Customer Reviews

What Did I Do Last Night?: A Drunkard's Tale

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I picked this up and started reading it, and it is a pretty funny autobiographical work on a British guy who really, really liked to party and drink. At one point, he makes the point that if you don't really know what a blackout is, you are not a true alcoholic (that definition is no doubt not the one the medical community in the U.S. gives, but it also is probably pretty accurate). He explains it as like having your "memory chip" for the past (x) hours totally erased. So, he often wakes up on a couch somewhere (Britain and then New York when he moves there), not knowing where he was last night. Hence, the title of the book. I think this book is actually pretty outrageous, in the good and bad sense of that term. I found it very, very honest and compelling. I don't think we need really to go into all the "you shouldn't do what he did" stuff. I think that will be clear to people who read the book. The book is actually very funny, and very outrageous.

I was at the bookstore, picking up a cookbook for a dinner party I was hosting. I saw this on the shelf and grabbed it, commenting on the insane front cover. What the hell, I hadn't read a book in a while. At 256 pages, it would be a quick read and it would keep me busy at work for the week.

I cracked the cover Sunday night before bed, before I knew it I was 60 pages deep and it was getting a bit late. I re-opened it during my lunch break at work the next day and read for about a half hour. I didn't want to stop, but I had to work. As soon as I got home from work that night, I tossed my keys and purse aside, snuggled up in my chair with my dog and finished the book, less than 24 hours after starting it.

It was a great read. Although Tom and I are two completely different people, at times, I felt that we were completely the same person. His battle was my battle. His thoughts were my thoughts. "I'm not that bad, I'm in control of this. I can stop anytime. If I just smoke one more joint, I have to feel better." and of course "What the hell did I do last night?" was a question I often asked of my friends.

Tom Sykes begins us near the end of the story and then hurls us backwards in time to the beginning of the story. (One of my favorite literary devices... the anticipation of "How did it come to that???") We learn of his early teenage plight with drugs and alcohol and how it came to this. He navigates us through benders on several continents, nights full of drinking, snorting coke, popping e and smoking weed. I know this sounds fruitless and as a recovered drug addict, some of it even had me longing for my old days... but maybe that's all just part of it. I was really feeling what he was feeling. His highs, his lows, his emotional instability. His nights on the "couch of shame" and his shining moments of excitement and ecstasy.
When he came down, I came down. When he was happy, I was happy.

Tom had his dream job, it was the best and worst thing that ever happened to him. It was making him feel alive, but it was also killing him. He was far from in control. It was so obvious when you read along. You wanted him to win though. You wanted him to make it out on the other side. As I was explaining to my friend while reading it, I just wanted it to end well for him. She looked at me and said, "Well, he wrote the book... so it can't be that bad." Good point...

After reading this book, I felt closure to the tale. I felt good about the outcome and I felt moved by the story. So much, in fact, that I wanted nothing more than to contact Tom Sykes himself and explain to him how much I liked his book and why. After little success trying to google his contact information, I realized the last thing he probably wanted after writing this book, was a bunch of ex-junkies writing him letters about all the parallels in our lives. So I let that little dream die.

I'm rambling now, but the point is, this book was really great and as an ex-alcoholic/drug addict, I could relate to it on SO many levels. I'm only 26, but none of the stories seemed "dated" to me. It was a great read and I plan to pass it on to friends.

Tom Sykes candidly describes his life as a "functional" alcoholic in his memoir, What Did I Do Last Night? The portrait that Sykes paints of his life is filled with dreary colors splattered across a broken canvas with an ounce of sunlight bubbling through small pockets created by the cracks. His father abrupt departure from the family without any explanation to his children leaves a 14-year-old Sykes trying to complete a puzzle with missing pieces. To keep some normalcy in Sykes' life, his extended family helps fund his education at the prestigious Eton College Boarding School in Britain.

Sykes starts dabbling in alcohol at the age of 14. Having been suspended before by the school for purchasing alcohol in nearby Windsor, Sykes undisciplined rebellious attitude eventually leads to his expulsion from the school. Reality of his present situation leaves him with the option of attending a government school or finding employment. After working in a strawberry field, he realizes finishing high school and continuing to college is the best option for him.

Drinking alcohol and smoking weed becomes routine, just like going to school and working. As the picture of his life is revealed by each stroke of the paint brush, it is hard to envision Sykes without a bottle of alcohol or some type of drug in his possession. The scent of pain erupts through the pores of his skin as his body detoxicates itself from drugs and the feeling of abandonment by his father. It all becomes an extension of him and who he is. His drug and alcohol usage defines him just as much as his writing career. Each party seems to begin and end with him there. Every morning someone has to remind him what he did the night before. Inconsistency plagues his writing--a great article today an awful one tomorrow. When he moves to New York and begins his career as a freelancer for the New York Post, nothing changes. He convinces the editor of the popular Page Six to allow him to write a column about New York's night life. Party, Party, Party!!! Squandering his inheritance on drugs and engaged to get married, Sykes life continues to spiral out of control. Everyone can tell he has a problem with drugs and alcohol-everyone except him.

"Twenty minutes later, I was searching for the white crumbs in the carpet, plucking them out on the end of my licked index finger with a surgeon's precision, thinking to myself, None of this would have happened if Michael had just given me a god*&^ drink."

As you read this book, it is hard not to be afraid for Sykes. Every libation he swallows, every smoke he inhales, every coke he snorts, seems to bring him that much closer to his demise. It makes you want to stage an intervention on his behalf. His odd and sometimes confrontational behavior when he is high, make you cringe for him. How can Sykes function with all the intoxicants he eagerly and willingly forces in his body? How low does he has to get to realize he needs to change? Will he ever get to that point? You find yourself hoping against all odds that he doesn't severely harm himself or others and silently pray and cheer that he pulls himself together.

This was a good/meaningful book to me as I am a recovering alcoholic. Made me VERY grateful that my story didn't sink to that level -- but a good reminder that it could if I had continued to drink. Page-turner!

Tis is a brilliant book full of hair raising tales and high jinx. Incredibly funny. The author was an alcoholic who managed to wangle a job as the chief night life writer and bar reviewer at the Evening Standard and then the New York Post with disastrous (but hilarious) results.
Highly recommended. Not for the squeamish!

I guess that the book was entertaining enough, but woefully absent of any real dramatic tragedy that would surround the life of a hardcore alcoholic. He never woke up in jail or beaten bloody in England or New York. No horror nor any particular insight into the disease of alcoholism or drug addiction. Plenty of Alcoholism light. It gets much much uglier.

he really doesnt remember what he did last night
there are maybe one or two funny stories in the whole book
all it does is chronical his drinking and drug use

Tom Sykes writes without being sentimental or judgmental. This guy is now sober but he used to drink like a fish and race around New York and London misbehaving. His is a cautionary tale, but he writes it with panache and a light touch. Buy this book now and you'll read it in one sitting. Cleverer than Toby Young or Candace Bushnell, most astute than Milan Kundera, as straightforward as Bill Bryson, and as disreputable as Jay McInernery or Brett Easton Ellis. This is a sure-fire hit.