Out of the Wreck I Rise

Overcoming alcoholism or other addiction is often the hardest thing a person will ever try to do. But one central truth of addiction is as lonely as you feel, you are not really alone. Millions are struggling with the same problem, now and in the past. Among them are writers and philosophers, poets and playwrights who have thought about--and have struggled with-- this fight for thousands of years. Their hard-won insights are the beating heart of Out of the Wreck I Rise. This book walks the reader through the stages of the path from the hell of addiction to the frequent bliss of recovery. Each chapter takes up a stage of the recovery process, beginning with a short commentary by Neil Steinberg--the nationally known Chicago Sun-Times columnist and author of Drunkard: A Hard-Drinking Life--followed by quotes that are, by turns, illuminating, bracing, and consoling. It draws upon the perspectives of writers from Seneca to Shakespeare to David Foster Wallace, and includes the voices of popular figures such as Billie Holiday, Keith Richards, and Patti Smith. Notorious drinkers--John Cheever, Charles Bukowski, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O'Neill, and Raymond Carver, among others--share dearly paid for wisdom. The quotes not only inspire, individually, but are assembled to form a mosaic, fitted together to create a narrative of how recovery works, and the emotional, intellectual, and physical odyssey that people undertake when they get better.  Out of the Wreck I Rise is a unique and remarkably creative recovery guide designed to help those people--and their friends and families--to navigate and persevere on the path to recovery.