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Rating: 
Summary: Delerium Tremens: Journey into the Mind of Alcoholism.
Review: "Delerium Tremens--Stories of Suffering and Transcendence", will prove a captivating read for fiction and non-fiction buffs alike. The fact that its several episodes are taken from the forbidden reaches of alcoholism's darkest mental truths render it a compelling study for students, clinicians, doctors, social workers, addiction/recovery professionals, those affected by association, and, of course, the victims of alcoholism. Ignacio Solares manifests the rarest ability as he elicits trust and draws lucid, detailed, and technicolor images from those who, by the nature of their disease, are often submerged in a denial so powerful and private that they are unable to fully admit these experiences, even to themselves. Thanks to Timothy Compton, Solares' affects are accurately preserved in English for the first time. Although catalogued under addiction/recovery, "Delerium Tremens"' appeal is openly general. For the recovering alocholic, it penetrates the smooth, hard ball of alcoholic isolation with the hope that admission and fellowship are possible, that others have suffered this private netherworld and ascended victorious. Outside the genre, readers will be captivated and entertained by episodic truths that are truly stranger than fiction. More significantly, they will avail themselves what may be an only opportunity to view a hell that is as real to its sufferers as the words of this review; an opportunity to vicariously witness an unseen world of unimaginable horrors, a world that is all around us; a world that, until "Delerium Tremens, Stories Suffering and Trancendence could", could only be realized through the loneliest eyes of all--the eyes of alocholism.
Rating:
Summary: Delerium Tremens: Journey into the Mind of Alcoholism.
Review: "Delerium Tremens--Stories of Suffering and Transcendence", will prove a captivating read for fiction and non-fiction buffs alike. The fact that its several episodes are taken from the forbidden reaches of alcoholism's darkest mental truths render it a compelling study for students, clinicians, doctors, social workers, addiction/recovery professionals, those affected by association, and, of course, the victims of alcoholism. Ignacio Solares manifests the rarest ability as he elicits trust and draws lucid, detailed, and technicolor images from those who, by the nature of their disease, are often submerged in a denial so powerful and private that they are unable to fully admit these experiences, even to themselves. Thanks to Timothy Compton, Solares' affects are accurately preserved in English for the first time. Although catalogued under addiction/recovery, "Delerium Tremens"' appeal is openly general. For the recovering alocholic, it penetrates the smooth, hard ball of alcoholic isolation with the hope that admission and fellowship are possible, that others have suffered this private netherworld and ascended victorious. Outside the genre, readers will be captivated and entertained by episodic truths that are truly stranger than fiction. More significantly, they will avail themselves what may be an only opportunity to view a hell that is as real to its sufferers as the words of this review; an opportunity to vicariously witness an unseen world of unimaginable horrors, a world that is all around us; a world that, until "Delerium Tremens, Stories Suffering and Trancendence could", could only be realized through the loneliest eyes of all--the eyes of alocholism.
Rating:
Summary: Drinking: A horror story
Review: I really enjoyed Solares's Delirium Temens and agree with much of what the previous reviewer has written. I found the content intriguing: odd number chapters relate 10 different peoples' experience with DTs and even number chapters describe a strange man, Gabriel, whose DTs seem to be much more than mere hallucinations, all of which is based on actual research that Solares did in a sanatorium in Mexico City. I would contrast Delirium Tremens to Caroline Knapp's Drinking: A love story. Whereas Knapp's account is an intimate, first person confession of the progress of her addiction, Delirium Tremens is a chorus of voices that, while all in the first person, document a specific moment--the first visual hallucination or DT--in each person's drinking. The fact that most drinkers never get to the haunting, seemingly real nightmares of DTs makes reading about them all the more interesting and frightening. Religious icons, insects and animals abound and one gets the feeling that DTs hone in on a person's unique weaknesses to become all the more horrific. In reading this book, I learned a lot and enjoyed its easy, honest style. One of my favorite quotes from the book defines alcoholism (or any addiction for that matter) as the moment when "our slaves become our lords and owners". Thumbs up, I recommend this book to all.
Rating:
Summary: Drinking: A horror story
Review: I really enjoyed Solares's Delirium Temens and agree with much of what the previous reviewer has written. I found the content intriguing: odd number chapters relate 10 different peoples' experience with DTs and even number chapters describe a strange man, Gabriel, whose DTs seem to be much more than mere hallucinations, all of which is based on actual research that Solares did in a sanatorium in Mexico City. I would contrast Delirium Tremens to Caroline Knapp's Drinking: A love story. Whereas Knapp's account is an intimate, first person confession of the progress of her addiction, Delirium Tremens is a chorus of voices that, while all in the first person, document a specific moment--the first visual hallucination or DT--in each person's drinking. The fact that most drinkers never get to the haunting, seemingly real nightmares of DTs makes reading about them all the more interesting and frightening. Religious icons, insects and animals abound and one gets the feeling that DTs hone in on a person's unique weaknesses to become all the more horrific. In reading this book, I learned a lot and enjoyed its easy, honest style. One of my favorite quotes from the book defines alcoholism (or any addiction for that matter) as the moment when "our slaves become our lords and owners". Thumbs up, I recommend this book to all.
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