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Beachglass
When Delia entered treatment for drug and alcohol addiction at age seventeen, her life changed she immersed herself in AA, began to heal old family wounds, and developed a whole new outlook on herself, on spirituality, on relationships. Out of the rubble, she built a life for herself that any recovering woman would be proud a loving husband, a beautiful daughter, her own brand of hard-won wisdom.
But her long-term sobriety is put to the test when she receives a phone call from her gay best friend, Timothy. Fulfilling a pact they made a decade prior, Delia tears herself away from her new life in Seattle and rushes home to Los Angeles, to Timothy's bedside, facing the one thing she fears her sobriety cannot survive--losing him.
Back in LA, Delia begins to encounter familiar people, places, and temptations…a barrage of memories that makes her stop and sort through her past, looking for the courage she knows she needs now more than ever. As her past catches up with her present, she sees that she has not merely survived her losses and mistakes, but has been made stronger because of them. This understanding comes to her in full as she holds a piece of beachglass in her hand and realizes that it is its scuffs and scrapes that give it its quiet splendor, its imperfections that give it its beauty and individuality, and that it is from being tossed and tumbled that it no longer shatters--and she knows the same goes for her too.
Set against a backdrop of West Hollywood in the late 1980s, populated by a drag queen and a stripper, beautiful boys and artists, and told by a narrator with equal doses of self-deprecating humor, old-soul awareness, fallibility, and brutal honesty, Beachglass is a gritty and uplifting story of recovery, a journey that presents a fresh look into the world of AA and offers a convincing rendering of the constant struggle to go into recovery and stay there--no matter what. In this stunning debut novel, Wendy Blackburn writes of the transformative power of love--for others and oneself--and about friendship, about forgiveness, about redemption.
But her long-term sobriety is put to the test when she receives a phone call from her gay best friend, Timothy. Fulfilling a pact they made a decade prior, Delia tears herself away from her new life in Seattle and rushes home to Los Angeles, to Timothy's bedside, facing the one thing she fears her sobriety cannot survive--losing him.
Back in LA, Delia begins to encounter familiar people, places, and temptations…a barrage of memories that makes her stop and sort through her past, looking for the courage she knows she needs now more than ever. As her past catches up with her present, she sees that she has not merely survived her losses and mistakes, but has been made stronger because of them. This understanding comes to her in full as she holds a piece of beachglass in her hand and realizes that it is its scuffs and scrapes that give it its quiet splendor, its imperfections that give it its beauty and individuality, and that it is from being tossed and tumbled that it no longer shatters--and she knows the same goes for her too.
Set against a backdrop of West Hollywood in the late 1980s, populated by a drag queen and a stripper, beautiful boys and artists, and told by a narrator with equal doses of self-deprecating humor, old-soul awareness, fallibility, and brutal honesty, Beachglass is a gritty and uplifting story of recovery, a journey that presents a fresh look into the world of AA and offers a convincing rendering of the constant struggle to go into recovery and stay there--no matter what. In this stunning debut novel, Wendy Blackburn writes of the transformative power of love--for others and oneself--and about friendship, about forgiveness, about redemption.
- GenresFiction
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 16, 2006
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56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 28, 2025
2,5*
hmm, this is not written that well, way too cheesy at times, struggled to get into it at the beginning. the characterisation of the main character was lacking imo. there were some weird religious themes and uncomfortable wordings regarding race and sex workers for example. BUT. the story was still interesting enough for me to want to read the whole thing
hmm, this is not written that well, way too cheesy at times, struggled to get into it at the beginning. the characterisation of the main character was lacking imo. there were some weird religious themes and uncomfortable wordings regarding race and sex workers for example. BUT. the story was still interesting enough for me to want to read the whole thing
January 22, 2017
Outstanding and well-written first novel by this author (and, I think, her last). I had trouble putting it down and her writing is so textured and heartfelt that you are right there with the protagonist every step of the way.
June 16, 2018
It actually took me a little bit to get into this book, but the more I read the more I was interested. This is a story about addiction and recovery, about HIV, about grief, about love (in many forms), about failures, about achievements, and about friendship. I really kinda loved it.
July 13, 2013
A forgettable story.
February 19, 2020
A very heartwarming book, surely make you immense yourself with it. Unforgettable journey of friendship, life and family.
September 3, 2013
Self-indulgent, unrealistic, and condescending. The main character, Delia (worst name for a character, ever), is conceited, self-righteous, hypocritical, and dishonest. She is co-dependent and jumps from guy to guy, while trying to justify her actions and judging others who were doing the same thing. The author is your typical ignorant, white-collar yuppie who uses words like "jive," "nappy," and the "ghettos." Her story of "recovery" was completely glorified, with claims of never relapsing (which is a process of recovery) and her dad magically going from an emotionally and verbally abusive douche-bag of a drunk, to all of a sudden joining her "cult" and getting sober on his own. The majority of the characters were unlikeable and Blackburn really knew how to drive the stereotypes of homosexuals and African-Americans home with her descriptions of Timothy and Zodiac. In the meantime, she completely glosses over Delia's past and all of the awful experiences that she had and the horrendous things that she did while she was in her addiction. Again, an example of how she feels exempt from the addict population.
There are far better stories of addiction, recovery, and sobriety that are more realistic and have the ability to be related to. The author's character looks down her nose at those that relapse or don't live their lives how she sees fit. She is selfish, not only in her addiction, but also in her recovery and makes excuses for it. She acts as if she's the victim in her failed marriage, her family, and in her friendships. She claims that she is in recovery, when in reality, she is completely incapable to be without a man to define her. She is a "13th Stepper" in AA and used the meetings as her dating pool, describing many times how Delia and Timothy would sit in the back making jokes and checking out the guys. And, surprise, surprise, the moment she has a year or two of sobriety under her belt, she becomes......a drug treatment counselor at the same place where she was a patient herself (completely unethical, no matter how much time has passed from being discharged).
Sadly, this book is being used for the book club at the residential drug treatment facility where I work as a therapist, and some of the clients have also seen right through the author's tale of "recovery" and her successes, which she clearly views as this putting her on an AA pedestal above the rest (when really, her achievements are actually normal milestones in other people's lives). Admittedly, the book only received a second star because of the vivid descriptions of parts of Los Angeles, which is actually a beautiful place to live.
Not a complete waste of time. However, quite a forgettable story and it did not really leave me deep in thought or with a lesson learned, besides, don't be a drug addict.
There are far better stories of addiction, recovery, and sobriety that are more realistic and have the ability to be related to. The author's character looks down her nose at those that relapse or don't live their lives how she sees fit. She is selfish, not only in her addiction, but also in her recovery and makes excuses for it. She acts as if she's the victim in her failed marriage, her family, and in her friendships. She claims that she is in recovery, when in reality, she is completely incapable to be without a man to define her. She is a "13th Stepper" in AA and used the meetings as her dating pool, describing many times how Delia and Timothy would sit in the back making jokes and checking out the guys. And, surprise, surprise, the moment she has a year or two of sobriety under her belt, she becomes......a drug treatment counselor at the same place where she was a patient herself (completely unethical, no matter how much time has passed from being discharged).
Sadly, this book is being used for the book club at the residential drug treatment facility where I work as a therapist, and some of the clients have also seen right through the author's tale of "recovery" and her successes, which she clearly views as this putting her on an AA pedestal above the rest (when really, her achievements are actually normal milestones in other people's lives). Admittedly, the book only received a second star because of the vivid descriptions of parts of Los Angeles, which is actually a beautiful place to live.
Not a complete waste of time. However, quite a forgettable story and it did not really leave me deep in thought or with a lesson learned, besides, don't be a drug addict.
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October 8, 2014Beachglass 11132006
by Wendy Blackburn
Interesting but too much me me!!!
For her debut novel, Blackburn, a chemical dependency counselor in Seattle, presents a kaleidoscopic look at AA denizens, clean and not, from the perspective of a Seattle chemical dependency counselor who is a recovering addict. Delia, 10 years clean and sober, leaves her husband, Simon, and toddler, Clara, to return to her childhood home in West Hollywood at the behest of Timothy, with whom she went through AA and who is dying of AIDS. What unfolds is Delia's retrospective account of her addiction and her arduous and still-constant struggle to find a way to live clean. The book is populated with a cast of characters flawed in almost every conceivable way, including Delia's disturbed parents; her late sponsor, Joan; and others from AA days, some of whom are still a mess. Delia's remembrances of meetings and other charged parts of her past make up the bulk of the book, and are raw and painful. With Delia's recovery and Timothy's deaths foregone conclusions, there's not much to the plot, and Delia's first person is as generic as it is colloquial, but her courage and her past ravagement are palpable. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Beachglass, each piece uniquely shaped and polished by waves and sand, typically begins as ordinary bottle shards. Delia, an alcoholic 10 years sober, leaves her husband and two-year-old daughter to honor her decade-old promise to Timothy, a dear friend she made in AA, to help him through his last days of fever-spawned headaches and bone ache from pneumonia due to AIDS. Although her journey is only from Seattle to L.A., and husband Simon attempts to smooth her way by taking a sabbatical and relying on grandparents for backup child care, Delia is anguished by separation from her little girl, who speaks toddler-talk to her daily on the phone, as well as by fright when she learns that Timothy's T-cell count is only 50. She fears "silently slipping through a crack somewhere, never to be seen again." Her beloved friend's dying reflects parts of herself that she must give up to accept what he has left her: a few paintings, a wingback chair, his moccasins, and an unbreakable bond. A richly poignant first novel. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
by Wendy Blackburn
Interesting but too much me me!!!
For her debut novel, Blackburn, a chemical dependency counselor in Seattle, presents a kaleidoscopic look at AA denizens, clean and not, from the perspective of a Seattle chemical dependency counselor who is a recovering addict. Delia, 10 years clean and sober, leaves her husband, Simon, and toddler, Clara, to return to her childhood home in West Hollywood at the behest of Timothy, with whom she went through AA and who is dying of AIDS. What unfolds is Delia's retrospective account of her addiction and her arduous and still-constant struggle to find a way to live clean. The book is populated with a cast of characters flawed in almost every conceivable way, including Delia's disturbed parents; her late sponsor, Joan; and others from AA days, some of whom are still a mess. Delia's remembrances of meetings and other charged parts of her past make up the bulk of the book, and are raw and painful. With Delia's recovery and Timothy's deaths foregone conclusions, there's not much to the plot, and Delia's first person is as generic as it is colloquial, but her courage and her past ravagement are palpable. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Beachglass, each piece uniquely shaped and polished by waves and sand, typically begins as ordinary bottle shards. Delia, an alcoholic 10 years sober, leaves her husband and two-year-old daughter to honor her decade-old promise to Timothy, a dear friend she made in AA, to help him through his last days of fever-spawned headaches and bone ache from pneumonia due to AIDS. Although her journey is only from Seattle to L.A., and husband Simon attempts to smooth her way by taking a sabbatical and relying on grandparents for backup child care, Delia is anguished by separation from her little girl, who speaks toddler-talk to her daily on the phone, as well as by fright when she learns that Timothy's T-cell count is only 50. She fears "silently slipping through a crack somewhere, never to be seen again." Her beloved friend's dying reflects parts of herself that she must give up to accept what he has left her: a few paintings, a wingback chair, his moccasins, and an unbreakable bond. A richly poignant first novel. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
May 19, 2009
A story about a recovering addict, Delia, who takes care of her dying friend. This story brings you inside rehab and the life of someone dying of HIV. Delia has learned a long, hard lesson and come a long way since her teen years.
October 28, 2008
Amazing book about friendship, love, and loss.
August 2, 2009
Fantastic book about recovery that shows how it can be done.
September 11, 2009
Great light reading, but definitely not fluff
June 6, 2012
There are few books I will retread, this one earns the title of the few I will read and retread.
November 27, 2021
A recovery book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews