Recovery

By John Berryman

Book Overview

Dr. Alan Severance wakes up one morning confined to a familiar hospital with no recollection of his arrival. Thus starts Recovery, Berryman's semi-autobiographical tale of "the disease called 'alcoholism.'" This time, determined to free himself from his disease, Dr. Severance plunges into a rigorous plan for recovery. Following the clinic's advice he confesses his humiliations, defeats, and delusions in an attempt to purge himself and achieve normality. The novel is elevated above theordinary by Berryman's sharp wit and penetrating intelligence. An alcoholic and critically acclaimed Pulitzer prize-winning poet, Berryman jumped to his death off the Washington Avenue Bridge in 1972 in Minneapolis, abandoning his own attempts to overcome alcoholism as well as the yet unfinished Recovery. The resulting novel is a powerful portrayal of Severance's eternally indefinite attempts to free himself from the grip of addiction. "What he needed for his art had been supplied by his own person, by his mind, his wit."--Saul Bellow "Recovery is a brilliantly written, masterful portrayal of man's battle with himself for survival."--Chicago Sun-Times "What distinguishes Recovery from many fine and powerful fictions about alcoholism are the steps it takes into allegory and art."--Los Angeles Times

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560254793
• ISBN13: 9781560254799
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.0" x 5.5"

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.