Drink Me (Skye Rogers, HarperCollins, $27.95 pb, ISBN 0732282063, March) ***
The sub-genre of substance-abuse autobiographythink Running with Scissors, A Million Little Pieces et al-has taken up an increasing portion of the shelves in recent years. Rogers, author of nonfiction titles like Thirtysomething, varies the format with Drink Me as she delves into the story of her ex-partner Dan's alcoholism and how it eventually destroyed an intense and very loving relationship. Dan and Skye were together for seven years and the depth of feeling that comes with a relationship of that length is evident in her writing. This was a big, big love that went horribly wrong. Rogers is fond of a metaphor and generous with the adjectives-her writing will not be to everyone's taste-but her tale of love drowned by alcoholism is sure to find an audience. It is welltold and Rogers is very honest. This is not a vindictive 'my drunken ex' story-Rogers is forthright about her own faults-but a sad and all-too-familiar story of someone talented, loving and special destroying themselves slowly.
Eliza Metcalfe is assistant editor of BOOKSELLER+ PUBLISHER
This review from Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2005, Thorpe-Bowker