**This bestselling memoir from a seasoned New York City reporter is a vivid report of a journey to the edge of self-destruction (New York Times).**As a child during the Depression and World War II, Pete Hamill learned early that drinking was an essential part of being a man, inseparable from the rit...

**This bestselling memoir from a seasoned New York City reporter is a vivid report of a journey to the edge of self-destruction (New York Times).**As a child during the Depression and World War II, Pete Hamill learned early that drinking was an essential part of being a man, inseparable from the rituals of celebration, mourning, friendship, romance, and religion. Only later did he discover its ability to destroy any writer's most valuable tools: clarity, consciousness, memory.

In* A Drinking Life , Hamill explains how alcohol slowly became a part of his life, and how he ultimately left it behind. Along the way, he summons the mood of an America that is gone forever, with the bittersweet fondness of a lifelong New Yorker. Magnificent. A Drinking Life * is about growing up and growing old, working and trying to work, within the culture of drink. -- Boston Globe**