The recovering: intoxication and its aftermath
(Book)

Originally published by Little, Brown and Company in 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Presents an exploration of addiction that blends memoir, cultural history, literary criticism, and journalistic reportage to analyze the role of stories in conveying the addiction experience, sharing insights based on the lives of artists whose achievements were shaped by addiction.

"With its deeply personal and seamless blend of memoir, cultural history, literary criticism, and reportage, The Recovering turns the traditional addiction narrative on its head, demonstrating that the story of recovery can be more gripping than the train wreck itself. As Leslie Jamison deftly excavates the stories we tell about addiction, she offers a fascinating look at the larger history of the recovery movement, and at the complicated bearing that race and class have on our understanding of who is ill and who is criminal. At the heart of the book is Jamison's ongoing conversation with literary and artistic geniuses whose lives and works were shaped by alcoholism and substance dependence, including John Berryman, Jean Rhys, Billie Holiday, Raymond Carver, Denis Johnson, and David Foster Wallace. Through its unvarnished relation of Jamison's own ordeals, The Recovering also becomes about the particular loneliness of the human experience--the craving for love that both devours us and shapes who we are. With empathy and wisdom, Jamison has given us nothing less than the story of addiction and recovery in America writ large, a definitive and revelatory account that will resonate for years to come."--Back cover.