Unwasted: My Lush Sobriety [Paperback]

Sacha Z. Scoblic (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 26, 2011

The single glass of wine with dinner...the cold beer on a hot day…the champagne flute raised in a toast… what I'd drink if Hunter S. Thompson wanted to get wasted with me…these are my fantasies lately. Too bad I've gone sober.

When Sacha Z. Scoblic was drinking, she was a rock star; the days were rough and the nights filled with laughter and blackouts. Then she gave it up. She had to. Here are her adventures in an utterly and maddeningly sober world…and how she discovered that nothing is as odd and fantastic as life without a drink in hand…

"Wildly entertaining…An unabashed account of getting clean and getting a life.” --Steve Geng

Sacha Z. Scoblic is a writer living in Washington, D.C. A former editor at The New Republic and Reader's Digest, she has written about everything from space camp to pulp fiction and was a contributor to The New York Times's online series "Proof: Alcohol and American Life.” She currently blogs about addiction at TheFasterTimes.com. Her sobriety date is June 15, 2005.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Scoblic's testament to life on the wagon is pertinent and raffish, marked by considerable candor and humor. A dryly witty, spirited memoir."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A gripping, inspiring tale that picks up where most sobriety memoirs leave off. ... This is a story for anyone trying to enact meaningful change in their lives." --Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, co-authors, The Nanny Diaries

"Hilarious and heartbreaking, Unwasted is a traveler's guide to the perilous, wondrous land of sobriety. Scoblic's scorched, sweet prose is the work of a writer at the top of her form." --Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There

"As someone who's been drunk with Sacha Scoblic, I can attest that she's even smarter, sweeter and funnier when sober. This book is all of those things, one of the best memoirs I've read in a long time." --Tucker Carlson

"Sacha Z. Scoblic's often funny, always honest, and wholly unflinching look at her sobriety is not to be missed. As Sacha chooses her life, you'll choose this author: she's a revelation." --Megan Crane, author of I Love the 80s

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Citadel; 1 edition (July 26, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080653429X
• ISBN-13: 978-0806534299
• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 5.5 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sacha Z. Scoblic's work has appeared in The New Republic, The Fix, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Reader's Digest, and The New York Times, where she penned essays for the Times blog "PROOF: Alcohol and American Life." Sacha is currently a contributing editor at The New Republic. Her new book is UNWASTED: MY LUSH SOBRIETY (Citadel, 2011). Sacha lives with her husband, Peter; son, Theodore; and terrier, SciFi, in Washington, DC. www.sachaZscoblic.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars As real as it gets. September 7, 2011

By Claire

Format:Paperback

I bought this book off the title alone. So many times, people struggling with sobriety look at a sober life as "boring". Sacha Scoblic takes us on the journey of discovering that its not. Whether you are currently a lush or have "no problem", this book is a wonderful read. It is about discovering who you are, why you do things, what you are telling yourself you deserve, and figuring out how to be true to yourself and real in every moment. Sacha shares it all from the nitty-gritty dark side of addiction to the sober observations of the crazy world around her. I laughed out loud at her no-holds-barred wit, and her tell-it-like-it-is candor. But what lingers me with today is how brutally honest Sacha has gotten with herself, about everything. My life may not outwardly resemble hers, but I want to live in such honesty. And after you read her story, you will as well. I recommend this book to anyone. But if you are by chance someone who occasionally asks, "do I have a problem?", buy it and read it now.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Raw, Humorous, Insightful Look at the First Year Post-Alcohol (and a Little Bit of Her Alcohol-Imbibing Days) December 26, 2011

By Rachel Kramer Bussel VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

It would be almost impossible to tell her story of the first year without alcohol without sharing what alcohol meant in her life, and Scoblic manages to weave the two together beautifully in this moving, sometimes funny, sometimes sobering (pun intended) memoir. She writes about how she relied on alcohol in multiple ways, and that when she took that crutch away, she was left with a lot of assumptions, about 12-step programs, about faith, about relapsing, that she had to reexamine. One of the most crucial parts, one that I related to, was the idea that faith and prayer are not just for believers. She writes about praying even though she doesn't actual believe, or isn't sure that she does, and that is a concept that was utterly new for me. From Unwasted: "I have found moments of prayer, as I snuggle into my white bed in my deep blue bedroom--like a woman floating on her own moon--when I get grateful about the man next to me, my little pooch, my groovy neighborhood, and our good health and lives, in which I can rediscover a sense of adventure about life and I can touch a small and wonder-filled current inside of me." This concept permeates the book.

She includes extended fantasies about alternate worlds, from aliens to celebrities, where she might be "required" to drink, and these relapse fantasies, while fantastical, lend an important reality to the book. Scoblic did not simply hop, skip and jump into sobriety. She does not make it sound simple or easy, and doesn't gloss over the challenges of being at a heavy-drinking company retreat or at a party where her old ways can no longer guide her. Toward the end of the book, Scoblic writes, "Until sobriety, the idea that I was someone worthwhile and unique a priori had not occurred to me. And, as I looked toward the blank sober slate before me in the mirror, a thousand discarded personas on the floor, I began to sense that this one last transformation--that is, become myself, which is what everyone tells you to be from the start--was going to be an awful lot of fun. I was going to reinvent myself as me." By the actual end, as she writes about training for a marathon, a lifelong goal, I will admit that I cried. Scoblic does not pretend to have all the answers, but her vision of community, of strength and support, for running and sobriety, is an antidote to the loneliness she explores in the rest of the book, the loneliness and fear that alcohol momentarily removed from her. Her journey in exploring those dark spaces and discovering how to fill the gaps left by alcohol is touching, and should help give insight into alcoholism from a very poignant, personal perspective.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful voice -- truth and humor and hope July 26, 2011

By A. R.

Format:Paperback

This is a funny, insightful book -- more than just "a drunk's story"...the story of a woman going from adolescence (at 30!) to adulthood. The stories are so human: imperfect, selfish, eye-opening...and I'm sorry, if you ain't a drunk, you really can't talk about being one. Sacha Scoblic can. As I read, I found myself rounding little corners in my mind where I knew what the next word was going to be. Having always felt SO alone (either better than you, or on the bottom of the pile) this kind of raw, modern memoir makes my little heart sing. Can't wait to hear about motherhood in sobriety!