Parched: A Memoir

Heather King is a riot and a gifted writer. If you want lucid tragicomic tales of what Heather did as a wobbly self loathing drunk, this tale fits. There are 30 fast moving hilarious, rollicking, and sad chapters of "My Life as A Derelict" plus an epilogue -- and two chapters about her intervention and recovery. If you are a heavy drinker and want to identify with a fellow drunk, you are in good company. If you want to stop drinking, look elsewhere.The first 30 chapters document Heather's misadventures as an unwashed smelly self loathing skid row drunk for 20 years. Her detailed account of high school hi jinx is superb -- lots of laughs. Follow her as she stumbles around, gets laid, hangs out in derelict bars in Boston called Misty's and JT's, waitresses and steals seafood, goes to law school drunk, rails against her awful upbringing as a kid (frigid house and parents plus inadequate food), lives in filthy cheap apartments, drinks her way through Europe and finally -- after her intervention -- says gee thanks maw and paw, you were wonderful after all. The intervention occurs on page 244.The book contains 276 pages.Having no preconceptions, Heather's memoir was a very quick read. I was never bored and always entertained. However, after 150 pages I began wondering when the intervention or epiphany would occur. I also mused why Heather never came close to seeing a therapist. She is very bright, well read and educated, yet for some reason avoids the obvious. The obvious being that alcohol masks the negative feelings she has towards herself and the world. Feelings, based on what Heather writes of her blighted childhood, were tattooed on her soft brain by well meaning but ignorant parents who withheld the warmth, love, praise, and acceptance essential for optimum childhood growth and development. So Heather grew up lacking self esteem, confidence, and believing she deserved a place in the world. Feeling like crap, she drank from the time she was a teenager.Finally, after seeing Heather stumble around for 20 years, the family holds an intervention and Heather agrees to get shipped off to Hazleton in Minnesota, the world famous rehab center. Here she dries out, wakes up, and begins her long and painful and rewarding road to recovery. Eventually she finds God, which is the subject of her next book.The subtext of Heather's memoir is that Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) worked for her. Months prior to going to Hazelton she had a spiritual awakening in the piney woods of Tennessee. This made accepting the intervention -- which she sarcastically scoffed at -- more palatable. AA is based on a spiritual awakening and the 12 step program. But these days out of every 100 people who show up at their very first AA meeting, only 5% are still around after a year. That is partially because AA uses a cookie cutter approach which says that if you ask God to remove your desire for booze he/she will do so. That's it! And the 12 steps of course.If that sounds old fashioned, it is. The world has rapidly changed but AA is still mired in the mid 1930's when their Big Book was first published. All we have learned about addiction since then has been ignored by AA. However, as the first real self help program whereby drunks get together to help fellow drunks, it is still a good idea. Unfortunately intolerant zealots dominate many AA meetings today.Congratulations to Heather for courageously plugging her jug and instead, using her fingers to write excellent books like Parched.

I have read many many memoirs of addiction to everything from heroin to booze. This is the most completely wasted person I have EVER read about. Somehow she got a law degree while continually blind drunk. She couldn’t work at all, she spent morning to night black out drunk, sitting on a stool in dive bars till she was so drunk she couldn’t stay on stool, so drunk that even the worst, dive, alky bars threw her out for being too drunk!! That is an accomplishment (a drunken one), when you are too drunk for a bar full of full time drinkers!It is a pitiful story, and I am amazed she didn’t drink herself to death. She ended up in an SRO full of whores, drug addicts and other drunks. She lived like an animal, all the while having a law degree and being a very intelligent woman. The intelligence probably partly went by the wayside during her drinking career though. She drank SO much that the amount of alcohol most certainly killed millions of brain cells that never will return.This is a memoir of a woman who is lucky to even still be alive. If you enjoy memoirs of this type, you will get into this book. It is horrifying and fascinating at the same time. How does a human live like this? This will tell you how, and it ain’t pretty.

Most addiction memoirs share a common theme: look at me. But not Heather King's bittersweet, "Parched." On every page she seems to say, "look away. There's nothing to see here."Addiction memoirs also share another common theme: It's not my fault. Except King doesn't play the blame game. She doesn't blame an alcoholic home, childhood sexual abuse, a bad relationship, a catastrophic illness or event, unmet expectations or a reckless youth. She completely self-destructs under her own power.Finally, addiction memoirs usually have this in common: I am pathetic; feel sorry for me. King knows she's pathetic and she not only doesn't feel sorry for herself, she refuses to allow the reader to indulge in a pity party, either.King writes from such a shocking and hard perspective that her story caught me off-balance. In fact, I felt a little punch-drunk, stumbling along with her as she careened from one unfathomable disaster to another. I've never felt so inside an addiction story. It is what it is, she seems to say. And what it is is ugly.Yet, a profound sense of shame anchors this book. And her feeling of unworthiness is palatable even if it is inexplicable - this is a woman who graduated with honors from law school despite being chronically drunk. This is not a memoir masquerading as an explanation, or a boast, or revenge or even as a triumph. It is a memoir written as a stark confession. "Parched" is an intimate exploration of recovery through forgiveness.

I am giving this book four stars for a couple of reasons. First, as far as an "addiction" memoir goes, this one is a little slower than the last few I have read. It is very heavy on quirky anecdotes about all the characters Ms. King has known throughout her life and I understand that is part of her story but it isn't really what I was looking to read about. Anyone familiar with the author's other works knows she is extremely intelligent and well read. Therefore, she was able to make several self aware statements that were worth bookmarking in my Kindle to read again later. I would not give it lower than a four because the work is there. I just might recommend Tiffany Goik's "Yellow Tale", or Sara Berelsman's "My Last Rock Bottom" if you are looking for a more gripping read on a female recovering from a life of addiction.

I think her memoir is well written, honest, and interesting.

I have read many books on this subject and this was up with the best. It's an honest account of the ravages of alcoholism and also the possibility and hope for recovery. We'll written and entertaining throughout.

The return fee for UK to US is too high

Read this book in a couple of days, kept me hooked and could relate to a lot of what Heather was experiencing.Very eye opening and honest account of a life as a slave to alcohol.

Good book.

Good read