his is a wild ride of a book. Don is a struggling writer, and a massive alcoholic. His brother reluctantly leaves him alone for a long weekend, and Don goes on a bender. He does whatever he can to make sure he has his next pint of booze, lie, steal, borrow if he can. It is a definite cautionary tale for the toll that alcoholism can take on a person. Excellent read. ( )

There is so much in this. I wish I could take a class on it. The gay stuff is especially interesting as it is coming from a totally different kind of perspective. I don't really understand it. Great clear writing. ( )

Good, but it reminded me of a bell--one that is perfectly tuned and true, but essentially only plays one note. Definitely a must read in the addiction and alcoholism genres. ( )

Heavy book, there’s a lot going on, definitely need to reread ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3089967.html

It’s as grim reading as the film is grim viewing, tight third throughout, vividly realised, and without the film’s happy ending.

Don Birnam is bisexual in the original novel, but firmly straight on screen; in the book, his ambiguous sexuality is part of the root of his addiction - which of course rather ignores the fact that in real life, many alcoholics are entirely secure in their sexual identities; but I guess Jackson had to tell the story he himself knew best.

The penultimate section of the book has Don hallucinating at his girlfriend Helen’s apartment, rather than his own - this gives a stronger sense of displacement, and of course reinforces the point that when he does get home he starts drinking again, ending the book in the same place he started, only worse off.

Several of the great visuals of the film (including the opera scene) were written for the screen and were not in the original book. The passage in the hospital is memorable in a very different way in the book - the nurse, Bim Nolan, hints at seducing Don as part of his treatment, though Don is not really interested either in being seduced or in being treated. (In fairness this is hinted at on screen, but it is text rather than subtext in the original.) ( )