A Bar On Every Corner: Sobering Up in a Tempting World by Jack Erdmann

by Jack Erdmann

To a newly sober person, the world can be a frightening place. Enticing messages about alcohol, cigarettes, sex, and excess threaten newfound sobriety, while chemical comforts no longer offer a familiar escape route. In his sequel to his acclaimed autobiography Whiskey's Children, Jack Erdmann offers a hauntingly honest account of his first days of sobriety. A Bar on Every Corner provides important navigational bearings for safe passage through the hazards of early recovery.

Hardcover

First published September 10, 2001

About the author

In his stunning new autobiography, Whiskey's Children, author and lecturer Jack Erdmann recounts, with brutal honesty, his years of alcoholism. A former salesman, Erdmann's descent into the disease began at the tender age of thirteen and lasted through a broken marriage and a badly damaged career before he finally became sober. Twenty years later, Jack has produced a harrowing, wildly funny, expertly delivered narrative that gives the reader an intimate glimpse into the soul of a fourth-generation alcoholic. Whiskey's Children tells the story of Jack's amazing journey from the incredible anguish of addiction and self-loathing to the miracle of recovery and his newly forged relationship with God. Indeed, he is able to locate the hidden places in readers' hearts where the non-stop grief and misery live-those secret places where everything is known but nothing is acknowledged.

Jack has been speaking in public for over twenty years. From the smallest local meeting to a standing ovation at St. Louis University, he has delivered on-point, privileged information that strikes directly at the core of the sick family. His message is powerful, frighteningly honest, and occasionally very funny-his intention is to make healing and redemption as real to his audience as they are to him. He offers hope to the suffering family and an accessible warning to the young. Whiskey's Children is borne from the same spring as his lectures.and has found the same success. In fact, Publisher's Weekly writes of the "emotional honesty and precision" found within the pages and calls the book "a powerful source of healing." In all likelihood, alcoholism affects someone you know-this novel just might offer a new understanding and a new hope.

Reviews

[Abbi Dion]

“I thought it was all the pain of being human, and some of it was, but mostly it was the pain of being a drunken, sentimental asshole (as in wanting to feel without taking responsibility).”

“Sarah lives in the house I bought by the wonderful lake, where we were supposed to all be happy, surrounded by beauty, the sighing of the trees, and a cozy little town where all the drunks know each other and cluster together.
"We drunks then are good guys. What you did the night before is funny, really early in the morning, in the bar on the piers near the beautiful water the sun glares off. We’re all good guys. It’s a good man’s failing. What did you do? You kiddin’ me? No shit, Jack, you’re a madman. No shit? Jeez. I left at two and you were lookin’ not so bad. Shit. Hey Harry, give me a brandy and coffee, huh? Light on the coffee. So what did she do, Jack? She call the cops?
"It’s a good man’s failing. It’s an endless, sad-ass charade and hanging from each of us are tatters of past indecencies, expectations, dead hopes.”

“Because this is where it all is for me and I’ve been lying in the dark for most of my life waiting for someone to talk to me, tell me what to do, how to stop hurting, how not to be afraid, how not to feel myself hanging around my neck like a great dead bird.”

“If nothing else, I’ve learned that others who know what’s going on are usually better able to tell me how I’m doing than I am. This is a very deep and important recognition. It draws me into community, astonished, and leaves me open to the world.”

“Walking through the coffee shop parking lot, I can feel the night sky all around me, breathable.”

[Terri Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book made me cringe at the author's despair. There is no question this man has hit rock bottom, and the book is extremely candid and raw. I commend him for writing such an ugly and gritty memoir and facing down his addiction. My only gripe, as a reader and not someone in his position, is the self-pity. The book is saturated in it and that is what made me cringe. This is not an uplifting and motivating tale of recovery. It is a dark warning to those struggling to get clean before their life spins inevitably out of control.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, not great. I like that it focuses on the "recovery period" rather than the sordid details of his alcoholism. Not particularly great writing, but enjoyable nonetheless.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at a recovering alcoholic's thought process which was quite dismal at times, but nevertheless, insightful.

[Signora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories of finding God through AA's 12 step program.