Helpful Score: 1
Once in a great while a book take us to a place we have never been before-a place that is unique and unforgettable, both life-altering and life-affirming. Whiskey's Children is such a book. It is an intimate glimpse into the soul of Jack Erdmann, an intelligent,charismatic man who also happened to be a fourth-generation alcoholic. It is the story of Jack's extraordinary journey from the pain and despair of addiction and self-loathing to the miracle of recovery and his own renewed faith in God. It is a searing tale of loss and redemption-of one man's heroic struggle to break the cycle of self-destruction forever. Jack Erdmann's message is a simple one: as long as there is life, there is hope-and the possibility of change.
Whiskey's Children opens in St Louis in 1934. That was when Erdmann, the son of a jazz musician and an ex-chorus dancer, first became aware of his father's drinking, of the destruction it wrought. Jack's own descent into the hellish world of alcohol abuse began when he was an eight-year-old alter boy, dipping into the communion wine. He drank his way through the loneliness and fear of adolescence and a successful stint in the Air Force before alcohol began to take its cruel toll: A marriage built on alcoholic dependency that ended in violence; the loss of a once-promising career; the price it exacted on his own deeply wounded children; the dizzying slide into life of hallucinations, paranoia, suicidal longing,incarcerations and institutionalizations.
Jack Erdmann's road to salvation was a long and harrowing one. But it led to a reincarnation of sorts: the chance to live again, to build a new life out of the bitter ashes of pain and defeat-a life based on kindness, unselfishness, empathy and, above all, honesty. After a lifetime of alcoholism, Jack Erdmann began the path to sobriety and rejoined the human race.
A fervent plea to break patterns of dependency and abuse as well as moving testament to the human capacity both to endure pain and to achieve grace. Whiskey's Children stands with the very best literature about alcoholism. Told with an intense honesty all it's own, this is a lyrical, powerful touching autobiography that offers enlightenment to those who haven't and inspiration and hope to those still fighting to find their way. It is, in the words of Anne Llamott, a story so beautifully told it will leave you shaking with wonder.
Whiskey's Children opens in St Louis in 1934. That was when Erdmann, the son of a jazz musician and an ex-chorus dancer, first became aware of his father's drinking, of the destruction it wrought. Jack's own descent into the hellish world of alcohol abuse began when he was an eight-year-old alter boy, dipping into the communion wine. He drank his way through the loneliness and fear of adolescence and a successful stint in the Air Force before alcohol began to take its cruel toll: A marriage built on alcoholic dependency that ended in violence; the loss of a once-promising career; the price it exacted on his own deeply wounded children; the dizzying slide into life of hallucinations, paranoia, suicidal longing,incarcerations and institutionalizations.
Jack Erdmann's road to salvation was a long and harrowing one. But it led to a reincarnation of sorts: the chance to live again, to build a new life out of the bitter ashes of pain and defeat-a life based on kindness, unselfishness, empathy and, above all, honesty. After a lifetime of alcoholism, Jack Erdmann began the path to sobriety and rejoined the human race.
A fervent plea to break patterns of dependency and abuse as well as moving testament to the human capacity both to endure pain and to achieve grace. Whiskey's Children stands with the very best literature about alcoholism. Told with an intense honesty all it's own, this is a lyrical, powerful touching autobiography that offers enlightenment to those who haven't and inspiration and hope to those still fighting to find their way. It is, in the words of Anne Llamott, a story so beautifully told it will leave you shaking with wonder.
