AUDIOBOOK
About
Alan Kaufman recounts with unvarnished honesty the story of the alcoholism that took him to the brink of death, the post-traumatic stress disorder that drove him to the edge of madness, and the love that brought him back. Son of a French Holocaust survivor, Kaufman was a drinker so mauled by his indulgences that it is a marvel he hung on long enough to get into recovery. With his estranged daughter as inspiration, Kaufman cleaned himself up at age forty, taking full responsibility for nearly destroying himself, his work, and so many loved ones along the way. Kaufman minces no words as he looks back on a life pickled in self-pity, self-loathing, and guilt. Reading Drunken Angel is like watching an accident to see if any of the victims crawl away barely alive. Kaufman did, and here he delivers a lacerating, cautionary tale of a life wasted and reclaimed.
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Reviews
"With an outsized heart to go with its outsized thirst, Drunken Angel tells the sort of truths that feel like myths and the sort of myths that feel like truth."
Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket
"Drunken Angel reads like a recovery memoir written in another time, from another generation, though it's of the present. Alan Kaufman's story is riveting: raw in its passion and lacerating in its testimony."
Oscar Villalon, former book editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, board member of the Nat
"An avant-garde writer recalls his journey from gutter drunk to PEN American member…[An] addictive memoir of self-destruction, recuperation, and a literary coming-of-age."
Kirkus Reviews