Recovery

By John Berryman

Book Overview

A thinly-veiled autobiographical novel, Recovery follows Dr. Alan Severance through his emotional journey of Freudian group analysis where he confesses his humiliations, defeats, and delusions in an attempt to purge himself and achieve normality.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1517901316
• ISBN13: 9781517901318
• Release Date: September 2016
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Intriguing, self-lacerating, hopeful novel of victory over addiction

John Berryman was working on "Recovery" when he died, and in these pages there is hope of some ultimate victory over addiction. In the character of Alan Severance is the thinly-veiled personality of the poet himself, self-deprecating and perfectionist, attempting to overcome despair in a hospitalized addict's routine of recognition and confrontation. It is by no means an uplifting triumph to acknowledge that he got this far in the struggle -- but that he got this far, and then despaired, says much about the power of alcohol to ruin even the power of hope. This novel will change any romantic notions the reader may have about art and the role of drugs in the life of any artist.