The Trip to Echo Spring

Posted on 02 October 2017 by Olivia Laing

Why is it that some of the greatest works of literature have been produced by writers in the grip of alcoholism, an addiction that cost them personal happiness and caused harm to those who loved them In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing examines the link between creativity and alcohol through the work and lives of six extraordinary men F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever and Raymond Carver All six of these writers were alcoholics, and the subject of drinking surfaces in some of their finest work, from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to A Moveable Feast Often they did their drinking together Hemingway and Fitzgerald ricocheting through the caf s of 1920s Paris Carver and Cheever speeding to the liquor store in Iowa in the icy winter of 1973.Olivia Laing grew up in an alcoholic family herself One spring, wanting to make sense of this ferocious, entangling disease, she took a journey across America that plunged her into the heart of these overlapping lives As she travels from Cheever s New York to Williams New Orleans, from Hemingway s Key West to Carver s Port Angeles, she pieces together a topographical map of alcoholism, from the horrors of addiction to the miraculous possibilities of recovery Beautiful, captivating and original, The Trip to Echo Spring strips away the myth of the alcoholic writer to reveal the terrible price creativity can exert. Read The Trip to Echo Spring author Olivia Laing – kino-fada.fr This book combines two of my favorite topics alcoholism and writers And yet, I was disappointed.Olivia Laing picked six writers who struggled with alcohol addiction F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Cheever, John Berryman, and Raymond Carver Laing traveled around the United States to visit their old haunts, analyzed their writings about drinking, and mixed it all up with some scientific research into alcoholism I wanted to know what made a ...The Trip to Echo Spring uncovers very little new about authors we know too much about Instead of Hemingway or Fitzgerald, she might have inspected the lives of Kingsley Amis or Dorothy Parker This book is riddled with the first person singular,often than not in ways totally irrelevant to the business at hand Thus Months ago, back in England, when I ...well, just thinking about alcoholism fills me with anxiety, but this is a wonderful book and just my kind of thing while it is in the main about why writers drink, it is also a little bit of a travel book and a memoir and is just lovely and bookish and tender and slightly sad.it focuses on the lives of berryman, fitzgerald, hemingway, tenessee williams, raymond carver and john cheever and if you are concerned that Laing is ignoring women writers drinkers, she addresses that quite early on in t well, just thinking about alcoholism fills me with anxiety, but this is a wonderful book and just my kind of thing while it is in the main about why writers drink, it is also a little bit of a travel book and a memoir and is just lovely and bookish and tender and slightly sad.it focuses on the lives of berryman, fitzgerald, hemingway, tenessee williams, raym...That there is something fascinating to many about the connexion between alcohol and writing is evidenced by the bibliography of the book under review, which contains a healthy selection of articles and books discussing the issue from all sorts of angles One of the books in the bibliography, The Thirsty Muse alcohol and the American writer, is a book I ve read several times I was hoping that The trip to Echo Spring would be another enjoyable essay into this murky subject, but alas I closed th That there is something fascinating to many about the connexion between alcohol and writing is evidenced by the bibliography of the book under review, which contains a healthy selection of articles and books discussing t...This book was disappointing I heard the author being interviewed on the radio, and she intrigued me However, I found the book to be just plain tedious I don t need to read excerpts from the DSM or have explained to me how alcohol works I wanted to readabout these gifted...This is a profoundly moving book about six writers Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, Raymond Carver, F Scott Fitzgerald, and John Cheever All six men struggled with alcohol abuse for most of their lives, with it ultimately in one form or another, killing each of them Part travelogue the author who is English travels across America in search of the spaces these writers inhabited and part biography,this book provides brief sketches of their lives, their disintegration, an This is a profoundly moving book about six writers Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, Raymond Carver, F Scott Fitzgerald, and John Cheever All six men struggled with alcohol abuse for most of their lives, with it ultimately in one form or another, killing each of them Part travelogue the author who is English travels across America in search of the spaces these writers inhabited and part biography,this book provides brief s...A confession I wasn t interested in the work of all but one of the writers profiled Tennessee Williams However, I got the book from the library primarily for the travel narrative aspect, where I felt Laing excelled The writers biographies interested me for the most part , as did the author s own story, which I didn t find intrusive at all I did tend to zone out when she examined their actual work in any detail, but as I said, I knew that might happen at the outset This book is recommend A confession I wasn t interested in the work of all but one of the writers profiled Tennessee Williams However, I got the book from the library primarily for the travel narrative aspect, where I felt Laing excelled The ...Goodreads winner This book provides insight into the drinking habits of six authors and the consequential alcoholism It is evident that a great deal of research has gone into this as it shines through their experiences The author has written it, for the most part, in an engaging and informative way I enjoyed reading some parts of it.My major criticism is that the author has...There is this thing with almost all writers They have weird obsessions most of the times, and sometimes they are just addicted to everything or that one thing that they think makes them Drinking is one of them I have heard and read about so many stories about writers who are alcoholics, but never wondered why I always assumed it would be something to do with their creative genius I always wanted to knowabout the condition and why do writers get down that road Olivia Laing s book coul There is this thing with almost all writers They have weird obsessions most of the times, and sometimes they are just addicted to everything or that one thing that they think makes them Drinking is one of them I have heard and read about so many stories about writers who are alcoholics, but never wondered why I always assumed it would be something to do with their creative genius I always wanted to knowabout the condition and why do writers get down that road Olivia Laing s book could not have come at a better time I wanted to read something serious and got it served on a platter The book is humane and full of empathy It never once judges anyone or the situation The Trip to Echo Spring Why Writers Drink is a well researched book, chronicling the lives of six writers who loved to drink John Cheever, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams...The Trip to Echo Spring is a combination biography, travelogue, and memoir by an author who Amtraked her way around the US to catch the elan and times of six alcoholic writers Though often drunk, drugged, disorderly, or locked up, they produced some of our best literature in the 20th C they were always sick and suffering I ve been humbled to read how they made sense of their mangled lives in the...

English
02 October 2017

Olivia Laing