About the Book
Born into a world ruled and defined by the cocktail hour, in which the solution to any problem could be found in a dry martini or another glass of wine, Susan Cheever led a life both charmed and damned. She and her father, the celebrated writer John Cheever, were deeply affected and troubled by alcohol.
Addressing for the first time the profound effects that alcohol had on her life, in shaping of her relationships with men and in influencing her as a writer, Susan Cheever delivers an elegant memoir of clear-eyed candor and unsettling immediacy. She tells of her childhood obsession with the niceties of cocktails and all that they implied -- sociability, sophistication, status; of college days spent drinking beer and cheap wine; of her three failed marriages, in which alcohol was the inescapable component, of a way of life that brought her perilously close to the edge.
At once devastating and inspiring, Note Found in a Bottle offers a startlingly intimate portrait of the alcoholic's life -- and of the corageous journey to recovery.
About the Author :
Susan Cheever is the bestselling author of thirteen previous books, including five novels and the memoirs Note Found in a Bottle and Home Before Dark. Her work has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Boston Globe Winship Medal. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a member of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author's Guild Council. She teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. program. She lives in New York City with her family.
Review :
"The New York Times Book Review"Cheever's writing has true resonance.
"Seattle Weekly"Engrossing and remarkably devoid of self-flagellation.
"Publishers Weekly"Brutally frank....A powerful story written in precise, emotionally intense prose.
"San Diego Union-Tribune"Cheever's compelling, candid, and ultimately inspiring story is a testimony both ot her personal triumph and her undeniable gift as a writer.
Erica JongOut of razor blades and rosebuds, Susan Cheever has fashioned a stunning story of spiritual rebirth. It breaks your heart while it makes you laugh out loud. I plan to read it again and again.
Jacki Lydenauthor of "Daughter of the Queen of Sheba"From this beautifully written book, it is clear that the dull haze of alcohol never obscured Cheever's writerly instincts....A writer of shining clarity.
"Book"Anyone in recovery runs the risk of sounding self-pitying, self-righteous, or both. The middle ground is hard to achieve with material so personal....Susan Cheever, absent pathos or bathos, has now walked that fine line.
"Kirkus Reviews"A memoir that floats like a sad song, with its themes the effervescence of champagne and the flatness of the morning after....A poignant and fortright tale of a rugged journey by amd extraordinarily gifted writer.
"Newsday"It's a testament to Cheever's skill as a memoirist that her slow dawning becomes ours. Like her, we expect some cataclysmic event, some aha! moment....Instead, she and we get a slow accumulation of behaviors that, in sober hindsight, add up to an alcoholic life....A major accomplishment.
Carolyn See"Bazaar"The realm she evokes here may look at first like paradise, but by the time you finish these beautifully imagined pages, you'll be convinced it was hell....It's Cheever's strength that she can write "through" this form, making us see the shimmering, layered reality behind any moralizing.
Erica Jong Out of razor blades and rosebuds, Susan Cheever has fashioned a stunning story of spiritual rebirth. It breaks your heart while it makes you laugh out loud. I plan to read it again and again.
Judy Collins Susan Cheever's new memoir, "Note Found in a Bottle, " is the brilliantly written and deeply moving story of a woman's spiritual journey. Her captivating prose illuminates, in riveting detail, the pain and joy of a life in transformation. With humor, insight, and inspiration, she tells of a pilgrimage through darkness to light, vividly describing the mysterious alchemy of her drinking and where it took her and [gives us] a powerful story of chaos transformed into serenity, pain transformed by love. This is an important book and I was deeply moved by it.
Maggie Scarf "Note Found in a Bottle" ushers the reader into a world of old wealth, immense talent, wild wit, sexual betrayal, celebrity, drugs, and alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. If F. Scott Fitzgetald were writing in the '90s, this might be what it would sound like. Susan Cheever's new memoir is completely mesmerizing.
"The New York Times Book Review" Cheever's writing has true resonance.
"Seattle Weekly" Engrossing and remarkably devoid of self-flagellation.
Jacki Lyden author of "Daughter of the Queen of Sheba" From this beautifully written book, it is clear that the dull haze of alcohol never obscured Cheever's writerly instincts....A writer of shining clarity.
"Newsday" It's a testament to Cheever's skill as a memoirist that her slow dawning becomes ours. Like her, we expect some cataclysmic event, some aha! moment....Instead, she and we get a slow accumulation of behaviors that, in sober hindsight, add up to an alcoholic life....A major accomplishment.
"Kirkus Reviews" A memoir that floats like a sad song, with its themes the effervescence of champagne and the flatness of the morning after....A poignant and fortright tale of a rugged journey by amd extraordinarily gifted writer.
"Publishers Weekly" Brutally frank....A powerful story written in precise, emotionally intense prose.
"Book" Anyone in recovery runs the risk of sounding self-pitying, self-righteous, or both. The middle ground is hard to achieve with material so personal....Susan Cheever, absent pathos or bathos, has now walked that fine line.
Carolyn See "Bazaar" The realm she evokes here may look at first like paradise, but by the time you finish these beautifully imagined pages, you'll be convinced it was hell....It's Cheever's strength that she can write "through" this form, making us see the shimmering, layered reality behind any moralizing.
"San Diego Union-Tribune" Cheever's compelling, candid, and ultimately inspiring story is a testimony both ot her personal triumph and her undeniable gift as a writer.
Carolyn See"Bazaar"
The realm she evokes here may look at first like paradise, but by the time you finish these beautifully imagined pages, you'll be convinced it was hell....It's Cheever's strength that she can write "through" this form, making us see the shimmering, layered reality behind any moralizing.
"Book"Anyone in recovery runs the risk of sounding self-pitying, self-righteous, or both. The middle ground is hard to achieve with material so personal....Susan Cheever, absent pathos or bathos, has now walked that fine line.
Erica JongOut of razor blades and rosebuds, Susan Cheever has fashioned a stunning story of spiritual rebirth. It breaks your heart while it makes you laugh out loud. I plan to read it again and again.
"San Diego Union-Tribune"Cheever's compelling, candid, and ultimately inspiring story is a testimony both ot her personal triumph and her undeniable gift as a writer.
"Publishers Weekly"Brutally frank....A powerful story written in precise, emotionally intense prose.
"Newsday"It's a testament to Cheever's skill as a memoirist that her slow dawning becomes ours. Like her, we expect some cataclysmic event, some aha! moment....Instead, she and we get a slow accumulation of behaviors that, in sober hindsight, add up to an alcoholic life....A major accomplishment.
"Kirkus Reviews"A memoir that floats like a sad song, with its themes the effervescence of champagne and the flatness of the morning after....A poignant and fortright tale of a rugged journey by amd extraordinarily gifted writer.
Jacki Lydenauthor of "Daughter of the Queen of Sheba"
From this beautifully written book, it is clear that the dull haze of alcohol never obscured Cheever's writerly instincts....A writer of shining clarity.
"Seattle Weekly"Engrossing and remarkably devoid of self-flagellation.
"The New York Times Book Review"Cheever's writing has true resonance.
