Literary Titan
Dying For a Drink can be described as a recovery memoir, in which author, Amelia Baker, writes the authentic and very raw account of her fall into alcoholism and prescription drug addiction and her incredibly turbulent recovery journey. Due to the subject matter, this book touches on some challenging topics, including abuse, family turmoil, rehab, suicide, and many more. Baker unravels her story part by part and exposes the true extent of how life-destroying her addictions were. It becomes evident that her choice of title was not simply a cute usage of a prevalent saying- it was intended literally. It was heartbreaking to read about what Baker went through, and by the end, it felt incredibly uplifting to see what the human spirit can overcome after hitting rock bottom so many times. In the book, Baker goes into depth about all the various support systems she used to overcome her disease, highlighting the importance of her attending AA meetings, as well as the constant support of her friends and family, as well as her faith. I picked up Baker’s book and was hit immediately by how heavy it was. Of course, this is not an easy topic to write about, nor easy to read, but I think Baker handles the subject beautifully. Through the memoir, she uses a simplistic, matter-of-fact narration style. In parts, it can be incredibly jarring to read about events so traumatic and heartbreaking through a narrative voice void of any emotion. In the book’s foreword, Baker explains that she uses this style simply to cut out the nonsense and anything that would cloud what the book actually is- an admission of truth. While I did struggle with the style at times, I think it made it easier for me to understand Baker’s struggles more. While I don’t think I could ever fully understand the true horror of what she went through, it allowed me to become connected to her fight more. Due to this, I became engrossed in her story incredibly fast. While I congratulate Baker wholeheartedly for sharing her experience so powerfully, I felt so much frustration reading this book as her recovery was such a rollercoaster. Of course, this is not a criticism of Baker or her writing style whatsoever and is a natural reality of recovery. Just at points in the novel, I found it really hard to continue reading it as it just felt like it would never get better, and the thought of a novel as awful as this one not having a happy ending was really distressing. But perhaps those feelings are probably what Baker wished to illustrate with the novel, that feeling of helplessness that one can never fully recover. If that was her intention, it was done masterfully as I felt that so profoundly while reading it. Due to the sheer power and depth of the novel’s topics and the narration style that paired perfectly with it, I feel it would be wrong to say I enjoyed a book on such an awful subject matter. Still, I enjoyed seeing Baker manage to overcome her struggles. It was really touching overall. Dying For a Drink is a powerful memoir about addiction and recovery. A no-nonsense self-help book that is written in direct and plain terminology to bring to light the ups and downs of recovery from addiction, and how it is a lifelong battle.
