I may have missed some posts too - but has anyone mentioned James Joyce yet? A fair few stories from the Dubliners and the second half of Ulysses (I'll leave others to comment on Finnegan's Wake...!). There's a great drunk scene in George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Also, Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square. Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim might have the best hangover scene of the lot. On the flipside, Marie Correli's Wormwood is a brilliantly melodramatic attack on the myth of the absinthe-soaked genius.
James Nicholls
-----Original Message-----
From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society on behalf of Marty Roth
Sent: Fri 27/02/2009 20:18
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Under the Literary Influence
At the top of my list are two by Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge, a
magnificent account of a 20 year (?) dry drunk and Tess of the
D'Urbervilles, which does for co-dependency what Zola did for
alcoholism.
Marty Roth
-----Original Message-----
From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Vanessa Taylor
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 11:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Under the Literary Influence
Dear All
I may have missed this one in the emails so far, but Jean Rhys' novels
come to mind.
Vanessa Taylor
_____
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:51:00 -0600
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Under the Literary Influence
To: [log in to unmask]
That reminds me, what about Martha Grimes' crime series? Each one is
named after a pub in England, and the story, in part, revolves around
interactions in the pubs.
Gretchen
On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Dubiel, Rich <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
All:
Detective heroes who are recovering alcoholics (and members of AA):
Lawrence Block has the main character Matt Scudder and James Lee Burke
has Dave Robicheaux. Both are prolific authors. Block's When the Sacred
Gin Mill Closes sets the stage for Matt Scudder's joining AA and getting
sober. But before the end of the book he really hammers 'em back.
(I have a paper on these two characters on my UWSP Web page.)
Univ. of Wisconsin -Stevens Point
http://www.uwsp.edu/comm/faculty/rdubiel/index.shtm
Rich Dubiel
[log in to unmask]
From: Alcohol and Drugs
Historhttp://www.uwsp.edu/comm/faculty/rdubiel/index.shtmy Society
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dan Malleck
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 8:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Under the Literary Influence
Being terribly neurotic, I try to steer clear of blatantly alcohol and
drug related literature for my personal reading.
Nevertheless, there is a section of Ann-Marie Macdonald's Fall on your
knees (1997) that is particularly memorable for me. The book is an epic
story about a poor family in Nova Scotia, beginning in the early part of
the 20th century. For one section, a young girl in the family becomes
an entertainer at a backwoods blind pig during prohibition. Macdonald's
ability to describe what seemed to me to be a likely much more realistic
impression of the rough backwoods illegal drinking space altered my
perception of illegal drinking during prohibition. Later the story
moves to Harlem during the 20s and 30s, but the blind pig is my
favourite bit.
She's a brilliant writer in any case, but this is especially evocative
for those of us who are preoccupied, one way or another (or in many
ways), with alcohol and drugs.
Dan Malleck
At 05:09 PM 2/21/2009, Bradley Kadel wrote:
Given our round table last month on writers and alcohol, I thought the
following from Brian McDonald might be of particular interest. Be sure
to look at the comments, for you'll find many more suggestions of titles
wherein alcohol plays a prominent role, as the author's trusty muse or
the subject for exploration through characters and places.
http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/under-the-literary-influence/?
emc=eta1http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/under-the-literary-inf
luence/?emc=eta1
Would it be too much to ask list members for their own favorite authors
and titles?
For my part, I don't think anyone in the twentieth century described
gritty barroom intoxication better than James Farrell, especially in the
last volume of his Studs Lonnigan trilogy. Of course Farrell's writing
is quite dark, and certainly the tone of most writers describing
drunkenness shifts considerably by the early 1960s. Ideas?
Brad Kadel
Fayetteville State University
*************************************************
A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world. That
means trying to understand, take in, connect with, what wickedness human
beings are capable of; and not be corrupted - made cynical, superficial
- by this understanding.
Literature can tell us what the world is like.
Literature can give us standards and pass on deep knowledge, incarnated
in language, in narrative.
Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who
are not us or ours.
From Susan Sontag's acceptance speech on the occasion of being awarded
the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels,
the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
Dan Malleck, PhD
Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
Editor-in-chief, Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An
Interdisciplinary Journal
http://historyofalcoholanddrugs.typepad.com
Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail, including any attachments, may
contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the
intended recipient, please notify the sender by e-mail and immediately
delete this message and its contents, and then find someone to blame.
Thank you.
--
Gretchen Pierce, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Latin American History
Northern Illinois University
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