Drinking. A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

It is crippling. Drinking I mean. About fifteen million Americans are ruled by alcoholism a year. That is a ton of booze hounds! But wait...

Is booze hounds politically correct? I think not. How did this "name" come to be? Alcoholics do not choose their lives. Sometimes they just can't control it anymore. Drinking is their release and comfort. It is often used as a prescription for a cure. Why should they be treated as if they were mutts?

All of these questions are answered in the novel Drinking. A Love Story by Caroline Knapp. It is her memoir, recounting her days with the weight of a 7 and 7 on her shoulders. It explains why she became an alcoholic and what it did to her and everyone around her.

Throughout the entire novel, Knapp speaks in first person. I realize it is a memoir but it was still pretty damn powerful. I felt like I was reading her diary. She spoke of family and work and sex with such truth. Her words were raw and her stories were real.

Caroline didn't tell anyone she was an alcoholic. She was a successful journalist living in New York and hid her addiction perfectly. She would sneak off from family gatherings and say she needed to use the little girls room; except every time she took a detour to her purse and took a swig of whatever booze she happened to have at that time.

This is just the beginning of her trickery. Over time, she would find new things to do and new ways to sneak a shot.

This memoir details the struggle with not only the addiction but life itself and how to deal with it. I found this memoir to be one of the best I have read. I always thought that overcoming an addiction to alcohol was simple if you worked for it. I never realized how confining it is. I never realized that most alcoholics hide behind the drinks because it acts like armor to intruding emotions. Drinking. A Love Story really opened my eyes and has helped me understand the truth behind the addiction.

I really don't care what you think Mary!

So this is the second time that I have read this essay and I have to say that it is every bit as horrifying as I remember. Could anyone else understand half of the things she was attempting to say? Her sentences would go on forever...and then some. I honestly had to read each sentence at least three times in order to fully put it together. I forgot most of the things she said anyway by the end of the essay. This is for you Kunkle ;) just one more time when I get to rag on BLOODY MARY!

I just have to say that I really dislike this woman. She is everything that you wouldn't want to be. I may be off my rocker, which happens quite a bit due to the fact that I have ADHD and twitch spastically at times, but I am pretty sure that she was saying that women are dependent on men. Did anyone else get this hint? She spoke of women in such a terrible and degrading manner. It killed me to read this.

In the first paragraph she said, and I quote, "...woman are not allowed to have sufficient strenght of mind to acquire what really deserves the name of virtue." Excuse me? Where does this lady get off on saying such a thing? Who died and made her the Queen B? (B stands for something that I believe you all know but I am not allowed? to say if you catch my drift) I mean I agree with the idea that women can be somewhat difficult but to outright say that men are allowed to complain because of the follies and caprices of our sex is just plain disrespectful. Whose side are you on missy!?

And around page 10 she starts to talk about how woman was created from and for man. She gets into the story of Adam and Eve and blah blah blah. The bottom line is simple Mary. You are wrong when you say that woman was created to do man's pleasure. Women were made from a man's rib, not from his head to be superior, not from his feet to be walked on, but from his side to be equal. And thats all I have to say to you miss Wollstonecraft.