How David Sedaris Showed Me What My Alcoholism Looks Like to Others
If he didn’t save my life, he added years to it.
About seven months ago, I embarked on another attempt at sobriety.
It hadn’t been going very well.
I decided to take a step back from all the heavy alcoholism reading and find something to read or listen to for enjoyment and picked up “Calypso” by David Sedaris.
David Sedaris is a an American humorist, so when I picked up “Calypso” it was to decompress, laugh, and be entertained by one of my favorite authors.
Why Aren’t You Laughing?
One hour and forty-one minutes into the audiobook, my alcoholism was exposed to me in a way that changed everything.
During a story of his infatuation with the TV program “Intervention”, he interweaves a narrative of him as a child and young adult, watching his mother’s struggle with alcoholism and the progression it took throughout her life.
He described his mother as a “lady” and “an alcoholic”.
“Another reason Intervention makes me think about my mother is that, she was an alcoholic. It’s a hard word to use for someone you love. And so my family avoided it. Rather we’d whisper among ourselves that. …
