Those Drinking Days: Myself and Other Writers

Book excerpt: Novelist Donald Newlove (1928-2021) contemplates how alcoholism has affected the lives and work of other writers, as well as himself. ". . . a passionate blend: part autobiography, part confessional, part sketches of famous alcoholic writers and part sermon on the dangers of 'Drunkspeare' . . . its bird song and purling ravishment, bliss of self-love. . . . Like improvisational jazz . . . the Newlove sound is robust and swinging, the mark of a man who has discovered that his talent is intoxication enough." - R.Z. Sheppard, Time "Newlove's memoir makes The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson seem like a dull college weekend. It is, quite simply, terrifying, a tale to chill the blood of anyone who's ever hoisted a drink in a bar. It is a book with both literary merit and social value of the most redeeming sort imaginable." - Judson Hand, New York Daily News "Those Drinking Days ought to be read. It is an astonishing, moving memoir." - Joel Oppenheimer, New York Times