POETRY MONTH: text redacted from 2017 SAFE MODE by Sam Riviere blog post
redacted text from septy ’17
Tag: alcoholism
John Barleycorn by Jack London
1914 memoir about alcoholism that oozes big denial
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
a dark, engaging, affecting read
LOST #TotNTV EPISODE: Lily Dunn
A Wild and Precious Life
Drunken Baker by Barney Farmer
the bottle salves but doesn’t heal
#Breakdown: What happened to the blogging?
I have mental health problems
Happy Ending NOT Guaranteed by Liam Hogan
My latest review over at Open Pen discusses the point of fiction…
The Ladybird Book of The Hangover by J.A. Hazeley & J.P. Morris
Humour books about the bottle don’t sit right
Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams
drowning in sobriety like I used to drown in booze; even sublime prose can’t hoist me happy
Nicotine by Gregor Hens
If Gregor Hens can give up smoking, I can give up booze.
White Girls by Hilton Als
Off the booze (again), I enjoy a book but despair of life.
Swinging the Maelstrom: A Critical Edition by Malcolm Lowry
Lunar Caustic is a lie.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
an accurate depiction of the lust and boredom that threatens to overwhelm all of us who aren’t pious, delusional, fuckheads
Berg by Ann Quin
“Help me, help me,” I cry, “I’m too sober to read”.
Preacher: Book Four by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
Preacher is fine, but it’s irrelevant to real life. I should adopt a Syrian child refugee.
The Violet Hour by Katie Roiphe
All Men Must Die, innit?
The 24-Hour Wine Expert by Jancis Robinson
Should non-fiction books about intoxicants even be legal, yeah?
Zone by Mathias Enard
pleasure is a lightening bolt that leaves no trace
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
Fantastic Mr Fox is an ode to adventure capitalism. My life is an ode to wine.
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz
Have you ever had a dream? Have you ever dreamt a day, a week, a month, a year? Have youContinue Reading
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
I don’t know where this book came from. I know I bought it, I’m pretty certain I went out ofContinue Reading
From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
This is my first blog post in a while, and even then it’s still happening a little earlier than expected.Continue Reading
Recovery by John Berryman
Long before James Frey was breaking Oprah Winfrey’s fragile heart by fictionalising his time in addiction therapy and the behaviourContinue Reading
Save Me The Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
Once he had said, ‘If you want to choose, you must be a goddess.’ That was when she had wantedContinue Reading
So Sad Today: Personal Essays by Melissa Broder
I shouldn’t have read this. CONTEXT: I walk a tightrope, emotionally, one that has become longer and looser ever sinceContinue Reading
The Trip to Echo Spring by Olivia Laing
I’m an abyss filling up with regret and alcohol at equal measure, like a really wet martini.
Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book Five by Karl Ove Knausgaard
It’s taken me a few more days than I’d hoped, but I’ve just finished reading the fifth book of KarlContinue Reading
James Bond: Never Send Flowers by John Gardner
Please, sir, don’t send any flowers So ends one of the strangest books I’ve ever has the misfortune to encounter.Continue Reading
Othello by William Shakespeare
About two months ago I spent a week in Finland, driving through the countryside from flea market to charity shopContinue Reading
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
fuck So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckContinue Reading
Malcolm Lowry: Psalms and Songs (edited by Margerie Lowry
Psalms and Songs is an odd book, a collection of short stories by Malcolm Lowry (some previously published, others unfinished),Continue Reading
The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson
Malcolm Lowry, secret hero of these blog posts, fell into a deep depression after the publication of Charles Jackson’s TheContinue Reading
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Well, it is good. It’s good. It’s possibly great, but it’s definitely good. Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend is basicallyContinue Reading
In Ballast to the White Sea (A Scholarly Edition) by Malcolm Lowry
The biggest tragedy in Malcolm Lowry’s life (in his own opinion) was when the lakeside shack he lived in burnedContinue Reading
Tender Is The Night (Revised Edition) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald wasn’t happy with many things by the final decade of his life. He wasn’t happy with his career,Continue Reading
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
This is a book I’ve read a lot about. It is referred to repeatedly in both Ben Yagoda’s Memoir: AContinue Reading
Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was one of the first writers I ever truly loved. When I was an undergraduate, many years ago,Continue Reading
Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry by George Bowker
I took a week to read this harrowing, depressing, heart-wrenchingly awful* biography of one of the most troubled, confused andContinue Reading
Lunar Caustic by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry’s books are all about depression and alcoholism. And most of them he was too drunk and sad toContinue Reading
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
Without a shadow of a doubt, Big Sur is the best book by Jack Kerouac I have ever read. It wasContinue Reading
On The Stage
I had not been in front of an audience, on a stage, for several years until this week. Then, fromContinue Reading
Hear Us O Lord from heaven thy dwelling place by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry died in 1957, having published only two books (both novels) in his lifetime: the youthful Ultramarine (1934, myContinue Reading
Destination X by John Martz
Another original book from my local graphic novel publishing house, Nobrow, Destination X is a short science fiction piece about interstellarContinue Reading
Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry was a tragic figure. A hugely talented writer, yet an alcoholic of such self-destructive proportions that he diedContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 