next — all while drinking, drunk and hungover. That she has this portal to privilege is astounding. And that she has this access while bottomed out is confounding.
She's not looking for sympathy and this well-researched exploration is not at all sentimental. But something about her ability to so easily have and hold what so many writers struggle to attain creates a distance between writer and reader.
But the most difficult part of this book is her gilded life, as she travels the world from one funded writer's workshop, residency, and appointment to the next — all while drinking, drunk and hungover. That she has this portal to privilege is astounding. And that she has this access while bottomed out is confounding.
She's not looking for sympathy and this well-researched exploration is not at all sentimental. But something about her ability to so easily have and hold what so many writers struggle to attain creates a distance between writer and reader.