Grit Before Grace

While a writer for a weekly independent newspaper, Jim Jackson, idolized the likes of Charles Bukowski and Hunter S. Thompson. When the love of Jim's life, Ellie, died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Kristen, Jim drowned his sorrows in a sea of booze in some of Los Angeles's seediest bars, while leaving his sister Misty to raise his infant. Once Jim finally came home and sobered up, he wrote a book on his experiences, Becoming Bukowski, that became a cult classic.

Two decades la...