From highflying Playboy editor to pathetic, homeless alcoholic, this account charts an Icarian fall from grace. It’s the sobering tell-all tale of a young, successful, hubristic, hard-drinking journalist who, in his meltdown, becomes the scourge of pubs around the South Africa. Regularly found comatose, collapsed in a puddle of his own excesses, he became a frequent patient in lock-down psychiatric wards, confronting himself after being granted a court-order for two years in rehab. The story stands out in a world awash with so-called misery memoirs and victim literature, providing a new take on addiction. Far from being a mere account of sordidness and degradation, it also peels away the misconceptions about this disease. This is a story of triumph: a broken man finds his way home to become a functioning human being again and a working journalist. Delving deeply into the myths and misinformation surrounding addiction, the book provides an examination of a condition that’s been dubbed “the most democratic and painful of all diseases.”
