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Drinking - a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
This is a sobering read – literally – for anyone who thinks they couldn’t possibly be an addict because they’re just not that kind of person. A talented newspaper columnist, Caroline Knapp was nobody’s idea of a typical drunk. She was young, highly educated, successful, glamorous, attractive – and an alcoholic.
This is a sobering read – literally – for anyone who thinks they couldn’t possibly be an addict because they’re just not that kind of person. A talented newspaper columnist, Caroline Knapp was nobody’s idea of a typical drunk. She was young, highly educated, successful, glamorous, attractive – and an alcoholic.
She called her book “a love story” because, she explains, that’s what addiction is: a passionate affair with an abusive lover (in her case, alcohol) whom you think you can’t live without. But eventually, to live at all you need to find the strength to “fall out of love” with the substance that has seduced you.
This searingly honest memoir is made all the more poignant by knowledge of the author’s death at the age of 42, from lung cancer, after a life spent battling the demons of addiction and compulsive behaviour. Her story may help you to recognise the signs of problem drinking in yourself, or in someone else you know who doesn’t fit the “heavy drinker” mould.
(Review by Olivia Rose-Innes)
