Drinking; A Love Story

Book Review of Drinking : A Love Story

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Caroline Knapp writes eloquently and honestly , yet often starkly , about her life as a functioning alcoholic ' Ms . Knapp graduated Magna cum laude from Brown University , was a contributing editor at New Woman magazine as well as the Boston Phoenix . She wrote for many other magazines as well and was the author of Alice K 's Guide to Life . She was born into an upper-class family , one of two twin girls , daughter of a psychoanalyst father and

an artist mother . Yet despite all the gifts seemingly bestowed upon her , from her earliest memories Ms . Knapp felt that she was different in some way that she needed something to sustain her and help her travel through life her particular crutch became alcohol

Carolyn 's family , though a model of respectability and stability on the outside , had their own particular demons to deal with . Carolyn 's father was described as cold , remote , and inaccessible , an alcoholic involved in extramarital affairs (Handrup , 1998 ,

. 1 . Her mother seemed to be preoccupied with breast cancer throughout much of Knapp 's childhood ' and was seemingly unaware of the inner life of her children (p . 1 . Carolyn relates stories of her father 's previous marriage which produced three children , and the confusion that came along with the ex-wife and the younger son who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and whose erratic behavior frightened Carolyn . The theory of nature causing alcoholism pretty much goes out the window on this particular case as Carolyn 's twin sister Becca never turned to alcohol or any other addictive behavior to cope with a life that virtually mirrored Carolyn 's own

The disability of any alcoholic seems to be an intense need for protection an inability to weather the storms of life alone , the absolute craving for a friend , a lover that will carry them through the rough times . In fact , Ms . Knapp felt about alcohol the exact same way she imagined others felt about their lovers . It was something she craved , obsessed over , and thought about constantly . Ms . Knapp 's rough times ' in life soon translated into absolutely anything at all good or bad . The sun was shining , or it wasn 't , the cashier at the grocery store was unfriendly , or perhaps too friendly , somebody died , a baby was born . Every nuance of life became too difficult to deal with the emotions that accompanied normal day-to-day living were too much to process without a drink - or two , or three , or four . Ms . Knapp wryly notes that living without alcohol is like being forced to live alone without the armor . The armor , of course , is protection from all the things we might actually feel , if we allowed ourselves to feel at all (Knapp , 1996 ,

. 113

Comfort became an absolute necessity , and Caroline remembers that from the time she was able to sit in her mother 's lap she would rock herself back and forth , and that...