Support 110 years of independent journalism.

  1. Culture
28 August 2009updated 27 Sep 2015 4:07am

Of booze and books

What happens when a writer stops drinking?

By Seher Hussain

Tom Shone explores pedestrian prose from writers who stop drinking in Intelligent Life. He discovers that, from Fitzgerald to Faulkner, “none of these authors would write much that was any good beyond the age of 40”, blaming their creative decline on sobriety and enforced rehab. “AA can only help weak people because their ego is strengthened by the group,” said Fitzgerald. “I was never a joiner.” Shone agrees, noting that:

Certainly, if what you’re used to is rolling champagne bottles down Fifth Avenue beneath the light of a wanton moon or getting into the kind of bar fights that make a man feel alive, truly alive, the basic facts of recovered life – the endless meetings, the rote ingestion of the sort of clichés the writer has spent his entire life avoiding – are below prosaic.

Ironically enough, the writing that resulted from these writers’ battles with alcoholism (Fitzgerald’s “The Crack-Up” in Esquire and John Berryman’s Recovery) would have been instant bestsellers today, given the immense popularity of misery memoirs on both the Oprah and Richard and Judy book lists.

For more on literary inebriation, read Victoria Moore’s account of following Papa Hemingway’s “rum-soaked tracks in Cuba”.

Select and enter your email address Your new guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture each weekend - from the New Statesman. A quick and essential guide to domestic politics from the New Statesman's Westminster team. A weekly newsletter helping you understand the global economic slowdown. The New Statesman’s weekly environment email. Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates.
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

Content from our partners
How placemaking can drive productivity in cities – with PwC
The UK needs SMEs to reach net zero
To truly tackle regional disparities, we need a new type of devolution