The Next to Last Drink

by Lois Mathieu

Overview

WHAT KIND OF COURAGE DOES ONE NEED TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF ADDICTION AFTER YEARS OF USING ALCOHOL TO RELIEVE ANXIETY?

RUMI, THE 13TH CENTURY POET, ASKS: WHY DO YOU STAY IN PRISON WHEN THE DOOR IS SO WIDE OPEN?

WILL VALENTINE IS A PROMINENT ARCHITECT WHO SPENDS MUCH OF HIS LIFE USING ALCOHOL TO QUIET ANXIETY. WHEN ALCOHOL BECOMES TOXIC TO HIM, HE NEARLY LOSES HIS LIFE, AND THAT FORCES HIM TO BEGIN THE JOURNEY OF RECOVERY. HE BELIEVES IN THE POWER OF HIS WILL AND PERSONAL COURAGE, AND HE'S DETERMINED TO MAKE IT THROUGH WITH THOSE ASSETS.

BUT A SURGE OF ANXIETY WEAKENS HIS WILL POWER AND THREATENS HIS RESOLVE.

ANXIETY MEDICATIONS THAT MIGHT BECOME ADDICTIVE ARE FROWNED ON BY HIS COUNSELORS. SAFER MEDICATIONS EITHER DO NOT RELIEVE ANXIETY OR THEY DIMINISH HIS LIBIDO.

HE ADMITS THAT IN HIS MIND HE WANTS TO BE SOBER, BUT IN HIS HEART HE WANTS TO KEEP DRINKING. HE REALIZES THAT ALCOHOL HAS GIVEN UP ON HIM MORE THAN HE HAS GIVEN UP ALCOHOL. WHAT WAS ONCE A REMEDY IS NOW A POISON.

WILL IS AT THE CROSSROADS WHEN A DIARY COMES INTO HIS HANDS AND CHALLENGES HIM TO CONFRONT HIS ADDICTION AT A DEEPER LEVEL. RELUCTANTLY, HE CONSIDERS THE LIMITATIONS OF WILL POWER AND COURAGE, AND HE RE-THINKS HIS POSITION ON FAITH.

BUT WILL VALENTINE IS WARY OF GIVING IN TO A HIGHER POWER FOR FEAR OF LOSING PERSONAL FREEDOM AND THE IDENTITY OF THE MAN HE KNOWS AS HIMSELF.

WALK WITH WILL VALENTINE. ACCOMPANY HIM ON HIS JOURNEY AND SEE WHY EVEN PEOPLE WHO HAVE MUCH TO LOSE OFTEN DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF ADDICTION.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468093254
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	03/07/2012
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Lois Mathieu is a full-time fiction writer. She grew up in a rural part of Connecticut imagining the possibiity of venturing out and embracing a larger world view.

She earned a B.A. degree from Syracuse University in New York, and a Masters of English from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She has made over a dozen trips to Japan working as a professional writer for a corporation.

Lois' early poems and poetry reviews have been published in fine literary journals and anthologies. She is a first-prize recipient of the Joseph E. Brodine Award, presented to her by the Connecticut Poetry Society for her poem on the Holocaust, Counting Sheep by Night.

Lois has authored three novels: The Next To Last Drink, in 2012; Debut, in 2011; and Quiet But Dangerous, in 2002.

Lois enjoys going head to head with life's most difficult challenges - "those pains that are thrown at us or are self-inflicted. A story worth telling is one that reveals the journey of a person at the crossroads, one who must change course or remain imprisoned in emotional and psychological misery.

In the throes of such seriousness, Lois keeps alive the desire to write a hilarious piece one day, but as she says, "sustaining humor may be the most difficult writing of all."

Editorial Reviews

A novel about one man's struggle with alcoholism and anxiety after hitting rock bottom. The title refers to something of a mantra, a phrase that former architect Will Valentine repeats to himself because the idea of his very last drink--the one that will probably kill him--is too disheartening to bear. The story follows Will through individual therapy and group sessions as he attempts to rebuild his life and control his alcoholism, which seems to have been both the cause and the result of his deep-seated anxiety. It takes courage to write a book with an unlikable main character and even more to write one with a plot that's less of an adventure than an internal journey. But Mathieu has a grasp on both the despair and the attendant ennui that accompany the fight for sobriety, and she's able to effectively express the struggle. Depression is, of course, a complicated subject to write about because of the difficulty in conveying those attendant emotions to someone who is not or has not been in the throes of the disease. Yet Will's internal debate about visiting his old bar and his belief that he could have just a little bit of wine are heartrending, and his relapse is especially poignant, perhaps because it's such a believable story. There are a few structural problems, though, particularly with the imprecise amount of time that passes between events. Also, Will's lack of compassion for his fellow addicts and his impatience with the process of recovery make him somewhat unsympathetic, even as the reader hopes for his sober success. A powerful story that approaches a happy ending--or at least a hopeful one.

Kirkus Reviews