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Kingsley Amis: "Charles Jackson's marvellous and horrifying The Lost Weekend, still the best fictional account of alcoholism I have read."

I'm going to have to get that book. First, it deals with booze. Second, it's endorsed by a man of literary quality like Amis. Third, I believe it was quickly voted into the Classics of American Literature Library (or some such thing).

Fourth, and most important, my Dad once used the phrase "lost weekend" when we were at the Hillcrest drinking with his old friend John McKillen. They both knew the phrase, but I didn't.

I didn't have to reveal my ignorance, however, because he proceeded to say that he'd only had one lost weekend in his entire drinking life, and that was while he was in the marines. He and three buddies spent a long weekend living out his friend's car (the "Hotel Mercury") and drinking alarming quantities of booze. He seemed to recall the weekend with half-amusement and half-shudder. It was one of the few times that I saw my Dad not completely relish a drinking memory. He remained fond of those friends the rest of his life, so I'm assuming the shudder came from the memory of the drinking itself.

But instead of the book, maybe I'll just rent the movie. It has a 100% rating with Rotten Tomatoes and 8.0 at IMDB.

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