The Recovering

By: Leslie Jamison

Narrated by: Author

Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

"An honest and important book... Vivid writing and required reading." (Stephen King)

"A Tolstoyan study of the human condition." (Andrew Solomon)

One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2018: Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Elle, Newsday, The Millions, Huffington Post, Nylon, Bustle, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Bitch, The Rumpus, Buzzfeed, Boston Globe, The Week

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Empathy Exams, a transformative work showing that sometimes the recovery is more gripping than the addiction

With its deeply personal and seamless blend of memoir, cultural history, literary criticism, and reportage, The Recovering turns our understanding of the traditional addiction narrative on its head, demonstrating that the story of recovery can be every bit as electrifying as the train wreck itself. Leslie Jamison deftly excavates the stories we tell about addiction - both her own and others' - and examines what we want these stories to do and what happens when they fail us. All the while, she offers a fascinating look at the larger history of the recovery movement and at the complicated bearing that race and class have on our understanding of who is criminal and who is ill.

At the heart of the book is Jamison's ongoing conversation with literary and artistic geniuses whose lives and works were shaped by alcoholism and substance dependence, including John Berryman, Jean Rhys, Billie Holiday, Raymond Carver, Denis Johnson, and David Foster Wallace as well as brilliant lesser-known figures such as George Cain, lost to obscurity but newly illuminated here. Through its unvarnished relation of Jamison's own ordeals, The Recovering also becomes a book about a different kind of dependency: the way our desires can make us all, as she puts it, "broken spigots of need". It's about the particular loneliness of the human experience - the craving for love that both devours us and shapes who we are.

For her striking language and piercing observations, Jamison has been compared to such iconic writers as Joan Didion and Susan Sontag, yet her utterly singular voice also offers something new. With enormous empathy and wisdom, Jamison has given us nothing less than the story of addiction and recovery in America writ large, a definitive and revelatory account that will resonate for years to come.

©2018 Leslie Jamison (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Leslie Jamison writes about the highs of dependency and also about the highs of recovery. Her prose is so sharp and evocative that the reader feels the thrilling trickle of alcohol down the back of the throat, and breathes the struggle for health and freedom. Jamison demonstrates great wit, penetrating intellect, and an enormous heart. This strangely exhilarating book is about recovery, but it is more resonantly a book about desire, consciousness, kindness, self-control, and love - and hence a Tolstoyan study of the human condition." (Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of Far From the Tree and The Noonday Demon)

"Leslie Jamison has written a profound exploration into how empathy deepens us, yet how we unwittingly sabotage our own capacities for it. We care because we are porous, she says. Pain is at once actual and constructed, feelings are made based on how you speak them. This riveting book will make you a better writer, a better human." (Mary Karr, author of Lit and The Liars' Club)

"Jamison's questing immersion in intoxication and sobriety is exceptional in its vivid, courageous, hypnotic telling; brilliant in its subtlety of perception, interpretation, and compassion; and capacious in its scholarship, scale, concern, and mission." (Booklist)

Sure, why not?

it lost me occasionally but that didn't hurt the story line. interesting angle. a bit of a love story to writers. could be shorter but I liked it. an easy listen.

Visceral reaction to descriptions of addiction

The author did a wonderful job describing the feelings of need and addiction while intertwining her personal story with those of others.
At first, I was annoyed by the author’s “vocal fry” but enjoyed the narrative so much that I stopped focusing on such a trivial issue.

Basic.

I didn’t buy her story as being anything out of the ordinary. Anybody who went to a large public university in the United States knows a dozen women just like her.

Strong writing

Vocal fryyyyyyy- a voice actor would have been better.
She really is a wonderful writer, and Her story is moving, but the themes seem to be repeated one or two too many times. By the end I was longing for it to just end already.

I would marry this woman

I’m surprised about the negative reviews. This is an honest portrayal about what it’s kike to be a fucked up person with a big brain that can write (real good, most of the time—lol). I think the author does a nice job—I listened to it in two sittings. She is honest about her insecurity, deep indescribable longing to be needed, her alcoholism, her delusion about drinking, uncertainty, and beauty. I think this memoir fills an important space within the greater space recovery stories—AAs with fancy degrees and credentials. Smart people can get clean too. I’ve seen it.

To the author—the headline should be funny, not creepy. Your friend, SCB

What successful creative non fiction looks like

This book is a beautiful fusion of research, history, and baring, bearing, and sharing the deeply personal.

not just another addiction war story

Great to hear someone want to talk about their recovery and not act as though the story ends after quitting. life is hard and messy in addiction but also recovery. very well written and researched.

Read this!!

Anyone who has ever struggled will get something from this. So well thought out, and really good!

15 Minutes of Her Voice More Than I Could Endure

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Content might be good but if vocal fry annoys you, then NO! Stephen King gave it a good review so there must be something worthy about it. When I get time I'll check it out from library and read it. Audio version is unlistenable for me.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Couldn't get very far so can't say. Will return it.

What didn’t you like about Author’s performance?

Her voice. Why oh why do authors insist on reading their own work rather than hiring one of the many professional narrators who do it so much better? I found myself constantly waiting for the next time she'd end a sentence with a strangled rasp. She does it randomly instead of regularly so it seems like a lack of training and/or discipline. Too bad. I was looking forward to the book.

I love it when that happens!

This is a beautifully written, well-crafted book on a topic I never would have thought I'd care about. I love it when that happens! The reviews I read of the book in the mainstream press made it seem extraordinary, so I decided I'd give it a go. Initially, I thought I'd stumbled on another book written by a drama queen, but I persisted beyond the first chapter or two to find myself drawn in by the author's experiences (she is in fact not a drama queen), as well as by the unusual bits of literary and social history she presents. By halfway through I was listening nonstop and beginning to wonder why there aren't many more alcohol- and drug-addicted people among us. If you have a little patience, a love of the possibility of language, and a willingness to follow where the author wants to lead, I think you will find the book compelling. I highly recommend it.