Last Drink to LA

Last Drink to LA

by JohnSutherland (Author)

Synopsis

I touched bottom, as alcoholics like to say, on 12 February 1983 (the date is slightly fuzzy). Thirty-one years ago John Sutherland nearly lost everything to drink. A married man, with family, working as a visiting professor of English on the west coast of America, he awoke from a blackout to find he was lying next to a stranger - a very strange stranger. This was his morning of clarity; it was time to sober up. Or die. Last Drink To LA is part reportage, part confession, in which John takes a frank look at drinking culture on both sides of the Atlantic, weighing up the pros and cons of Alcoholics Anonymous, which since its launch nearly a century ago has sparked hot debate. Is it a cult, or the best life-saver drinkers have? What John courageously 'shares' here is not a temperance tale (told to terrify, inform and instruct), not what AA calls a 'drunkalog', but a moving and thought-provoking meditation - some thinking about drinking and the devastating effects it has on individuals, families and society at large.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
Edition: 2nd edition
Publisher: Short Books Ltd
Published: 01 Jan 2015

ISBN 10: 1780722281
ISBN 13: 9781780722283

Media Reviews
A remarkably honest book - The Guardian John Sutherland is among the handful of critics whose every book I must have. He's sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued, with a generous heart and a wise head. - Jay Parini author of The Last Station Last Drink To LA is an enlightening and courageous book, and quite different from the wallowing, breast beating, confessional splurge one might be offered from a media celebrity. This, in contrast, offers analysis and hope, and should be required reading in all surgeries and branches of AA. - Goth Lady, Amazon review I don't know much about literature. I'm just a working class builder who struggles with drink. It's a superb book, full of insight and the sort of stuff that sticks around and bubbles up out of your sub-conscious when you need it to. - Andrew Henry, Amazon review
Author Bio
John Sutherland was formerly Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. A recovering drunk, he is the author of many, many books.