A Drinking Life: A Memoir

A Drinking Life: A MemoirThis bestselling memoir from a seasoned New York City reporter is "a vivid report of a journey to the edge of self destruction" (New York Times). As a child during the Depression and World War II, Pete Hamill learned early that drinking was an essential part of being a man, inseparable from the rituals of celebration, mourning, friendship, romance, and religion. Only later did he discover its ability to destroy any writer's most valuable tools:

This bestselling memoir from a seasoned New York City reporter is "a vivid report of a journey to the edge of self-destruction" (New York Times).
As a child during the Depression and World War II, Pete Hamill learned early that drinking was an essential part of being a man, inseparable from the rituals of celebration, mourning, friendship, romance, and religion. Only later did he discover its ability to destroy any writer's most valuable tools: clarity, consciousness, memory.
In A Drinking Life, Hamill explains how alcohol slowly became a part of his life, and how he ultimately left it behind. Along the way, he summons the mood of an America that is gone forever, with the bittersweet fondness of a lifelong New Yorker.

"Magnificent. A Drinking Life is about growing up and growing old, working and trying to work, within the culture of drink." --Boston Globe

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: 01/19/1994
ISBN: 9780316341080
Pages: 280
Weight: 1.17lbs
Size: 9.52h x 6.39w x 0.96d

Review Citations: Library Journal 01/01/1994 pg. 130
Booklist 12/15/1993 pg. 734
Publishers Weekly 11/22/1993