Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
still unmatched, August 29, 2001
This review is from: The Lost Weekend (New York Classics) (Paperback)
For all the obeisance we pay to literature, it is remarkably rare for a novel to actually change, or help change, the culture. Nor is it necessarily, nor even likely, the "serious" books that effect the change. In terms of it's political impact, there may never have been a more important novel than Uncle Tom's Cabin, which is hardly the stuff of academic studies and literary criticism. Similarly, The Lost Weekend, though in many ways resembling nothing so much as a pulp fiction or a hardboiled noir, had a tremendous influence on American attitudes towards alcoholism and alcoholics, making it a surprisingly significant book. Charles Jackson's semi-autobiographical tale follows the "promising" writer Don Birnam for one four day weekend as he descends into the depths of alcoholic despair and debauchery. Birnam's overly protective younger brother, Wick, goes out of town, leaving Don on his own in their apartment, even though he fears that, as usual, Don will take advantage of his independence to go on a binge. Wick has tried to limit the damage by controlling Don's allowance, from a family trust, but Don has perfected all kinds of scams for getting more and as the weekend progresses he comes up with some new ones. These include everything from stealing a purse to a rather pitiful attempt to find a pawn shop that's open on Yom Kippur, to hock his typewriter. Finally, he even steals and pawns his girlfriend's fur coat after she, Helen, tracks him down and tries nursing him through a period of delirium. Besides the robberies from family, friends, and strangers, Jackson shows the effect of the drinking on Don's behavior towards others as he stands up a dinner date, takes advantage of a kindly local merchant, and unmercifully exploits Wick and Helen and their concern for him. He also shows the physical effects in Don's urgent need for drink, a brief stay at Bellevue (or a hospital very much like it) after falling down the stairs and fracturing his skull, and finally in the chillingly described delirium tremens and hallucinations. Books, movies, and television have all made alcoholism a staple theme, but when Jackson wrote this book alcohol was merely a comic device in literature, and alcoholism was taken to be a function of the liquor itself and of the spiritual weakness of the drunk. Much of the book anticipates future findings about the true nature of the disease. In the first place, Don is not a skid row derelict. He's a cultured and talented young man from a decent family. Nor is he simply beholden to the bottle; his alcoholism is just a manifestation of much deeper psychological problems, in his case either repressed homosexuality or fear of the very possibility. His downward spiral began in college after an incident involving a crush on a fraternity brother and he reacts with horror when a male nurse at Bellevue propositions him. Even if he were to stop drinking, Don Birnam would still be a profoundly troubled man, would still be desperately ill. Jackson also anticipates the concept of "enablers", which is what the folks around Birnam really are. Wick and Helen obviously care about him, but their willingness to cover for him and their unwillingness to confront him makes them participants in the problem. They and Don are kind of archetypal examples of dysfunction as the drinking has become the core of his existence, shutting out any capacity to relate honestly with others, and they have been reduced to lying, to him and to themselves, and compensating for his behavior, essentially putting his drinking at the core of their lives too. In all of this Jackson was years ahead of his time. The book, which became a bestseller, and the excellent Billy Wilder film version, which studios were reluctant to make but which became a surprise hit and Academy Award winner, ushered in an era when attitudes towards alcoholism began to change and the hitherto hidden problem began to be addressed more honestly. But beyond this social impact, it's just a really good book, one that stands the test of time and which has probably never been bettered in its portrait of an alcoholic. GRADE : A
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A thoughtful and penetrating read., June 21, 1998
This review is from: The Lost Weekend (New York Classics) (Paperback)
For years, "The Lost Weekend" has been one of my favorite movies of the 1940s. Ray Milland's oily style never seemed better suited than it did to the role of Don Birnam, the story's inveterate sneaking drunk, and the movie was-- and remains-- surprisingly hard-hitting for a film of that period. I also promised myself for years that I would read Charles Jackson's book of the same title on which the movies is based, and I finally have. Jackson's book takes place entirely from the perspective of the main character, Don Birnam, and entirely inside that character's head. It contains relatively little action and dialogue (don't look for too many familiar scenes from the movie, especially that upbeat, optimistic ending), being mostly comprised of Birnam's endless introspection and rationalization of his self-destructive behavior, laced with undercurrents of homosexuality. This is never dull, however. Birnam is an intelligent, sharp, and very entertaining fellow, even if you can never trust him, and Jackson keeps you whipping right along, with only occasional lapses into literary and philosophical tedium. I have no biographical information about the author, but the story is told with such knowledge and insight that I would be very surprised if it is not, to some large extent, based on personal experience. This is a very thoughtful and penetrating read, which, I am happy to say, has not detracted from my enjoyment of the movie.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the very best American novels, April 18, 2005
This review is from: The Lost Weekend (New York Classics) (Paperback)
I read "The Lost Weekend" after seeing the fine movie starring Ray Milland. The movie gripped me, and hit close to home, but I felt that there was a quality to the writing that made me seek out the book (which was out of print at the time). Boy, am I glad I did. "The Lost Weekend" is an absolute literary masterpiece, capturing a 5-day drunk from an inveterate alcoholic with such chilling accuracy that it actually becomes a suspense novel: there's a scene where the protagonist, Don Birnam, is struggling up 6th avenue to pawn his girlfriend's coat, so he can buy more booze, that is so nail-bitingly horrific that I had to put the book down several times and catch my breath.
Charles Jackson has perfectly captured the madness, compulsion, fear, degradation of addiction and yet this book is unlike any other I've read about alcoholism--the only one that really rivals it is "A Fan's Notes" by Fred Exley, which is the *other* great masterpiece about drinking.
For those of you who might be interested in seeing the flip side of this book, ie, "the horror of sobriety," you might want to check out HALF EMPTY by Tim Hall, which chronicles the madness, fear, and antagonism of early sobriety in much the way this captured the horror of hardcore alcoholism.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
