Finished reading: The Recovering by Leslie Jamison 📚

I finished this book, subtitled “Intoxication and it’s Aftermath”, as I crossed the one year threshold of my own journey to sobriety. I’ll use the word “sobriety” because it’s accurate, but it’s a little intense for my situation. Last year, I found myself wondering if things would be easier without alcohol in my life - I decided to give it a real try, and it stuck. Sobriety makes it much easier to go to bed and wake up when I want to, it allows me to make healthier choices about what I eat, and I’ve become a better listener in social situations.

This book is great - Jamison is a phenomenal writer. This book is a mix of memoir and literary criticism: the process of Jamison folding in the story of her recovery in with the stories of other writer’s recoveries.

One great aspect of this book is how the author tackles the addict/victim dichotomy we see in drug and alcohol abuse, and how society sticks different people with different labels. Addicted artists can be seen as troubled by their own genius, while addicted mothers are seen as disgraceful. This idea has stayed on top of mind as I read Jia Tolentino’s latest New Yorker piece on Ozempic and the new wave of weight loss drugs, which are helping us see obesity as a treatable condition, instead of a moral failing.

And, related to food, another striking idea that Jamison captures is how the repeated consumption of any given thing can become it’s own form of addiction, apart from chemical dependency or mood altering affects. I’ve experienced this as a former cigarette smoker, as someone who is evolving into a healthier relationship with food, but also as a “consumer” in the general sense - I’ve found it deceptively easy to pour one’s hopes and aspirations into a certain clothing brand, or tech company, or fictional Cinematic Universe, or social media niche, to the point where your thoughts are constantly revolving around it. At moments while reading, I felt invited to observe the similarities between this sort of fandom obsession with traditional addiction. The latter is obviously more pernicious and destructive, but both have the ability to consume you.

In general, this was a thought-provoking and engrossing book.