“Addiction Is A Hard Story to Tell”: On Leslie Jamison’s “The Recovering”

1. When Leslie Jamison went before the university board to present her dissertation topic, a dissertation that would form the basis of her new memoir/critical study The Recovering, one of the faculty members gave her a hard time. Jamison’s thesis posited a link between sobriety and creativity, delving into the post-addiction work of alcoholic writers like Raymond Carver and Charles Jackson, to show that the myths of the booze-addled genius are, at the least, severely overstated. But, as the professor’s […]

Continue Reading

Vol.1 Brooklyn’s April 2018 Book Preview

Well, it’s April. Nominally it’s springtime–but the presence of snowy weather and temperatures friendly to hot cocoa and roaring fires suggests otherwise. Metaphorically speaking, though, that range of moods and modes lines up pretty neatly with the books that are on our radar for this month–everything from works in translation to bold collections of nonfiction to eagerly-anticipated literary debuts. Here’s a look at several of the books that we’re most excited to explore this month.

Continue Reading